John Kerry: “I will say that I did so extremely reluctantly, and I am not inclined to continue to do that in a series of hatchet…”

“I will say that I did so extremely reluctantly, and I am not inclined to continue to do that in a series of hatchet budgets that continue to make cuts without regard to the larger budget considerations we need to be considering. Frankly, it is insulting and frustrating that we are reduced to passing incremental allowances just to keep the government functioning. This is just the work of this year's budget--something that should have been passed for an entire year last year. The impact of this kind of staggered, stop-and-start, keep-them-guessing budgeting on programs and projects that, frankly, need to do some long-term planning actually costs Americans money and costs Americans long-term competitive capacity. Run a business the way we are running these kinds of programs, and you would go under if you had a month-to-month, week-to-week, 2-weeks-to-2-weeks budget process.”