Rob Andrews: “this is a place where we come to make choices. Many of us, both Republican and Democrat, are ready to make choices to…”

“this is a place where we come to make choices. Many of us, both Republican and Democrat, are ready to make choices to reduce the Federal budget, but today in the Committee on Rules, the Republican leadership of the Committee on Rules is ready to deny us a choice, a series of choices, that the American people have a right to hear us make. This week on this floor, we will have presented to us a $17 billion budget cut proposal by the Republican majority. Some of us agree that the budget ought to be cut, but ought to be cut in different places. We want to offer an amendment that would say: ``Let us not take home heating assistance away from senior citizens across this country; instead, let us take the money from the S&L bailout. Let us not take money away from reading teachers for children across this country; let us take the money from energy subsidies to huge multinational corporations. We are not going to get the right to make that choice unless the rule proposed by the Republican leadership is defeated. Honor your Contract With America, open up the promise, and defeat this rule.”