Don Nickles: “I want to echo the comments made by my colleague from New Mexico. This is even more important than the budget agreement.…”

“I want to echo the comments made by my colleague from New Mexico. This is even more important than the budget agreement. You are only, in the Senate, as good as your word. There is a document that says we are going to have net tax cuts of 85. This makes net tax cuts 55. There is an addendum that says there is going to be a kid care initiative that costs 16. This amendment makes that kid care initiative 36. This is not the agreement. If people on the other side are now saying this is consistent with the agreement, that is not the case. And it really does unravel this deal. It is beyond me. I would like to think that people would have more credibility in their word and would say, ``I will always tell you the truth.'' If people are going to say this doesn't break the deal and the Vice President is going to come down and say this is consistent with the deal, then we don't have a deal. Some people are just evidently quite happy to break it up and make sure that we don't have a deal. I will go further to say that this is consistent with the deal. I can certainly have an amendment to cut discretionary spending by $20 billion and increase the tax cut by $30 billion. I would like to offer that amendment. Tell the majority leader, I would like to offer that amendment. I think we spent too much money on the discretionary side, and I think we didn't cut taxes enough. It wasn't my intention to offer that amendment because it would be inconsistent with the deal.”