April 3, 2001 Mr. CONRAD. I think, if we have learned nothing else from the 1980s, the one thing we should have learned is that the best strategy is one that puts our fiscal house in order and keeps it there. It is eliminating deficits and beginning the process of paying down debt that has helped us trigger the longest economic expansion in our Nation's history. When I look at the proposal on the other side, I see they talk about paying down the maximum amount of publicly held debt. But if you look on page 5 of their proposal, the amendment that was offered here by the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, the public debt, which is currently listed at $5.6 trillion, rises under that proposal to $6.7 trillion. That is under the headline of public debt. They have talked a lot about reducing the publicly held debt, but here is the chart. Here is what has happened to the gross Federal debt from 1980 where, you can see, it was $909 billion. In 1999 it has gone up to $5.6 trillion. Under their proposal on page 5, they would take this debt up to $6.7 trillion. That is the proposal they have before this body.