Political Quotes

“earlier our colleague, Senator Murray, complained that objections to the Veterans Jobs Corps bill was political--I think that was the thrust of part of her remarks--and that we should just pass it and move on. My sole problem with the legislation--and Senator Murray, as a member of the Budget Committee understands this--is it violates the budget and is subject to a budget point of order. It would spend more money on this legislation than the veterans committee is authorized to spend. If we do that, we are supposed to vote on it, and a budget point of order would lie, and those who want to waive the budget would move to waive the budget and we would vote. It takes 60 votes to waive the duly agreed upon spending limits we have in that regard. That was part of the Budget Control Act in which we raised the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion. We agreed to put some limits on spending--not much but some. Here we are already, after several different prior violations of the budget, back at it again. So that is the concern. Senator Burr has offered legislation that would help solve the problem of unemployment among veterans, and his doesn't violate the budget. We could support it. I would note that the veterans committee never had a hearing on this. Therefore, nobody ever: studied it, called expert witnesses, had hearings in public, or examined witnesses to find out if this plan is the best way to help veterans who are unemployed. We have six programs already that do this.…”