Burgess Owens: “But I do think we should note the fact that serious business lies ahead of us. There has been a great deal of talk about…”

“But I do think we should note the fact that serious business lies ahead of us. There has been a great deal of talk about a train wreck coming where the mean and extreme balanced budget philosophy of the Republican majority will clash with the more moderate reform approach of the President, and we are going to have some very difficult days. I think it is quite clear that appropriations bills of the kind that we passed before we left here cannot be left standing. We cannot have a $9 billion cut in education, job training and social services. We cannot have tremendous cuts in housing. There are a number of things that just cannot be left standing. We cannot tolerate more than $280 billion in cuts over the next 7 years to Medicare. We cannot tolerate more than $180 billion in cuts for Medicaid. There has to be a train wreck. Unfortunately, in the Congress, in the Senate and the House, the Republican majority has the votes, and they have passed this mean and extreme program.”