David Obey: “all I can say to our Republican friends on the other side of the aisle is: ``Welcome Aboard,'' even if you are a little…”

“all I can say to our Republican friends on the other side of the aisle is: ``Welcome Aboard,'' even if you are a little short and even if you are a little late. The fact is that for the last 3 years we have had a history of resistance by the majority party in this House to efforts by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) and me to add funding for veterans health care above the amounts that the Republican majority saw fit to provide. Example: fiscal 2005, the budget resolution. We asked that $1.3 billion more be made available for veterans health care. We were turned down. In a continuing resolution for fiscal 2005, we tried to add $2.5 billion for veterans health care. We were turned down. {time} 1930 As recently as a month ago, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) was called a demagogue by a member of the majority party because he was insisting that the VA estimates were too low and that we needed more money. Now the VA belatedly admits that they have found a problem. The only problem is even under their story they found it in April and they did not reveal it until now. I would suggest that the VA also has a history of trying to chisel on veterans' benefits. Three years ago, they sent out instructions to veterans' service officers not to engage in outreach in order to inform veterans what they were entitled to, and we had to scold them day by day on this House floor to try to get them to back off, and they are still being penurious about it.…”