Political Quotes

“the fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills do not adequately address all of the long-term needs of the American people. We have no one to blame but the President and his Republican allies who have chosen to stand by his side. The bills we drafted and passed out of the Appropriations Committees on a bipartisan basis went far beyond what we have here today, but the President has made it clear he would veto any bills that were above his grossly inadequate budget. These allies stood with the President and his budget, a budget that I cannot believe anyone would be proud to support. The President's budget contained cuts of 800 grants for medical research at NIH, cuts in programs that provide access to health care by $595 million, cuts in rural health initiatives by 50 percent, cuts for crucial Department of Education programs by $1.2 billion, and cuts in Homeland Security Grants for police, firefighters, and medical personnel by $1.1 billion. This is what we were presented with take it or leave it. The President refused to compromise and instead made it very clear that in his eyes, cuts for health care, education, jobs, and homeland security are nonnegotiable. For the cost of what we spend in 2 months in Iraq, the President was more than willing to sacrifice a year's worth of badly needed investments into health research, our children's education, worker safety, and homeland security. The President has done all of this under the banner of fiscal responsibility.”