Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Chair, I rise today to speak against H.R. 5019. As I discussed earlier during the rule debate, I have very serious concerns about how we are paying for this legislation. In exchange for withdrawing my deficit neutrality at the full committee markup, Chairman Waxman said he would work with me in trying to find a way to pay for this piece of legislation. I do thank the chairman for meeting with me on this matter. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a pay-for during our negotiation. Although this is an authorization legislation and not an appropriation, I feel that if this program is important enough to authorize, it should be important enough for us to find a way to pay for it. I am concerned that the majority could not give any assurance that this bill will indeed be paid for. I offered an amendment yesterday regarding the Federal deficit that was not accepted in the Rules Committee, and therefore we are not able to have an open debate on this issue today on the House floor. It is frustrating that the majority has shut down the opportunity to have a debate on the cost of this legislation and the addition it will be to the Federal deficit. {time} 1245 The majority is claiming that this bill does not need to have a pay- for since, again, it is an authorizing bill. However, I believe that the issue of the budget deficit should at least be able to be debated.…”