Barney Frank: “I wish we were not dealing with all of these issues in one instruction motion, but it must be repeated again. The way in…”

“I wish we were not dealing with all of these issues in one instruction motion, but it must be repeated again. The way in which this House leadership has chosen to deal with the appropriations process this year has been one of the most thorough degradations of the democratic process I have ever seen. And people have said, well, but the Senate did not pass a budget. What does that have to do with the constitutional right of this body to pass appropriations bills? We, in fact, passed two appropriations bills for defense. There was no obstacle there, and there was no obstacle with the other appropriations bills except the political reality that by the time you get through financing two wars with three tax cuts, you do not have enough money left to meet fundamental social obligations.”