Steve Israel: “I would like to commend to the gentleman's attention $3 trillion in elephants, which is $3 trillion in debt that the…”

“I would like to commend to the gentleman's attention $3 trillion in elephants, which is $3 trillion in debt that the other side built up while they were in control of this Congress; $3 trillion elephants rampaging through the Federal Treasury, crushing our future, strangling them with debt. Now, the other side has said that they want to cut and we want to spend. Absolutely not true. We've cut these programs. We're being stewards with the people's money. We have eliminated over 200 programs in this project. The real issue is not cutting versus spending; it's priorities. The other side had no problem finding the money to give Halliburton, in no-bid contracts, unlimited amounts of money to big corporations like Halliburton in no-bid contracts. What we're saying is let's instead invest that money in the Clean Air Act. The other side had no problem bulldozing to passage billions and billions of dollars in tax cuts for the richest oil company executives on the face of the planet who have made more profits than any company has ever made in the course of human history. What we're saying is let's prioritize differently.”