Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have my letter to the Senate minority leader regarding the Global Food Security Act, S. 384, printed in the Congressional Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: U.S. Senate, May 27, 2010. Hon. Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Dear Senator McConnell: I recently objected to a unanimous consent request to pass S. 384, the Global Food Security Act. As you will recall, I sent a letter to the entire Senate at the beginning of this Congress in which I outlined four basic principles that would give me cause to object to any legislation that violated them. Among them are the principles that any new spending commitment authorized must be paid for by reducing spending in other areas of the federal budget and that any new programs or initiatives should not duplicate existing ones. Along these lines I have two primary concerns with S. 384. First, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill will cost taxpayers $6.5 billion; yet, the legislation provides no offset to avoid increasing our national debt, which recently reached $13 trillion. Second, it appears several components of S. 384 may overlap with existing federal programs and authority relating to agricultural assistance and research. For example, S.…”