Political Quotes

“Madam President, in 5 minutes we will be voting on an amendment I have. I have explained the amendment several times. I first introduced it as S. 3095, the Honest Expenditure and Limitation Program Act of 2010. Let me say what it is. We will be voting, if this goes down, on the McCain amendment and another amendment like we voted on before. There is an honest difference of opinion. What I thought would be appropriate is, since we will be voting, very likely, on another earmark amendment and since I don't think anyone is going to question the fact that defeating an earmark doesn't save a nickel, if we have an alternative that really does mean something, this would be our chance to vote on it. What I would like to do is briefly explain what the amendment is that we will be voting on in a few minutes. Some time ago, President Obama came out with his program where he said, during the State of the Union: I plan to freeze nondefense discretionary spending at 2010 levels. A lot of people applauded, believing that to be some type of a gesture that was a conservative gesture that would reduce spending when, in fact, it didn't because he was talking about the 2010 levels--that is after 1 year--and it has been increased by 20 percent. What he was saying is we are going to raise the nondefense discretionary spending by 20 percent and then freeze it. Rather than raise it by 20 percent and freeze it, the fiscally responsible thing to do is to go ahead and freeze it at the previous level.…”