April 4, 2001 Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, I remind the majority leader that we offered, last week, to spend this week on a stimulus package. That is the offer we made. We said: Look. We believe we ought to spend this week doing a stimulus package. Don't hold it hostage to a 10-year budget plan. Let's do it now. Let's provide some lift to this economy now. And it was rejected on the other side. Now they come on to the floor, and all of a sudden they are for taking immediate action on a stimulus package. Where were they on Friday when we made the offer to spend this week on a stimulus package? That is what we should have done. That would have been the right course for the economy. That is what we proposed and they rejected. Second, on the notion that this President somehow proposed a 25-percent increase for education, that is not so. The chart of the chairman of the Budget Committee shows very clearly the President proposed a 5-percent increase--not a 25-percent increase, a 5-percent increase. Some of us do not think it is enough to deal with the education challenge facing this country. Third, the majority leader is using language very loosely, and that is a dangerous thing to do. He is suggesting that somebody out here is talking about a tax increase. No one is talking about a tax increase--no one. What we are all talking about is significant tax reduction. We have even agreed on an amount of tax reduction for this year to provide stimulus. But we do believe that over the 10 years in the future the President's tax cut is too big; that it threatens to put us back into deficit; that it threatens to raid the trust funds of Medicare and Social Security. And that is no longer just a worry; that has become a reality. The two amendments that have been adopted out here--to increase spending on prescription drugs and to increase spending on agriculture--because of the way they were done, raid the Medicare trust fund in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008--and it is all in their numbers, and it is just as clear as it can be. They are into the trust funds already, exactly what we said would happen. I thank the Chair and yield the floor.