Jack Kingston: “I rise in opposition to the Nussle budget reform proposal, but I do so with great respect for the Committee on the…”

“I rise in opposition to the Nussle budget reform proposal, but I do so with great respect for the Committee on the Budget and his leadership on that, and I want to say that this is the proper discussion and a discussion which we should be having. As a member of the Committee on Appropriations, I see it a little bit differently. I think that we are both going towards the same goal, the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations; yet we are taking a different course. What our concern is about is the so-called statutory caps in the Nussle proposal give the executive branch, the President, three different bites of the apple: one when he submits the budget, the next using his veto pen, and then another one forcing his will on Congress. He will very much be at the table. And as our Founding Fathers established the separation of powers, I believe that there should be a little more than a philosophical firewall between the executive and the legislative branches.”