Political Quotes

“I wish to speak about the budget portion of this bill. I share Senator Warner's support for the bill. I believe fundamentally it is a good series of policy initiatives that will help sportsmen in the long run. However, I am the ranking member of the Budget Committee and this bill violates the deemed spending levels agreed to in the Budget Control Act. Senator Warner is a member of the Budget Committee. Senator Warner is a member of the Gang of Six that is working so hard to develop a plan that we are supposed to trust will be executed if their plan were to be effected. It doesn't look as if they are making a lot of progress, but who knows? I salute their effort. The question is, if we lay out a plan to address our fiscal issues, will we adhere to it? Will we follow it? So I am a little bit taken aback that my colleagues seem oblivious to the idea and the concern that, plainly, the Sportsmen's Act legislation violates the Budget Act. The staff of Senator Kent Conrad--our Democratic chairman of the Budget Committee, who is retiring--has concluded and certified that it violates the budget because it spends more money than we agreed to spend on this item 15 months ago when the Budget Control Act was passed in order to raise the debt ceiling in America. I wish to tell my colleagues that I worry about things around here and about what kinds of agreements may be reached in the middle of the night--Christmas Eve, December 31st--to fix the fiscal cliff.…”