Deficit Hawk Turns Dove at Home

Sen. Kent Conrad, Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, speaks last March during a hearing on the president's budget proposals.

Neil King Jr.
WSJ

WASHINGTON—Kent Conrad vaulted from North Dakota tax commissioner to the U.S. Senate in 1986 on the strength of a startling pledge: He would quit and go home if the federal deficit wasn't "brought under control" during his first six-year term.

The deficit that year hit a record $221 billion. Six years later it topped $290 billion. This year, it's expected to hit $1.6 trillion.

Mr. Conrad, now the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, did resign in 1992, but he stayed on after the state's other senator died. Since then, he has become one of the Senate's most vociferous deficit hawks, warning that the nation faces insolvency if it doesn't boost revenues and trim obligations.

Like many in Congress, he is conflicted. He boasts a 23-year record of looking after North Dakota voters with ample farm subsidies, aid for drought-hit ranchers, defense spending and scores of pet projects. He has done little to help rein in Medicare and Social Security expenses—the U.S.'s biggest budget busters.

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