David Obey: “Drone on, drone on, O ship of State. That's what I'm tempted to recite when I hear these repetitious dronings on bill…”

“Drone on, drone on, O ship of State. That's what I'm tempted to recite when I hear these repetitious dronings on bill after bill after bill. Let me simply say, I think it is legitimate for individual Members of this body to offer amendments in order to illustrate their concern about a larger question. I've done that many times myself in this institution. But I think that after 3 weeks of hearing the same point made again and again, we understand that these gentlemen believe that we are putting too much money into education and health care and science and other areas that we regard as crucial investments, and that's a perfectly legitimate position to have. But please spare me the sanctimony, spare me the nonsense that somehow these amendments will contribute in any meaningful way to significant deficit reduction. Let me simply point out, if people were interested in significant deficit reduction, they would not be supporting an Iraqi war which has already spent over $400 billion and which we'll spend another 140 billion bucks by the time we pass the President's supplemental. They would not be insisting that we provide $57 billion in tax cuts to people making a million bucks a year. No, they don't argue about those two things. What do they do? They come to the floor and squawk about an $8 million program to help the poorest rural communities in this country get basic services like sewer and water.”