[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3934]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DEMOCRATIC BUDGET

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the only thing we haven't heard about the 
Republicans' plan to take care of the world is tort reform. That is 
usually part of the mantra. We have a situation where everything that 
should be going up is going down. We have an economy that is spiraling 
down. We have a housing market that is in crisis. We have gas prices 
that are predicted, by early summer, to be an average of over $4 a 
gallon. We have a war that is now starting its sixth year, and it is 
costing us $420 million a day. We have an economy that has gone from 
good to terrible. And we have a budget that has been put together with 
a tremendous soft touch. What does that mean? It means we are 
recognizing the problems we have in our economy, and we want to return 
to those days where we were paying down the national debt.
  This isn't pie in the sky. We have actually done it. This is a 
blueprint for how we need to proceed with our economy. I commend and 
applaud Senator Conrad for putting this budget together. There is 
nothing in this budget that talks about increasing taxes. In fact, what 
this budget does is decrease taxes for the middle class. In fact, that 
is what the Baucus amendment which is now pending is all about.

                          ____________________