Political Quotes

“We have set aside the motion to recommit offered by the Senator from Utah; however, I wish to rise in opposition to his motion. This is all about budget-speak. It is really hard to follow between budget authority and expenditures, et cetera. But let me just say this in plain English. This bill is $500 million less than we spent in 2011--$500 million less than we spent in 2011. Now, this is not the chairperson of the CJS bill kind of making up numbers. This is confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office. It has been certified by the chairman of the Budget Committee. The CJS bill is nearly $500 million less than last year. Now, am I doing fuzzy math? No. I do not do fuzzy math. The CJS bill is consistent with something called the Budget Control Act. The Budget Control Act requires appropriations to cut $7 billion for our fiscal year 2012. When we got our allocation, the CJS subcommittee allocation was $500 million below 2011. I am going to say it again--$500 million below what we spent in 2011. This allocation required the CJS subcommittee to take stern and even drastic measures. I eliminated 30 programs. Yes, Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Democratic, a liberal, I cut and eliminated 30 programs: 4 in Commerce--I think you objected to 1; 20 in Justice; 1 in Space; 4 in the National Science Foundation. I could not believe it, but that is what we had to do. We cut the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab by $1 billion.…”