Haley Stevens: “It is beautiful, the way my colleague from Hawaii remembers things that happened in his own life and puts in perspective…”

“It is beautiful, the way my colleague from Hawaii remembers things that happened in his own life and puts in perspective what we are dealing with. I hope the Senate listens because the problem that the Senator from Hawaii had as a platoon leader is exactly the problem the Commander in Chief has right now: How much are they going to spend and where are they going to spend the money. The Senator from North Dakota wants us to tell the President, submit a budget to tell us how money will be spent, and we don't know what the plan is because the contingencies are so great. Let me mention to you what we have just come through. We originally intended to send part of our forces into Iraq through Turkey. When we found out we had a difficulty there because of the change in administration in Turkey, we had to take those troops out, send them back through the canal and then come back up through the Persian Gulf into Kuwait. Could we have anticipated those costs? Could the President have submitted us a budget for that operation? Absolutely not. One of my tasks is to handle the appropriations bills and try to assist in handling the funding for our executive branch and all branches of the Government. But one thing continues to bother me about the emphasis on the current deficit. It is big. It is going to get bigger. Do you know why? Our whole economy is getting bigger. When I first came to Washington, I had a mortgage of about $45,000. I sort of choked about that.”