On the recordJuly 6, 2016
I join you, Mr. Chairman, in opposition to this amendment. With all due respect to the gentlewoman, I think she hasn't read this particular committee's bill over the last few years. It has been cut and cut and cut and cut. If I was going to give cutting budgets high marks, I would have to say the Republicans have done a great job because they have cut and they have cut and they have cut. So I don't see the purpose of across- the-board cuts being more effective than the cuts that are taking place now--if cuts are, indeed, effective. I think they are not. I think they hurt agencies. I think they hurt programs. I think they hurt the ability to propose changes and to make our economy grow. But if you think that they are good, then just look at the percentage cuts that this committee has taken. Where else could we cut from? We have got agencies where we have practically destroyed their ability to do their work, and now we want an across-the-board cut. Across-the- board cuts simply sound good, but they don't propose anything. What we need to do is really try to get back to regular order, to try to make the Appropriations Committee what it used to be, a committee that appropriated and not a committee that cuts. That is all we do now: we cut and we cut and we cut.…
