Retiring Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-ND) spoke about “fiscal cliff” negotiations and gave solutions for long-term deficit reduction. Among his statements he said he would prefer to see a bigger deal when it comes to negotiations and called Speaker Boehner’s latest “fiscal cliff” "Plan B" proposal “an utter waste of time.” He used charts to illustrate his talk and then responded to questions from members of the audience.
“Fiscal cliff” referred to the impending tax increases and sequestration budget cuts at the end of 2012 if Congress failed to reach a new budget agreement.*"Sequestration," a legal procedure in which automatic budget cuts are triggered, was agreed to in the Budget Control Act of 2011.