José E. Serrano: “One of the comments that we keep hearing from everyone on that side who gets up to put forth a deep cut is, do not worry…”

“One of the comments that we keep hearing from everyone on that side who gets up to put forth a deep cut is, do not worry about this cut, what it is that I am cutting will get done. So we will cut one bill, then people will say, do not worry about it, Defense will be taken care of. Then they will cut another bill and say, do not worry about it, everything in Energy and Water will be taken care of. Now today they are saying, we will cut the census but, do not worry, the census will be taken care of. And I suspect some time in the fall they will cut education and health care and health services to shreds and they will say, do not worry about it, people will be taken care of. This may come as a shock, but sooner or later, if we keep on cutting, something is really not going to happen. Something is not going to go well. And the reason that we are opposing this amendment today is because we know for a fact that the census can run into serious problems if we approve this amendment. Now, I also personally would like to help the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn). He told us with such pride and joy, and he should tell us with pride and joy, that just this weekend he delivered two babies. Well, his amendment runs the risk of not counting those babies in the census. I do not want him to go through life delivering babies that will not be counted in the census.”