Political Quotes

“we will be voting, I understand, on three pieces of legislation from the House. One is a massive omnibus bill that would include 9 of the 13 appropriations bills that should be brought up individually and voted on individually, with amendments on each one. They have all been cobbled together now at the end of the year in one giant omnibus bill, with only a few hours for us to review their contents. In addition, there will be a vote to offset certain emergency expenditures--in other words, pay for these new expenditures with savings elsewhere in the government rather than borrow the money for it--add to our debt for it. A third vote will be, in effect, to fund and appropriate the money that would be so offset or spend it by borrowing it if it is not offset. I would just share with my colleagues one particular thing. The Presiding Officer, Senator Whitehouse, is on the Budget Committee, and our staff has looked at these budget numbers. I would just advise my colleagues--I believe they should vote to offset the additional expenditure. This is the reason: The Budget Control Act enacted this summer was part of an effort where Republicans said: We will raise the debt limit, but we want you to cut spending. We need to cut back on spending because we have had a series of deficits the likes of which the Nation has never seen before. We have to do better. We need to reduce spending. Our Democratic colleagues resisted.…”