Conrad: Confronting Obama over budget was ‘not a very happy event’

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said that his having to confront the Obama administration’s budget in the face of declining tax revenue was “not a very happy event.”

“We really had no alternative but to make adjustments in the president’s budget,” Conrad said during an appearance on liberal radio host Bill Press’s podcast.

“I was given the responsibility to tell the president that the CBO was dramatically changing the budget forecast,” the Budget committee chairman added. “You could imagine telling him that we lost $2 trillion dollars is not a very happy event. But he took it very well.”

Still, Conrad praised the administration’s response to centrist Democrats’ resistance on some elements of the budget.

“One thing about President Obama — and it was a reason I endorsed him early on — is he’s one of the calmest people I’ve ever known in my life,” Conrad said. “He instantly understood the implications. Does he like this? No he does not. Is he a realist? Yeah.”

Listen to the audio of the Conrad interview — in which he addresses his joking with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in committee last week — here.