Kendrick Meek: “The gentleman was listening. I like that. I think it is important that people understand that what is being said loosely…”

“The gentleman was listening. I like that. I think it is important that people understand that what is being said loosely at this particular time you cannot take to the bank as truth. Case in point: during the prescription drug debate we were told, all of us, every Member of Congress was told that it would be a $350 billion program. And then we moved down the line, and slowly it moved up to $400 billion. And then after the debate, after we passed the plan, we find out someone made the wrong calculation. The gentleman talked about math earlier. They goofed up. It is $530 billion. This is real money. And then 3 months ago we find out that it is going to be $724 billion. What is the true number? Is $5 trillion the true number of the President's privatization plan, the majority side's privatization plan? Or is it $9 trillion, $10 trillion, $12 trillion? You want to talk about saying that we are going to do things on a credit card, we are doing it in the worst way. I want to make sure Americans and Members of this House understand that we are not surplus spending here. This is deficit spending in the worst way. I am on the Select Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on Armed Services. We share in that committee; we will have a committee markup. We start working on bringing a bill to the floor for the defense of this country to support our men and women in uniform that are abroad fighting for those that this Congress has given them the ability to do.…”