Jeff Flake: “Again, the President's directive doesn't relate to report language in general, it's simply the earmark. Now I just have…”

“Again, the President's directive doesn't relate to report language in general, it's simply the earmark. Now I just have to say, 500 earmarks in this bill. There will be more than 2,000 when the appropriation bill comes to the floor, if tradition holds. If somebody can make the argument that that is a process worthy of this institution, for more than 2,000 earmarks to come to the floor, and no time, no time--it will come to the floor probably the same day that we vote on it--for this body to appropriately scrutinize it, and for every Predator or worthy earmark that you can point to, you can probably point to a dozen where shirts were earmarked that melt on a soldier's body, but somebody in their district just wanted them.”