David Obey: “As I was saying, Mr. Speaker, we don't relish bringing a package to the floor that we don't like and that we are not…”

“As I was saying, Mr. Speaker, we don't relish bringing a package to the floor that we don't like and that we are not going to vote for. But what I especially don't relish is the fact that, in the process of doing so, we are criticized by people on the minority side of the aisle who, when they were in charge, couldn't run a two-car funeral in terms of the budget. The gentleman claims that it has taken us too long to get here. The fact is, the gentleman's party was in control last year, and it took them 110 days to produce a supplemental that the administration requested. That is 10 days longer than it took us. And we had to spend the first 30 days of this session passing last year's budget because the gentleman's party couldn't get a single domestic appropriations bill through the House because of an internal Republican Party squabble between Republicans in the Senate and Republicans in the House. So that ate up the first 30 days. And the rest of the time we have spent trying to convince the President to change his mind on the policy in Iraq. And so we haven't exactly been doing nothing these last 110 days. We sent a proposition to the President to try to force change in American policy in Iraq. He vetoed it. So if somebody is going to bellyache about the fact that the money isn't getting to the troops, we passed that. It was the President who vetoed it. It is the President's action that has delayed getting anything to anywhere.”