Charles E. Grassley: “we have before us the conference report on the budget, and I believe you would not know it by its cover, but this…”

“we have before us the conference report on the budget, and I believe you would not know it by its cover, but this conference report in and of itself is an oxymoron. We went through this tremendous battle against the big spending machine here in this town, and it was really quite a struggle, yet all we got out of it was a small gnat's worth of savings. We labored mightily and of course we produced, in savings, just a mouse. The good news in this budget is that it does contain spending restraints that the big spenders in this city, including the congressional leadership and the White House, did not want to accept. I believe it has only been once since I have been in the Senate that this has happened, and that was back in 1985. When I say ``this happened,'' when we were up against congressional leadership of both parties and up against the White House when we had an opportunity to make cuts in the budget, that was when I offered an amendment to freeze the defense spending that was adopted that year. Let me just say in as clear terms as I possibly can, and for the Record, that the sky did not fall in on the defense budget or the Defense Department then, and it will not fall on this budget now. That is notwithstanding all the hair-pulling that we heard right here on this floor during the original debate on the budget resolution. I would like to think this is a big victory, given the resistance we encountered.”