Neil Abercrombie: “You and I may not be here after today. Although I must say that this does show, I think, that this is not so much a…”

“You and I may not be here after today. Although I must say that this does show, I think, that this is not so much a question of majority versus minority. It is a question of whether you want to be honest about it. My defense, if you will, of the President's approach under this is that the President has accepted, and I will say in good faith, the congressional budget numbers as offered by the majority. His difference comes in this, in how he prioritizes the spending changes. We can argue that and I think we should argue it a lot more. My fear is, and what I said earlier today was, because it is so difficult to understand terms like out years and whether a surplus is really a surplus and those kinds of things, because it is so difficult, the majority, I am given to understand, intends to put forward the budget and the amount of discussion that is going to take place about the budget, such as you and I are having right now, will be minimized. In fact, it will be virtually nonexistent.”