Timothy Penny: “Madam Chairman, we rise to offer this amendment to offset all of the costs of disaster aid. When part of America…”

“Madam Chairman, we rise to offer this amendment to offset all of the costs of disaster aid. When part of America suffers, all of America ought to come to their aid. That is the premise of this amendment. I am reminded of the movie Dave in which a stand-in president sat down with his own accountant to try and find room in the Federal budget for a needed homeless shelter for families in the metropolitan regions of our country. They suggested to the cabinet the following morning a series of spending cuts to make room for that higher priority. As you might expect, the cabinet members began to gripe and grumble. Dave motioned to one cabinet member and said, ``Are you saying that your program is more important than this emerging need?'' And the cabinet member said, ``No, well, I wasn't saying that.'' Dave said, ``Well, in that case, the decision has been made. We put the money in the new priority.'' That is all we are talking about here. These are familiar cuts. We have dealt with this issue in the past. Many of these cuts have been voted on previously. In the past, we have proposed these cuts to reduce the deficit. All we are asking this time around is that we stop increasing the deficit by implementing these offsetting cuts. It is a reasonable plan and one that ought to be adopted.”