David Obey: “Let me simply recite a few facts. If we take a look at the past history to see how these bills have been handled in the…”

“Let me simply recite a few facts. If we take a look at the past history to see how these bills have been handled in the past, the gentleman talks about having a separate military construction bill. The fact is, over the last 5 years, when our Republican friends controlled this House, on three occasions they tied the military construction bill to other bills. And on one occasion, they never managed to pass a military construction bill at all. Only once in the past 5 years did they pass a freestanding military construction bill. So, I will stack our record against theirs any time. There is another substantial difference between us on that score. In the 2007 budget and in the bill before the Congress now, we've added $7 billion in additional funding for veterans health care, money which the administration itself opposed. So, I make no apology for what we have done on that score.”