Jim Inhofe: “I understand we have 15 minutes divided evenly between the majority and minority, and the Senator from Arizona has up to…”

“I understand we have 15 minutes divided evenly between the majority and minority, and the Senator from Arizona has up to 30 minutes. I ask now to recognize the Senator from Arizona for up to 30 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized. Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, this is a remarkable piece of work. I want to assure my colleagues that I will not take a half hour, but I will take a few minutes to talk about some of the interesting and egregious and remarkable aspects of this bill. There is an old saying about evil, and that is, if you do not check it or reverse it, then it just continues to get worse. I have to say, I haven't seen anything quite like this, although I have seen some pretty bad things in the years that I have been here. It is $286.4 billion, terrifying in its fiscal consequences and disappointing for the lack of fiscal discipline it represents. I wonder what it is going to take to make the case for fiscal sanity here. If you had asked me years ago, I would have said that the combination of war, record deficits, and the largest public debt in the country's history would constitute a sufficient perfect storm to break us out of this spending addiction--and I would have been wrong. I think we can weather almost any storm thrown at us. This week's expenditures, I think, are a pretty good example.…”