Betty McCollum

I would like to ask you a couple of questions. Do we know how much of this budget would be implemented by the non-profit organizations in this community and across the country?

I would like to shift gears here a little bit and talk about a part of the budget that we usually do not ever discuss here in a budget committee.

I think we need to talk about this, because you and I both know in our communities how integral they are to the fabric of our communities.

I would very much like to work with you, as you get these answers, because none of us on this committee, to my knowledge, since I have been on the Budget Committee, has asked about the non-profit sector.

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act preserves the nation's finest rivers for future generations.

This legislation can only be described as a stalking horse for an excessively expensive mega-bridge.

I urge you to oppose H.R. 850 and S. 1134 if either bill comes before your committee for a vote.

This is a total waste of taxpayer dollars, and an example of Congressional pork, and it should be eliminated.

This budget proposes only a $78 billion reduction in defense spending, which is nothing more than a rounding error.

The path that our Tea Party Republican colleagues are taking on the fiscal year 2011 budget with ideology, mean-spirited, or just plain dumb, cuts.

The best way to reduce the deficit is to get American back to work.

The budget deficit is not a spending problem.

I can't make a decision in isolation, so I look to all of us to put everything on the table.

I think we need to be careful of gutting domestic investments in education, infrastructure, and R&D in the next decade.

I voted against the deficit-busting bill.

I hope the gentleman's misrepresentation of my comments does not reflect the manner in which this committee will conduct itself in the future.

Is it possible to reduce the federal deficit to responsible levels without capping or cutting defense spending and without looking at the tax perks that many corporations and lobbyists have been successful in getting?

The federal government doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

His record to me would indicate that he has voted to add trillions of dollars to the national debt.

Nowhere in my statement did I say the budget deficit is not a spending problem.

I am going to paraphrase a popular Tea Party slogan that goes something like this, quote, the Federal Government doesn't have a revenue problem, it had as a spending problem.

The federal government doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

And at the end of all that work, why would we not expect a different political result than the one we saw in the current Yucca Mountain debate?

Are we looking out further, in your best guesstimate?

How long do you really think it is going to take the blue ribbon commission to produce these recommendations?