David Obey: “I would again urge defeat of this rule so that this bill could be sent back to conference and we can get serious about…”

“I would again urge defeat of this rule so that this bill could be sent back to conference and we can get serious about deficit reduction. As every Member of this House knows, we are being asked in virtually every domestic arena to make incredibly tough cuts that will squeeze people out of opportunity for a decent education; we are being asked to squeeze people who are on family farms; we are being asked to make savage reductions in environmental protection laws of the country; we are being asked to make huge reductions in Medicare; we are being asked to eliminate the protections that seniors now have so that when one partner goes in a nursing home the other does not have to go bankrupt before they can qualify for Medicaid. Mr. Speaker, we are being asked to swallow all of that, and yet we are being asked to swallow a defense appropriations bill which does the following: We have a half billion dollars in here as a downpayment for more B-2 bombers than the Pentagon wants to buy. Just the cost of one of those B-2 bombers would pay the tuition for every single undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin for the next 12 years. We are having a big controversy in our State about whether or not the State should buy a new stadium for the Milwaukee Brewers. Just the cost of one B-2 bomber would pay for four of those stadiums with a dome, and yet we will go ahead and build and buy those new B-2 bombers.”