Tom Harkin: “I want to make it clear, we stay within our budget, the budget we have, and we have a pay-go budget. We are not adding…”

“I want to make it clear, we stay within our budget, the budget we have, and we have a pay-go budget. We are not adding anything new this year. We are severely constraining spending to get out of the deficit hole. I want to compare this bill, what we have done on a bipartisan basis--this appropriations bill passed our committee 26 to 3, strong bipartisan support in the subcommittee and full committee--with the President's budget so that Senators who are thinking of how they are going to vote on this appropriations bill might have a clearer picture. What would happen if we did what the President asked, if we just approved the President's budget instead of the bill before us? What I want to do is go through it. You can tell a lot about a person's priorities on how they spend their money.”