David Obey: “Members of this House have often heard me refer to my old friend, Archie the Cockroach, who is the philosopher I rely…”

“Members of this House have often heard me refer to my old friend, Archie the Cockroach, who is the philosopher I rely upon. And one of the things Archie said once is that ``an old stomach reforms more whiskey drinkers than does a new resolve.'' And I think we have a perfect example of that in this case. We have seen the minority party, for the past 6 years, zealously and delightedly borrow over $1.2 trillion to pay for tax cuts on the cuff. We've seen them support this year providing $57 billion in tax cuts for people who make a million bucks or more a year. We've seen them blindly and blithely support a misguided war, 600 billion bucks, all borrowed. And now, coming in from a 3-day or 6-year jag, all of a sudden people are sobering up. So they're saying, ``Good gravy, look at the record we've built.'' Mr. Chairman, they have destroyed their credibility with their own conservative base with their profligate borrowing to pay for their pet projects. And then they say, ``Well, how can we cover up that and cover our tracks and pretend that we are taking up the old time religion again of fiscal responsibility? And so what they do is they say, ``Well why don't we attack the appropriations bills and try to create the impression that they are runaway spending.'' Well, let me give you some facts. By the time this House finishes passing each of the appropriation bills that we're bringing to the floor, this House will have cut over 250 programs, saving almost $6 billion.”