Richard Gephardt: “I rise on this rule today to let the American people know of the subterfuge that is going on in these waning days of the…”

“I rise on this rule today to let the American people know of the subterfuge that is going on in these waning days of the Congress. If this rule passes, we will have a bill which amends the budget law to raise the spending limits that now enforce our discretionary budget to reflect the leadership's wanderlust for spending over the past 2 months. This is the day of reckoning for Republicans to wake up and admit the budget resolution they set forth earlier this year was based on a false premise. But in typical fashion, the leadership has decided to determine unilaterally the fiscal priorities of this Congress without a bipartisan agreement on education funding. No money for new teachers, no money for school repairs or expansion, no money for after-school. I ask Members to support the Democratic effort to defeat the previous question so we can appropriately decide the scope of our education investment and then set the new spending levels accordingly. I deeply regret that we have reached this point in the larger budget process. This is no way to run a budget process, a Congress, or a country. This body does not meet. We do not negotiate. We do not discuss. Republican leaders take off 5 days at a time; and as a result, our basic work is undone because we are not here doing our work. The result is one of the biggest budget disasters that anybody can remember.”