Kent Conrad Quotes

Welfare reform happened with reconciliation; half the Democrats voted for it. The Bush tax cuts happened with reconciliation; twelve Democratic Senators voted for it. You didn’t have a real partisan issue on those times that it was used.

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.

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.

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.

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.