George Miller: “the reason that this rule is being put forth today is because obviously, I say to my colleague, the reason you put the…”

“the reason that this rule is being put forth today is because obviously, I say to my colleague, the reason you put the martial law issue, at some point you want to decide you want to end the debate, you want to stifle debate and you do not want to allow alternatives, you do not want to allow amendments. We were here and we are here today because apparently at one time there was just a high principle of 7 years, CBO-scored and a balanced budget. Apparently that all evaporated sometime Tuesday night. What we now find out is that 7 years is no longer important; CBO is no longer important; a balanced budget is no longer important. The authentic revolutionary who stood there the first day of the session in the chair of the Speaker has now become an incrementalist. Because the Speaker has now become an incrementalist, they now want to stifle the debate. They were willing to throw people out of their jobs, at risk in the Social Security system, at risk in the AFDC payment system. They were going to put them all at risk because they were going to save this country with the 7-year CBO balanced budget. Today they want to take it off the floor, they want to deny the President $700 billion in savings that he has already agreed to. They do not want to give us the alternative for $700 billion in savings. What they want to do is patch up the system in the same old way of business as usual.”