Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. Madam President, as I pointed out earlier in my opposition to this amendment, a large amount of the claimed saving simply does not exist; $26.7 billion claimed as savings from cuts in the Federal work force have already been used in the Senate-passed crime bill to establish a Violent Crime Trust Fund. The vote on establishing that trust fund, which will be used to fully fund the crime bill, was 94 to 4. Moreover, the $21 billion claimed as a result of freezing Federal overhead costs for 2 years, and then allowing overhead costs to grow by the rate of inflation for the next 3 years, will not occur. This is because the President, by Executive order, has already cut Federal overhead spending for each of the next 5 years. Furthermore, the $30 billion claimed in the amendment from reforms in Medicare shall not be used now for deficit reduction purposes. All pending health care reform measures would use such savings in order to help finance improved health care for all Americans. It follows that the overwhelming percentage of savings claimed by this amendment simply do not exist.”