John Joseph Moakley: “Mr. Speaker, anyone who thought the bipartisanship on the budget was too good to be true was right. Despite agreements…”

“Mr. Speaker, anyone who thought the bipartisanship on the budget was too good to be true was right. Despite agreements with the White House, despite compromises on the part of my Republican colleagues, despite some very hard work by Democrats and Republicans, the Republican leadership has decided to throw bipartisanship right out the window. The Republican leadership has decided to ram the budget bills through the House with this martial law rule. The Republican leadership, Mr. Speaker, has decided that the many, many days of hard work that went into these bills are not worth giving Members enough time to read them. The rule we are considering today gives Members hardly any time to read the budget before they vote on it. These bills contain some $94 billion of tax cuts and $115 billion in Medicare cuts, $13 billion in Medicaid cuts, $1.8 billion in housing cuts. Some people say they are great bills, and I for one want to be able to vote for them. But, Mr. Speaker, I need to know what is in the bills. I want to vote for tax cuts, but I want to know which tax cuts are in the bill. I want to vote for some of these spending measures, but, again, I want to know what spending measures are in this bill, and this rule certainly does not give me or anyone else in the House that opportunity.”