Barney Frank: “What I want is fiscal discipline. What I object to is the very selective application of that to people who are in need.…”

“What I want is fiscal discipline. What I object to is the very selective application of that to people who are in need. The gentleman from Iowa says we are going to restore freedom. I don't think the freedom of Navajo children that live in inadequate housing is something worth defending. I am especially struck by the fact that we are about to ask the President to spend tens of billions more where we spent hundreds of billions in the war in Iraq. I offered an amendment a year ago to restrict spending on a manned space shot to Mars. I lost on the floor of this House. I don't know how every Member voted. I do know a majority of the Republican Party voted against me because the President wanted to send a man to Mars. I voted against the Agriculture bill. I voted for an amendment that would have cut the spending there. But to be accused of being careless with the taxpayers' money by people who have supported this enormous corruption-ridden expenditure of hundreds of billions in Iraq is like being called silly by the Three Stooges.”