John Spratt: “It is true that this has been voted upon before. We were desperate for solutions and so this was one of the jerry-rigged…”

“It is true that this has been voted upon before. We were desperate for solutions and so this was one of the jerry-rigged solutions that we came up with. It has been through committee. It has been on the floor. Let me tell my colleagues what is wrong with it. We can have a cut here on the House floor or in committee of a particular program that is unpopular amongst Members here in the House. They can have a cut in the Senate of the same amount, or roughly the same amount, of a totally different program. When you then go to conference, there is no coming together on the cut that has been made. The House has decided to cut one thing that is not popular here, the Senate has decided to cut another thing that is not popular there. The amount is roughly the same, so both Houses have interests in their so-called lockbox accounts that have to be reconciled, but there is no reconciliation on the item to be cut, how that number is to be achieved. They may be at total loggerheads over that particular issue.”