David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, as I said on debate on the rule, this is one of the most serious votes that we will be casting this year.…”

“Mr. Chairman, as I said on debate on the rule, this is one of the most serious votes that we will be casting this year. If we cannot play it straight on this amendment, we cannot play it straight on anything. This amendment should not be politicized. What we should be doing with this amendment is to provide every single dollar that we need to conduct the operations now going on in Kosovo. We should not provide one dime less and neither should we try to use this to play games on the budget. I am baffled by the fact that last week this House declined to support the operation that is now going on in Kosovo and yet this week the same people largely who opposed that motion last week are now suggesting that we should double the amount of spending for the operation which last week they said we should not be conducting at all. That gives confusion and inconsistency a bad name, in my view. I did not vote for the administration's original request on Rambouillet. I did not feel that we knew enough about what the results of that discussion would be in order to cast a vote at that time, and I did not believe in giving any administration a blank check. I know that there are a lot of people in this House who do not like President Clinton, and I think a number of Members have gone overboard in trying to politicize this war because they have such intense dislike for the President.”