Blake Farenthold: “We have heard a lot of rhetoric today that sequestration is the problem. I would like to remind you that sequestration…”

“We have heard a lot of rhetoric today that sequestration is the problem. I would like to remind you that sequestration, that President Obama proposed, was the only solution we could agree on to the real problem: the fact that this government is spending close to $1.50 for every $1 that it brings in. That being said, sequestration came into effect, and we're now having to deal with it. It was our intent all along to find cuts. We couldn't get agreement from the other side to find the cuts. And now, even though sequestration is painful, it is working. We see in this bill that we're able to take the FAA, get the cuts that need to be made to their budget made without affecting flight delays and without furloughing people. It is my contention that this can happen all through the government and throughout all agencies. If these agencies and the President had come back to this Congress saying, ``We can do these cuts this way; let us do it,'' I imagine almost every one of those would have passed on unanimous consent. They certainly probably would have passed on suspension like this one. I urge my colleagues to take this first step to solve the problem with the FAA, and I look forward to working with other government agencies in the Obama administration to find the cuts we need and to spare the American people the pain that's intentionally being inflicted because some people don't want to cut a dime out of the American budget.…”