Mark Souder: “I too am very embarrassed for this House. We came here in the Class of 1994 in particular claiming that we were willing…”

“I too am very embarrassed for this House. We came here in the Class of 1994 in particular claiming that we were willing to trade about anything to balance the budget and cut taxes. Tonight we are the people busting the budget. We are the people with the proposal billions of dollars higher than the United States Senate. I am embarrassed at what is before us. I see media reports in Indiana of Members of Congress who are getting money that is going to be allocated to their county commissioners. That was not a carefully scrutinized thing. It is up to the county commissioners now to decide whether they have potholes on their roads. Any Member of Congress can have such a thing. It was not a carefully scrutinized process. Everybody here, whether it was direct or indirect, knew that if they supported this bill they would have access to certain funds. We all advocate different projects at different times within the context of the balanced budget. This busts the budget. This is contrary to what we ran on. By the time we get done with this, the House and the Senate and the President, we are going to have spent the supposed surplus and undermined everything we claimed to have come here to do, and I am embarrassed for this body tonight.”