Kent Conrad Quotations

We shouldn't just live for today; we should prepare for tomorrow.

The only possible role that I can see for reconciliation would be to make modest changes in the major package to improve affordability, to deal with what share of Medicaid expansion the federal government pays, those kinds of issues, which is the traditional role for reconciliation in health care.

Access to computers and the Internet has become a basic need for education in our society.

Anybody who has stood on the prairie in North Dakota has felt the force of the wind and knows that our state has an inexhaustible supply of wind power. The potential here to create jobs and draw millions of dollars in new investment to North Dakota is enormous.

Highway spending, which I think most everybody says is badly needed in this country, creates American jobs, and also makes America more competitive.

I've had lengthy discussions with European farm leaders. It is clear they have an agricultural strategy to support their producers and gain dominance in world agricultural trade. They're gaining markets the old-fashioned way - they're buying them.

The President is not squaring with the American people as to the seriousness of our nation's fiscal condition. It is time for people to stand up and tell the truth.

When you're borrowing 40 cents of every dollar that you spend, that can't continue much longer. I think everybody really does understand that, and it's going to require all of us - those who are the most fortunate among us - but it's really going to require every American to contribute to a solution.

The American people say, 'Don't touch Social Security, don't touch Medicare, don't cut defense.' That's 84 percent of the federal budget.

It is vital that we provide North Dakota's children with nutritionally sound diets. That means ensuring that they are getting plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and are developing good eating habits for their future.

One reason the Founding Fathers thought that states should have two senators was so that smaller states wouldn't get run over and could bring their interests to the attention of the Senate more broadly.

Reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care reform. It won't work because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation; it was designed for deficit reduction.

Reducing our dependence on foreign energy - that is critically important to America's economic future. Excellence in education - if we're not the best educated, we're not going to be the most powerful for very long.

Governments can inflate their way out of debt, but that has consequences, doesn't it?

I would do away with super PACs. I think it's a cancer.

Social Security has not contributed to the deficit problem.

America was founded on majority rule, not supermajority rule. Somehow, over the years, this has morphed into supermajority rule, and that changes things.

We've got to have major health care reform because that is the 800-pound gorilla. That is the thing that can swamp the boat fiscally for the United States.

When Republicans used reconciliation in 2001 for the Bush tax cuts, they used it to increase the deficit. The whole purpose of reconciliation is for deficit reduction!

The fact is, we have worked together effectively as a team for North Dakota, most recently in the fight to save our bases, ... I look forward to continuing to work together to serve the people of our state.

The reality here is we've got a problem here and it's a big problem.

We have just had a massive disaster, ... This is not a time to be cutting services to the most needy among us.

When you put those together, what you find is that the invasion of the trust funds is far more serious than has been reported so far, far more serious,

She starts off in a positive position with me because of these conversations we have had, ... She is a lovely person. Some people you encounter in life and you like them.

Mr. Tancredo can put out all the press releases he wants.

No one should believe that this vote is about deficit reduction. By insisting on another $70 billion of tax cuts ... the deficit actually goes up.

If we prevail, this would have to go back to the House.

I am impressed with his demeanor, his intelligence, his sense of humor, his modesty, ... Absent some bombshell, which I don't expect, I think he will be confirmed and quite handily.

I believe they have an affirmative obligation to come up with spending cuts or new revenue to prevent us from raiding the Medicare and Social Security trust funds,

I became involved in helping those with arthritis - and those with other diseases that could benefit from access to self-injected medications - because I strongly believe people suffering from these illnesses should have access to the best medical care available today.

I found him to be extraordinarily intelligent, and he has assured me that he brings no ideological agenda to the Supreme Court. He wants to be a justice for all of the people.

Forty-three per cent of the benefit goes to the wealthiest one per cent, those who are making $900,000 a year. There is no fairness in that.

He has never felt there was a conflict between his own moral precepts and the precepts of his church and his role as a judge.

He has given me his word on important matters.

He has the right kind of demeanor to be a judge. He listens to others and is not dogmatic,

Today, I came really to talk about job creation,

His tax cut is so big that he leaves no money to pay for a new prescription drug benefit without using the Medicare trust fund,

He wants an additional $18 billion that is not in the budget. And my question to him is, this is spending you say is needed. How do you intend to pay for it?

I think it is unlikely, absent some new information, some bombshell that comes up in the process, that I would support a filibuster.

It is important that we have strong, farmer-friendly leadership at FSA. We must fill the void quickly so there is no disruption in the critical services FSA provides to our agriculture communities.

It is important that we have strong, farmer-friendly leadership at FSA, ... We must fill the void quickly so there is no disruption in the critical services FSA provides to our agriculture communities.

People are acting like this $5.6 trillion surplus is etched in stone. It's not. It's etched in quicksand.

President Bush is the most fiscally irresponsible President in our nation's history.

My own view is that we ought to protect the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, then, with what is left, have significant tax cuts.

I think he can get from 75 to 80 votes.

Those are the very things I've urged the administration to do for some time.

to give us their ideas and what they would recommend we do.

What you've got here is the most severe winter on record, followed by the most violent winter storm in 50 years. At the same time you're facing the greatest flood threat in 150 years.

This nation is about to be hit with a tidal wave of new retirees. In just six years, the baby boomers will begin to retire. The demands on Social Security and Medicare will be dramatically increased, ... This is no time to divert Social Security and Medicare funds to other purposes.

