Political Quotes

“I did want to talk for just a moment about how important it is that veterans were taken care of in this continuing resolution. I do want to commend Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Obey, and the rest of the Democratic leadership who did a great job of putting together what was a mess that was left to us. As Mr. Ryan talked about, we had nine out of eleven appropriations bills to fund this Government that were left in our lap, and we had to deal with that, and we had some tough decisions to make. But under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Obey we did what needed to be done. I made clear to the leadership, and they agreed, that we needed to make sure that nobody should stand in front of our veterans when it comes time to pass funding resolutions. We have people fighting for us in the field overseas right now. We have veterans coming back from Iraq and, of course, veterans of every age. That need does not go away. That need does not stop. As the Congressional Budget Office has indicated, the cost of caring for those veterans goes up year after year; and we have an obligation and a duty as Members of Congress to make sure that the VA health care budget goes up enough to maintain the current level of services for every veteran that walks through the door. I want to commend Chairman Obey for taking care of that under this continuing resolution.”