Maurice Hinchey: “I want to, first of all, express my appreciation to the gentleman from New York and the gentleman from West Virginia…”

“I want to, first of all, express my appreciation to the gentleman from New York and the gentleman from West Virginia, the chairman and the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, for the very respectable job they have done in putting this bill together. I think that we all need to recognize that. But the problem we have with this bill, which is a very real and serious and definite problem, is based upon the fact that the tools they had with which to operate were inadequate. The funding number that they were given is too low. The reason for that is the leadership here, at the request of the President, insisted on passing a massive tax cut before we had a budget, before priorities were established. That was a basic and fundamental mistake, and it is one for which we are going to pay dearly, not just this year but in every succeeding year over the course of the next decade. How are we going to pay? We are going to pay by inadequate provision for those people who defended this country in some of the most difficult and darkest times in our history, our veterans.”