As a group it’s important to unite and conquer, but individually, Senator Kent Conrad teaches us it’s better to divide

Senator Conrad, who was often referred to as chart man in the Senate, was taught by Democratic Party Leaders that one of the keys to success is to choose one area and master it. The reasoning behind this is that if every Democratic member of the senate has their own set of expertise and skills, it gives them clout and guarantees that someone knows what he or she is talking about.

Conrad took this advice to heart—and to the bank. For twenty years he was the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee. Throughout his career, he has made himself the go-to expert in the senate’s business—raising and allocating funds. Through study history, he quickly learned that the key to a country’s success was having a strong and healthy economy. And part of that equation is ensuring that runaway debts don’t threaten the success of America.

Conrad helped lead Democrats in the fight to prevent the Bush Administration from increasing the U.S. debt limit to $9 trillion and from passing a $2.8 trillion budget, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful.

According to Time Magazine, becoming an expert in budgeting came in handy. President Bush was, “pushing a plan for partially privatizing Social Security in 2005, put the hard sell on him. Bush first tried by flying with Conrad to Fargo, N.D., then, after they returned, kept the pressure on by inviting him to the White House, where he dropped hints about election-year vulnerability for red-state Democrats. But Conrad, whose honorary Sioux name translates as 'Never Turns Back,' stood firm in his opposition to the plan.” Conrad said, “I could never support something that added dramatically to the debt," Conrad says. “I told him, 'Count me out.'”