Alcee Hastings: “I have immense respect for all of the members of the Committee on Appropriations. But we need to have something put in…”

“I have immense respect for all of the members of the Committee on Appropriations. But we need to have something put in perspective. There are 435 Members of Congress, and if each one of them was given an opportunity to spend the money, they would spend it 435 different ways. It is also a bit unfair to criticize the President for traveling, even if it is in the nature of fund-raising. The White House travels with the President everywhere he is, all over the world. Not just Bill Clinton, any President. All of us know that. He is available at any point in time to undertake to do the business of this Nation. What we can say that we have not done, no matter the direction of the criticism, is we have not done managed care reform. We have not done a bill to reduce class size in modernizing our schools. We have done no action to safeguard the surplus for Social Security. We have not done a bill to reduce teen smoking. So those are some exacting criticisms.”