Steve Rothman: “What would my Republican friends have said if the Democrats had offered to cut the President's requested spending on…”

“What would my Republican friends have said if the Democrats had offered to cut the President's requested spending on foreign affairs by $700 million last year when they were in the majority? They would have said that the Democrats were irresponsible. This year, now that the Democrats are in the majority, we are proposing to cut $700 million from President Bush's request for spending on foreign aid. The Democrats, to cut $700 million from President Bush's request for spending, and that's what we are proposing. But my Republican friends, who were in the majority all those years rubber-stamping the out-of-control Bush budgets every single year, rubber-stamping those budgets, they say that this year, when the Democrats want to reduce President Bush's spending on foreign aid versus his request by $700 million, should be doing it another $170 million more if we Democrats were really serious. I think people can see through that as the political argument that it is, the partisan attack when there is nothing else going for you.”