Christopher Shays: “I promise on this floor and again tonight, I will to the best of my ability and knowledge not vote for one penny more…”

“I promise on this floor and again tonight, I will to the best of my ability and knowledge not vote for one penny more spending than President Bush asked us to spend, period. But let us stop blaming spending unless my colleagues are willing to control spending, and that means all spending. We cannot just pick out that which we like because in the economy it is all spending. My only point to my colleague is, he is against deficits but he finds ways to spend more on the farm bill. And I understand it; he is sensitive to the farmer. I just want to make the point that I understand where my colleague is coming from. We all have programs we like, but when we had the farm bill, which we are not opening up, I had a problem as an easterner because I knew it was breaking the budget. But it was a program he liked and he had passion for it, and I understand it. That is the problem with this place. We all have the programs we like.”