In an effort to fight President George W. Bush's tax cut package, the Democrat from North Dakota took to the Senate floor to tell colleagues he couldn't "think of anything more irresponsible than enacting this plan," Conrad said on March 13, 2003. "If Congress were to actually adopt the plan before us, it would plunge the country off a fiscal cliff and threaten the education of our children, the financial security of our seniors, the stability of our economy, and the ultimate strength of our nation."

Two months later, on July 15, Sen. Conrad was featured in a piece on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" about the deficit. "The fact is, he's taking us right over the cliff, right over the fiscal cliff," said Conrad of President Bush.

The line would stick. Conrad — then a ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, which he would go on to chair — would use the "fiscal cliff" term on the Senate Floor in September, arguing that Bush's economic policies were "taking this country right over the fiscal cliff."

And in February of 2004, Conrad warned then-director of the Office of Management and Budget, Joshua Bolten, that "the overall budget is increasing, spending is increasing, and we've got record deficits now," said the Senator. "It doesn't add up. If we're honest, we know it doesn't add up. It doesn't come close to adding up, and he's got us heading to the fiscal cliff."