Political Quotes

“I regret that I cannot vote for it. I did make a proposal. I felt so strongly about one basic principle: That we cannot continue to cut defense. We cannot make any more across-the-board discretionary cuts and take those funds from defense with immunity. I said I would vote for the resolution if there were no further cuts in defense. Frankly, it turns out we cannot be assured of that, even if we took out the Exon-Grassley discretionary cuts, because the Appropriations Committee will make that decision. I urge that the Appropriations Committee, in allocating the dollars under this budget resolution, give the defense committees what the President asked for. The President made a case to the American people in his State of the Union Address that we have cut defense enough. I believe if the whole Senate were to vote on that issue, I believe we would give the President his full budget allocation for defense and spread any across-the-board cuts across the other functions of the Federal Government.”