David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, last week, the majority party in this House posed for political holy pictures and promised spending…”

“Mr. Chairman, last week, the majority party in this House posed for political holy pictures and promised spending discipline and bragged about how much spending they were going to cut. This week they have brought to the floor this bill which adds $4 billion to the spending requests that the President has made for a supplemental. And then on top of that, it intends in an amendment that they will shortly offer to add yet another $4 billion in spending. And the reason they are going to do that in the DOD account is simply so they move $4 billion in spending from next year to this year, because that frees up $4 billion for them to add for Members' projects in the coming year. It is very simply a $4 billion end run around the spending ceilings which they bragged about imposing just 5 days ago. They must think that people are not watching. Well, I suspect they are. The net result is that they come in for this entire fiscal year spending $17 billion more than the President asks for. That to me is an indication of just how false those promises have been that we would see straight bookkeeping and fiscal discipline under their budget. That alone, I think, is a reason to defeat this proposition. I have already indicated my concern about the Colombian war effort, but I think this is yet another reason to vote against this budget hocus pocus.”