Jack Kingston: “I want to say this, and I appreciate what the gentleman from Arizona is doing, because I think that we all need to be…”

“I want to say this, and I appreciate what the gentleman from Arizona is doing, because I think that we all need to be accountable for anything that is in the bill or anything we vote on. One of my gripes with the other body is that they keep things in committee, and it is an incumbent protection system. {time} 2015 So I think having the opportunity to come down here and debate and fight for what we believe is important. I want to point out, last year, our budget passed in the final version out of conference committee 212-214. That is a two-vote margin. So if you put more spending in the budget, it probably would not have passed. If you put less spending in the budget, it probably would not have passed also. It truly was a balance between those who wanted to spend more and those who wanted to spend less. And there are a lot who want to spend less. However, politics is the reality of the possible or the passable. What you have sometimes is budgets that are hard to justify. I remember Mr. Obey telling a good story about something called the soldier fly. Down in the area I represent, there is a lot of agriculture. There are a lot of chicken growers, and chicken growers have chickens in hen houses. But, unfortunately, or fortunately, in a lot of rural areas, it has turned urban. And what do chickens have? Chickens have flies. They have blue flies. People build houses, and then the first thing they do is complain about the flies coming from the chicken houses.…”