Frank Lautenberg: “yes, I sponsored that legislation. My heart is in more funding for transportation, and no one here can say differently.…”

“yes, I sponsored that legislation. My heart is in more funding for transportation, and no one here can say differently. The problem is that we are in a different point in time, and if you want to take it out of highways and say forget the children's health care bill, if you want to take it out of highways and forget the pledge we made to the senior citizens, or take it out of this bill and forget the pledge that we made to those who might be disabled, let's do it, let's talk about that. Let's talk about balancing the budget, because I know the distinguished Senator from Virginia has been a proponent of a balanced budget almost from the day the words were invented around here. So now we have a different occasion. We are not talking about transportation; we all agree that transportation is definitely underfunded. What we are talking about is at what price do we make this change, and the price is at, again, children's health or otherwise, because we are committed to balancing this budget. And this is strange talk for a fellow like me.”