Todd Tiahrt: “the reason the President vetoed the flood relief bill was because he wants to have the ability to shut the Government…”

“the reason the President vetoed the flood relief bill was because he wants to have the ability to shut the Government down. We put in a provision that said that if we cannot reach an agreement, we will continue Government. We will continue it at fiscal year 1997 levels. But no, that was not good enough for him. He wants to shut the Government down. The President wants to shut the Government down. The President wants to shut the Government down, and that is why he vetoed the disaster relief bill, not because of us, like the Congress wanted to shut the Government down. It is the President. We had a provision to prevent it from happening, and he simply wanted to say I want the right to shut the Government down and blame Congress, like he did last year, in 1995 and 1996. It is very simple. Once the truth is out and people understand it, they will understand why we want to continue the Government, we want to preserve what is going on. It is very simple. The President wants to shut the Government down.”