Thomas Daschle: “I know there are a lot of Senators who wish to speak, but the Republican position is that so long as Democrats hold a…”

“I know there are a lot of Senators who wish to speak, but the Republican position is that so long as Democrats hold a view that in addition to tax cuts and whatever can be generated legislatively from the Finance Committee, that there is a very legitimate need for immediate additional commitment to homeland security, fighting bioterrorism, fighting the array of challenges we face in defending our infrastructure, making sure people have adequate law enforcement to deal with the array of challenges we face even at the local law enforcement level--so long as that is part of our economic stimulus package, the Republican caucus is refusing to meet. That is the issue. So far, they have also refused to even deliberate on a bill that allows consideration of that, given their points of order or whatever other choices of parliamentary devices are available to them. So that is the issue. I have offered three alternatives. Let us have a good debate. Let us decide what we are going to do in the Senate. Let us have a meeting to see if we can resolve both the spending and the revenue side. That was unacceptable. I suggested then let us have separate meetings, one for appropriations. If their position is it ought to be zero and our position is it ought to be $15 billion, perhaps if there is a real desire to compromise and work this out to resolve our differences, we ought to be able to find some middle ground between zero and fifteen.”