Hal Rogers: “I thank the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee for the time here. And I thank him for the diligent work that…”

“I thank the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee for the time here. And I thank him for the diligent work that he continues to do as chair of the Rules Committee, the sort of traffic cop for the bills that reach this floor. I want to expand a bit, Madam Speaker, on a point that Chairman Dreier alluded to earlier, and that is the historic nature of the bill that we will be considering on the floor. As the chairman pointed out, under Speaker Pelosi, discretionary spending in those 2 years increased by 82 percent--a record. With this bill, we not only are arresting that growth, but we are receding actual discretionary spending by a record amount, nearly $40 billion in actual cuts in spending. That has not ever been accomplished by this body in its history, in the history of the country. The cuts in this bill exceed anything ever passed by the House. It's the largest cut ever--by four times. The largest previous single cut was in 1995, when we cut around $9 billion. With this bill, you cut almost $40 billion. Now I don't understand sometimes my friends on the other side of the aisle when they criticize this bill. It's being supported by your President. He says, pass the bill. It's what we agreed upon. It's being supported by Senator Reid, the leader on the Senate side. It's being supported by the Speaker of the House.…”