David Skaggs: “Mr. Speaker, if we are going to have an agreement--and I very much want an agreement, I believe the President has…”

“Mr. Speaker, if we are going to have an agreement--and I very much want an agreement, I believe the President has demonstrated that he very much wants an agreement, given the amount of time he has spent trying to reach one--if we are going to get to an agreement, it is going to take good faith and compromise on all sides. I support a 7-year balanced budget. I voted for the coalition proposal. I expect that is roughly where we are likely to end up in all of this. But if that is what we want, this bill is not the way to get there. Why not? Because it simply does not demonstrate the kind of good faith that is going to be required if a negotiation will succeed. A little while ago one of the reporters asked me this question: ``Is this simply a way to box the President in?'' That is it. That is exactly what it is. As many have pointed out, there were two conditions in the November CR that were to have been met: one, a 7-year balanced budget scored by CBO; second, paying greater respect to Medicare, Medicaid, veterans, education, the environment, and so on. Either both of these conditions have to be met ahead of time, before negotiations begin, or neither of them need to be met ahead of time. You cannot have it both ways.”