Byron Dorgan: “the issues that have just been discussed by my colleague, and others as well, about fiscal discipline are very important…”

“the issues that have just been discussed by my colleague, and others as well, about fiscal discipline are very important issues. I would make the point that I don't think one can find fiscal discipline around here with a high-powered telescope. There is no fiscal discipline around here, unfortunately. In fact, the very bill we are debating at this point is appropriating something over $90 billion, none of it paid for--none of it. Emergency funding for defense, emergency funding for Hurricane Katrina. We have done emergency funding for defense previously. We have done it again, we have done it again, we have done it again. We are now over the hundreds of billions of dollars, all in emergency funding, and we are pretending somehow we have some discipline. It is imperative for this Congress to begin thinking about what this means for our kids and grandkids. The conference report before us is a conference report that falls short on this very specific area about which I am concerned. Let me mention another area first. One of the things this bill does is fund a great deal of money for the Defense Department for money that has been consumed in Iraq and Afghanistan in prosecuting the war. It replenishes military accounts, and we are going to do that, we understand that. We have a responsibility. We cannot send American troops abroad and decide we are not going to fund that which they need to do their jobs. We understand that.…”