David Obey: “this is a pitiful exercise. Its arrogance is matched only by its futility and its hypocrisy. I think we ought to recount…”

“this is a pitiful exercise. Its arrogance is matched only by its futility and its hypocrisy. I think we ought to recount what is happening here and how we got here. Early last year, the majority party, at the insistence of the Committee on the Budget and the House Republican leadership, passed a budget which even their own Republican leadership on the Committee on Appropriations indicated fell at least $10 billion short of the amount that we would need to meet our own obligations on the domestic front for education, for transportation, for veterans' health care, for National Institutes of Health, homeland security, and a number of other items. The Committee on Appropriations, after that budget resolution was passed, tried to operate under it and tried to bring a number of appropriation bills to the floor. They produced the Department of Defense bill, the military construction bill; and the committee met its obligations in those two areas. But then, Mr. Speaker, it was prevented from bringing any other appropriation bills to conclusion by an internal fight within the Republican Caucus in this House.”