Jeff Flake: “We ought to save money where we can. We all know that entitlements are running out of control. There are other things…”

“We ought to save money where we can. We all know that entitlements are running out of control. There are other things that spend money, but we do have control over appropriation bills and discretionary spending that comes to this floor. The problem is we have far too little control. Those of us who do not serve on the Committee on Appropriations are forced to look at only the bill language when we amend on the floor. All we have is the bill. We can only amend what is in the bill. The problem is the bill here in this case for this bill that we are looking at is 103 pages. The committee report, on the other hand, is 135 pages. The bill contains what are called hard marks or directions for spending money. The committee report contains soft marks. We do not have any control. We cannot get at the soft marks here on the floor. Ordinary Members of Congress cannot go in and cut out pork barrel spending because most of the pork barrel spending happens and is directed within the conference report.”