Jeff Flake: “I just want to make a brief observation here. We were here yesterday with the farm bill and witnessed the kind of…”

“I just want to make a brief observation here. We were here yesterday with the farm bill and witnessed the kind of traveling back in time, if you will, to find a baseline to use so that we could comply with PAYGO. So the majority party seems to use PAYGO however it fits their purposes. They will use PAYGO or they will ignore PAYGO or find ways around it by shopping for a baseline that works rather than what the law provides, or they will say we've got to comply with PAYGO today because we need to increase taxes. So it seems just an observation here that PAYGO is only used as a way not to enforce spending discipline because, if it actually does enforce any discipline, we waive it, but if it's used to increase taxes, then, by golly, we've got to enforce it. I just don't see how one day can make such a big difference if this wasn't the case.”