Political Quotes

“I rise today in strong opposition to the Toomey motion to recommit. This motion to recommit would send the transportation-housing bill back to the committee with a new allocation of $45.5 billion, a cut of $8.5 billion from the Senate bill's current level of $54 billion. The THUD subcommittee would then have to rewrite its bill to the new, lower allocation. This motion is simply a backdoor approach to make sequester the new normal by slashing the THUD bill. This is a cut of the magnitude proposed in the Ryan budget. I remind my colleagues the Ryan budget puts a moat around defense spending, and cuts $91 billion from domestic programs. I will not accept sequester, I will not accept the Ryan budget, as the new normal. The allocation for the THUD bill is based on a topline of $1.058 trillion. This is the presequester topline contained in the American Taxpayer Relief Act, a law that passed the Senate by a vote of 89 to 8 in January. The allocation for THUD proposed by the Toomey amendment is based on a topline of $967 billion, the postsequester level. Those who support $967 billion want to make sequester the ``new normal.'' They say: We must follow the law, and sequester is the law. First of all, the House is not following the law. The House ignores the law by taking all $91 billion of cuts out of domestic discretionary programs.…”