Don Nickles: “I am happy to debate my colleague, or any colleague, on the budget. We spent several days debating the budget. I am more…”

“I am happy to debate my colleague, or any colleague, on the budget. We spent several days debating the budget. I am more than happy to debate it. I will tell my colleague that we basically have assumed a freeze in nondefense, non-homeland security in the budget resolution. I hope we will be able to enforce that freeze. I have been very vigilant in trying to enforce the budget. We have made about 80 points of order to contain the growth of spending, most all of which have been sustained. There were very few votes by our colleagues on the Democrat side, with the exception of Senator Miller, and I thank him and compliment him for that. Since we were successful in sustaining those budget points of order, we have saved Federal spending to the tune of in excess of over $1.3 trillion. I happen to have these votes, and I happen to have a chart that shows the votes, just like this vote. CBO scores this vote-- if this amendment were to be adopted--saying it would increase spending by $300 billion. It basically doubles VA. I hope we will be successful. That will be scored on the running chart I am keeping. I mentioned over $100 billion of additional spending. We defeated that in the last month using budget points of order. I hope we will defeat this amendment, and it will save $300 billion-plus and I think make us a lot more responsive. I happen to believe we are making a serious mistake to put everything into that side of the equation.”