John Sarbanes: “There is a subheading called ``The Farce is With Us.'' It was, if you believe the official story, a case of farce…”

“There is a subheading called ``The Farce is With Us.'' It was, if you believe the official story, a case of farce majeure: House Republican leaders had to call off Thursday's planned vote on the budget resolution because two pages that were supposed to be in the document were accidentally omitted. . . . Whatever really happened, the fundamental cause of the mishap was that the Republican leadership was trying to pull a fast one--to rush through a huge tax cut before anyone had a chance to look at the details. Krugman, in this column, goes on to talk about, in effect, other missing pages in the budget document. Now we have had a little chance to look at the details, and I want to ask the ranking member, my good friend from North Dakota, a couple of questions. First, on defense, am I correct in understanding that the way this document is drawn, there is a blank check for a defense figure that will be filled in later? Is there a defense number coming later that will simply be slugged into the budget?”