Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) has written a response to the NRO story “Kent Conrad, MIA,” published yesterday:
Dear Editor:
Leave it to the National Review to portray my round-the-clock behind the scenes efforts to forge a bipartisan, comprehensive deficit reduction plan as evidence for your ludicrous headline, “Kent Conrad, MIA.” Your reasoning is as faulty as your publication’s bias.
I have spent the past several months working with like-minded Democrats and Republicans on an all-encompassing long-term bipartisan plan that is intended to significantly reduce our deficits and debt. We are three Democrats and three Republicans who are committed to offering a true bipartisan plan that can be supported by a majority of both caucuses.
As Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I soon will be offering a budget plan. I have held off doing so, as I have wanted to give the Group of Six bipartisan talks an opportunity to conclude so that I could consider using that bipartisan plan as a framework for the Senate budget resolution.
I know that these bipartisan efforts might not sit well with the National Review, but ideologues on the right and left must understand that the only way the country will successfully avert a debt crisis is if Democrats and Republicans come together and reach a true bipartisan agreement.
Sincerely,
KENT CONRAD
United States Senator