John Spratt: “as our previous speakers have said, we stand tonight on the brink of war, the very precipice of war. It may seem…”

“as our previous speakers have said, we stand tonight on the brink of war, the very precipice of war. It may seem untimely to talk about the budget, but it so happens that the budget is the order of business. We are about to go through the annual process of approving the budget resolution, which is the outline of a budget, an exercise that Congress undertakes about this time every year. But to make our position clear with respect to what is happening elsewhere in the world, let me say when it comes to supporting our troops in the field, our men and women in service, we will be unstinting. We will provide them every dime that they need to do their duty and to see that they are fairly compensated, their families are well provided for. We speak tonight about the budget deficit because when we get here on the floor, oftentimes we have the debate broken up in so many small pieces it is hard to see the whole. And it has never been more important for everyone to understand the whole, where we are, the situation, the dire situation that we find ourselves in. We are faced with deficits as far out as our forecasts go, and we have a President's budget before us delivered a few weeks ago that offers no solutions. It only makes the problems worse.”