We do not seek to eliminate any subsidies. We seek to eliminate a blenders' credit that the very people who receive the credit do not want, and it is $4.9 billion between now and the end of the year. Mr. McCAIN. It is $4.9 billion and the…

Yes. I have a letter from the refiners. I actually have it here and I will introduce it to the Record if we need to, that says they don't want it, they don't need it. Mr. McCAIN. So the recipients of this government largesse would want it…

I think I can clarify it. The opposition is we are doing it abruptly rather than over a period of time and not allowing people to plan for the elimination of this. Those are the arguments I hear. The fact is, this is just one of a series…

These are the worst tendencies of the Senate. I want us to go back to the best tradition. I am not always going to be right, and I certainly hardly ever win, but the fact is, the issues in front of this country are so great that we don't…

You know, the real issue is that we have spent 3 days this week not doing anything on this bill. We have borrowed $12 billion. I have amendments, if we could pass, that would save us $20 billion. Every day that we don't take hard votes is…

Well, since we started the blenders' credit, the American people have spent $32 billion on it. And it is fine for us to look for alternatives, and I think it is great. I would like for them to convert corn to butanol instead of ethanol…

It does. Mr. McCAIN. That the average citizen would not understand. But I think they understand $4.9 billion and that those savings would accrue to them, along with the reduction in inflation and the costs of the products of corn. So it is…

The argument is they do not agree with the blenders' credit, but if in fact you take it away you need to give somebody else a tax break. I think the American people know, for us to get out of the problems we are in we are going to have to…

We need to be doing a better job. Not your fault, but our fault, not being able to prioritize where the funds are coming from.

These don't cost any money. These are demonstration projects that were there because they don't cost money.

I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my support for doing so.

I would say I am not too unlike a lot of other people. I have had the ranking of being the most conservative member.

Let me mention a couple of issues that we talked about before, but I think it is significant.

The problem we are having right now, and this is always a frustration, we are sitting around waiting until, the planning can't be completed until 2016.

If you did it that way, I can assure you if we had done it that way up in Skiatook, it still wouldn't be done today.

I contend it would be the same planning as has already taken place down in Texas.

As a fiscal conservative, I strongly support the overall goal of cutting government spending, but I firmly believe that two areas worthy of spending taxpayer dollars are defense and infrastructure.

We aren't dedicating the necessary funds. If you look at the navigation infrastructure, which is essential to ensuring our movement of goods, more than 50 percent of the locks and dams operated by the Corps are over 50 years old.