Jim Inhofe: “let me go ahead and conclude. First, I have a great deal of respect for the Senator from North Dakota, but I disagree…”

“let me go ahead and conclude. First, I have a great deal of respect for the Senator from North Dakota, but I disagree with him. Let me point out a couple of things that I believe are not correct. The Senator from North Dakota said a lot of these amendments were dealing with the same thing. They are not. If you look at them, each one has a subject matter. They are not dealing with the same thing. Secondly, he said they are offset. I would ask the Senator from North Dakota if he can name one that is offset. You can't because these are not offset. The budget analysts said all of these were not offset amendments. They were amendments that were offered, and they were offered by Democrats. And when you add up all the money that is in these amendments that they have offered--I believe most of these were rejected--it would have been an additional half-trillion dollars. It is very clear they are offered by the Democratic Senators. I started off my remarks by saying we are in a unique situation now. Fortunately, the recession is behind us now. That is not a factor. But this President had to rebuild a military. Then 9/11 came. He had to get involved in a war. Then we had a couple of disasters that were almost unprecedented. I said at the beginning of my remarks, this is not something we can handle in 1 year or even maybe 2 years.…”