Conrad Burns in Montana 2006 3-way Senate Debate

On Budget & Economy: Grow economy & control spending to reduce deficit

JONES: That’s easy for me. Eliminate unconstitutional departments and agencies.

BURNS: There’s only one way to control the deficit--grow the economy and control spending. We have brought down spending on the discretionary spending - the part we have some control over. The non-discretionary part is troubling. We’re continuing with the tax cuts which have energized the economy--that’s the way you take care of the deficit. We didn’t ask for 9/11, or Katrina, or the war on terror. We always grew through it. You grow the economy and control spending and that’s the way you take care of the deficit.

TESTER: When it comes to funding for Montana, we took the third biggest cut in FY05, in that discretionary funding. Out of 13 subcommittee chairs, Sen. Burns is ranked 10th in getting dollars to this state for critical projects. It’s time that we spend the money wiser, that we prioritize better, and start looking out for middle class folks.

On Corporations: Marketplace will force us into conservation and renewables

BURNS: The incentives for alternative fuels & renewable fuels are just like any other incentive to increase production, & that’s exactly what is happening, because of the competition in the market. We would not have had those big windmills if not for [the recent] energy bill. It is the marketplace that will force us into conservation and renewables.

On Drugs: Repealing Patriot Act would cost us the Meth Control Act

TESTER: If we want to get serious about the War on Terror, we need to make the investments to fight the war on terror. We ought not be taking rights away from honest citizens. By the time they figure out there’s a terror cell, they can get a warrant. The Senator wants to let them have Carte Blanche.

BURNS: Clinton set the record for Executive Orders. And they too pushed the envelope as far as the Constitution is concerned. But let me go back on this Patriot Act. It is a tool that is in place now for drug kingpins and organized crime. Why don’t you want that extended to terrorists? If you repeal it, as Mr. Tester wants to do, there goes the Meth Control Act, and the ability to monitor international phone calls from known numbers of people who want to kill us.

TESTER: Let’s not put this under the War on Drugs--that’s baloney.

On Energy & Oil: Agricultural oil sources reduce foreign energy dependence

JONES: The cheapest electrical power is nuclear energy. We must re-institute nuclear power. Coal is another one. Montana is rich in coal, which can be liquefied into gasoline.

BURNS: Last year we passed an energy bill, and opened up some new areas for energy production. And we found more oil and we found more gas. In next year’s farm bill, agriculture will have a role in reducing our dependence on foreign energy, both in bio-diesel and ethanol plants. 11 million acres in Montana can produce more oil from oilseeds than the soybean folks in the Midwest. We must use those in our bio-diesels and bio-lubricants. That’s what brings down the price of gasoline, when policies inject competition into the market.

TESTER: If I were not running for US Senate, on my farm, we would be crushing safflower, because I’ve run the numbers, and it works, and it provides a renewable energy source that makes sense.

On Energy & Oil: Global warming has occurred since the Ice Age

BURNS: We’ve been warming since the Ice Age, and that continues. That’s a pretty well-known fact.

TESTER: The truth is, the polar ice cap is half as thick as it was in 1950. Yes, Earth is warming since the Ice Age, that’s correct, but it’s warming much more rapidly now than it ever has in our history.

JONES: There is global warming; it’s very slight; it’s a recovery from what’s called the Little Ice Age, when the average temperatures were much lower. In the years 500AD to 1000AD, temperatures were much higher than they are right now. Global warming is a natural recovery, and is not harmful. Most of it is only happening in the northern hemisphere. Scientists have proven that carbon dioxide emissions contribute only about 5% of the total greenhouse gases. If we reduce that worldwide, do you think it will have a big impact no greenhouse gases? No it will not. This is a natural occurrence and we should not make any effort to change it.

On Energy & Oil: Kyoto Accord hurts economy; focus on alternative fuels

BURNS: I would not. #1, it taxes the economy. And it doesn’t get to the real folks that should have some way of controlling their greenhouse gases. That’s the reason I’m a great believer in alternative fuels, and wind, and solar, and fuel cells. We have to do everything that we can do, and stay within the economy and keep it growing, to deal with greenhouse gases.

TESTER: Us pulling out of the Kyoto Accord is exactly what’s wrong. We need to have communication with folks around the world. This is a worldwide problem. I hope [global warming] is a glitch in the environment, but we need to treat it in case it’s not. Our universities can be a big player in how we can sequester

On Government Reform: Earmarks let me bring Montana a share of federal money

TESTER: Earmarking in the middle of the night, without transparency, is wrong for representative democracy.

JONES: Incumbents always put something in the transportation bill so they can brag about all the money they brought to the state. None of the 34 are qualified.

BURNS: I’m proud about what I brought back to Montana. Most of it is for infrastructure [in that bill]. That money’s going to be spent somewhere in America, and I want Montana to get her share. If you leave it up to a faceless un-elected bureaucrat, with only 900,000 people, tell me how much we’re gonna get? Earmarks have to withstand the scrutiny of the subcommittee hearing, the full Committee hearing, & the full Senate. I have to go out & defend them, and it’s pretty hard sometimes. We defend them, our name is on them, and that’s the way the process works. If they can’t stand the scrutiny, they will not make it.

On Homeland Security: Patriot Act only affects your freedoms if you’re a terrorist

BURNS: Pres. Bush took an oath to protect this country. Let’s talk about the Patriot Act. You have not given up one freedom, not ONE freedom that you didn’t have before, unless you’re a terrorist, or a suspected terrorist, or affiliated with the Mafia, or affiliated with drug kingpins. If you repeal the Patriot Act, the wall goes back up between the FBI and the CIA and the DIA, Defense Intelligence, and they cannot connect the dots. And the Meth Control Act is within the Patriot Act. There are consequences; it is a tool to protect this country.

On Tax Reform: Bush tax cuts actually more progressive Clinton tax hikes