Barney Frank: “the specific accounts mentioned in this amendment are very appealing. Many of them ought to be funded. But they ought to…”

“the specific accounts mentioned in this amendment are very appealing. Many of them ought to be funded. But they ought to be funded by the military showing the same kind of fiscal discipline that Members here claim they want the government as a whole to follow. The military budget was increased substantially in the last appropriation. It will be again substantially increased. It is up to the military, in fact, to manage that money. And what we do today is, in effect, to give approval to a process by which they can so manage the money as to be able to point to some deficits in some of the most appealing accounts. Let us understand this is $4 billion taken presumably from some surplus. It is $4 billion that cannot be used then for any other purpose. Not for tax cuts. Not for deficit reduction or other spending. I understand we have problems. We all have problems. We have been told that we cannot afford to provide prescription drugs for older people to the degree that many of us want. Understand that this $4 billion is $4 billion that could have gone for prescription drug programs for Medicare. Mr. Chairman, it is $4 billion that could go to putting police on the streets. I believe there are some problems in the world. I must say I disagree with the notion, I in fact am intrigued by it, that the world became less safe when communism collapsed. I have heard that again and again.…”