Political Quotes

“Madam President, at some point during consideration of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies appropriations bill, I expect there may be a motion to recommit the bill to the Appropriations Committee. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity, as we are attempting to work out amendments and proceed to some additional votes, to give my colleagues some basic facts about our bill. First of all, our appropriations bill took one of the largest percentage cuts to spending of any of the appropriations bills for fiscal year 2011. It is important to understand that our bill is nearly $13 billion below fiscal year 2010 enacted levels. This funding level represents a reduction of nearly one-fifth in just 2 years. When disaster funding is not included, our bill total is $55 billion. That is $117 million below fiscal year 2011. So I want to point out that this bill is a fiscally responsible bill. It is a bill that required a lot of tough choices. It is a bill that does not fund some programs to the level I would have liked to have seen them funded, but it recognizes the reality of a $14.9 trillion Federal debt that is growing every day. Therefore, we have had to make tough choices. We cannot have the luxury of fully funding every program, even those programs that are very beneficial.…”