You don't need some whole new unfettered access to individual tax returns of people or of companies in order to figure out how the IRS is spending its money,

Who would have thought that when we began this week, we would have ended in this way?

The only thing wrong with that statement is, it's not true, ... Of course people's privacy would have been jeopardized under such a provision.

There are large cooperatives all across this country. Land O'Lakes is a $12 billion club functioning all across America. There are rural electric co-ops in 47 states. Ace Hardware is a cooperative.

While I agree that all emergency personnel should be highly trained, this is simply beyond the scope of what we can do in rural communities.

When I went to Roosevelt grade school in Bismark, North Dakota, if you reduced spending by $39 and you reduced your income by $70, you were deeper in the hole, ... You've added to the deficit. You haven't reduced it.

The president's plan will give you a little boost and then look straight down, ... In fact, past 2004 it's worse than doing nothing.

While this year's deficit will be lower than last year's record shortfall, the improvement is likely to be short-lived. Declarations of victory over budget deficits only distract from the disturbing long-term budget outlook,

You can imagine the pressure that's on him, the things that are being suggested to him.

You don't just stick with the same old plan when something of this consequence occurs.

As the news this morning of increased joblessness and earlier reports of exploding deficit and debt reveal, the president's economic policy is a disaster. Obviously, the secretary of the treasury and Mr. Lindsey are being sacrificed to protect the president. Sadly, the removal of these economic officials will do nothing if they are simply replaced with yes-men committed to the president's relentlessly partisan agenda of pushing tax cuts at the expense of all else.

It would perhaps be better if someone had experience as a judge, but I don't consider the fact that she has not had experience to be disqualifying, ... She has important legal experience and enjoys a good reputation.

dramatically change the role of the United States Senate.

This confirms that the Bush economic plan is not working,

This administration not only owes the country an honest budget, but a frank dialogue about the serious fiscal challenges that lie ahead.

This administration is driving us over the cliff into deeper and deeper debt.

This is a fundamental debate about the economic future of our country.

This has been a tough year for many of our farmers in North Dakota and across the nation,

A massive tax-cut scheme for the wealthiest among us, because that's what's really afoot here.

The request for an additional $18 billion for 2002 for defense would just make this situation worse, and I told the secretary of defense I believe they have an affirmative obligation to come up with a way of paying for this,

There needs to be recognition by the administration that his budget is not going to get through the Senate because his priorities are not the priorities of the country.

This is the most reckless policy I have seen pursued by any President in my adult life,

It is stunning in terms of lack of fiscal responsibility.

It is unacceptable to give this industry special protection -- protection that has never been granted any other industry in our history.

It's the combination of massive tax cuts combined with massive spending on Iraq and Katrina when we already weren't able to pay our bills,

It just jumps out at you that this notion hasn't worked out in the real world. And if it did work out, maybe we should eliminate all the taxes and balance the budget.

It's almost as if words have lost their meaning,

You think of what could be done here, ... Any agent of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee -- and they could designate anybody as an agent -- could go into IRS facilities anywhere in the country and get your tax returns.

It's clear to me that the majority of people I represent and the majority of the American people support his nomination.

It will make tax controversies more expensive, more intrusive and more inconvenient for taxpayers.

The Congressional Budget Office tells us by 2052, Social Security could meet only 78 percent of its obligations. Medicare is in even worse shape. The shortfall in Medicare is eight times the deficit in Social Security. But the president has no plan to deal with that. The truth is, we need to confront all these challenges sooner rather than later.

If people saw how big the deficit really is, they'd feel more of a need to do something about it.

If you are not able to pay down the debt, that means that the federal government is in competition with private-sector borrowers for money, driving up the costs of interest rates and that's a hidden tax on every American family -- higher mortgage payments, higher car payments, higher college loan payments,

If you look at his performance, his education, his attainments, that is the kind of person who has the quality to be in the Supreme Court. This man has a mind like a jewel.

In six short months, this administration, after advocating a tax cut that was too large and after putting belief in a 10-year estimate of revenue, have put us in the bad old days of raiding every trust fund in sight,

By using Social Security trust fund dollars to pay for tax cuts and other government spending, the administration significantly understates the true fiscal imbalance of the country.

Certainly, you want to rebuild, ... But we need to build smartly so that we have a better line of defense the next time Mother Nature comes calling. That's what we did in Grand Forks. We are now better protected.

I don't think giving enemy combatants access to the federal court system is a precedent we want to set,

I believe President Bush's campaign promises are unraveling, ... He claimed we could afford his massive tax cut, a major defense buildup, more money for education, while paying down the debt and protecting Social Security and Medicare. He was wrong.

The truth is there are no surpluses, ... There are liabilities.

These growing deficits and debt threaten our nation's long-term economic security. As deficits climb, we are borrowing more and more money from Japan, China, and even South Korea. That makes us weaker,

The ground-breaking research that will be done right here in North Dakota will allow our grandchildren to drive hydrogen-powered cars, live in hydrogen-powered homes and end our country's addiction to foreign sources of energy.

All of them are being threatened by this policy of ever escalating deficits and debt,

The reality is no one knows how much it will cost us to wage war with Iraq.

So I put that all together and I find it makes it hard to justify a filibuster.

Certainly Social Security needs to be reformed.

Negotiating sugar trade in bilateral free trade agreements is a recipe for disaster for the U.S. sugar industry, and it is unnecessary.