Jim Nussle: “I am perplexed. The gentleman who offers the motion to instruct conferees says, gee, it would be nice if we had a rule…”

“I am perplexed. The gentleman who offers the motion to instruct conferees says, gee, it would be nice if we had a rule that tax cuts had to be paid for. Well, that is not what the instruction says. The instruction says they should. It is not a, gee, it would be nice. The gentleman just voted for a tax cut that was not offset, was not paid for. In fact, he joined 109 Democratic colleagues who voted not to pay for tax cuts. In fact, what is even more interesting is that the same gentleman, and I respect his position, because it is how I voted, so it is hard to complain when somebody joins you on a vote, I do not mean it that way, voted just last week with 101 other colleagues for the marriage penalty relief, without offsetting pay-as-you-go requirements. So on the one hand, the gentleman is saying we ought to have a rule, we ought to have a rule around here that you pay for things. It is important to do that, because we are in a hole and you ought to stop digging. I understand. We have heard that rhetoric a lot. Except, he says, do not apply it to me, is what the gentleman is saying.”