Roy Blunt: “I continue to hear as these debates go on that somehow these increases are not real increases, and I continue to be…”

“I continue to hear as these debates go on that somehow these increases are not real increases, and I continue to be mystified by that. I think if my good friend from Georgia's amendment was approved, and I voted for his cutting amendment on each of these bills, if that amendment was approved, we would still have an increase in this bill of a little over 5 percent. Now, I don't know how that calculates out to not an increase, but I am continuing to try to figure out how that is not an increase. I do know that that increase of 5 percent anywhere that I talk to Americans is an increase. And I know, more importantly, in the course of today and tomorrow that what my friend from Georgia is suggesting is that if we let this one appropriations bill grow by 5 percent, as we move on later into the discussion of the farm bill, we would have saved enough money in this 1.4 percent cut not to have a tax increase that puts the farm bill in jeopardy.”