Heidi Alexander: “Thank you, Mr. President. The issue is spending. This is discretionary spending. This is an opportunity, as we consider…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. The issue is spending. This is discretionary spending. This is an opportunity, as we consider these 12 bills, to consider where the spending problem is. This is discretionary spending. It includes defense, it includes cancer research, it includes roads, it includes locks and dams, and it includes the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Denali Commission, and other commissions that would be defunded by this amendment. This is not our spending problem. That is $1 trillion we are spending through these 12 bills. We are spending $3 trillion more through mandatory spending and interest on top of that. We have not been very brave on the Republican side of the aisle or the Democratic side of the aisle on the real spending problem. We have done pretty well on this. I have said to some of my colleagues that maybe the Senate should turn over to the Appropriations Committee the real spending problem and see if we can make the red spending line like the blue spending line because that is what we have done. So we have set a priority for projects like sewer improvement in Alabama and planning and development in Mississippi, automotive workforce in Georgia, rural dental in Kentucky. These are all priorities within spending that are under control. This is not under control. We can't fix that in these 12 weeks, but I hope we pay attention to this difference and sooner or later have the courage to deal with it. I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.…”