Charles W. Stenholm: “What I am saying is that in an overwhelmingly bipartisan way, Members have stated, through their words and their votes…”

“What I am saying is that in an overwhelmingly bipartisan way, Members have stated, through their words and their votes, that the expedited rescission procedure is a very good one, and I believe much preferable to the base bill. We must bring greater accountability to the appropriations process and the tax benefits process so that individual items may be considered on their individual merits. The current rescission process does not make the President or the Congress accountable. We all agree on that. Congress can ignore the President's rescissions. The President can blame the Congress, Congress can blame the President and nothing happens. But my friend from Massachusetts a moment ago, I believe, misunderstands H.R. 2. Because under H.R. 2, I will submit to my colleagues, there is not greater deficit reduction that will occur because under the base bill, if the President chooses to line-item veto x amount of spending and the Congress does nothing, that is, lets it take effect, the deficit is not removed because the caps on spending are not changed under the base bill.”