David Obey: “this legislation before us provides $87 billion to pay for the consequences of our war against Iraq, and the $20 billion…”

“this legislation before us provides $87 billion to pay for the consequences of our war against Iraq, and the $20 billion reconstruction section provides $872 per capita aid to every single person in Iraq; 872 bucks. That is the size of this package. That ought to merit a lot more debate than we have had. The bill before us got to the floor only because the majority went to the Committee on Rules and made a number of exceptions to the House rules so that this bill could come to the floor. And then the leadership guarantees that they are not going to lose any votes, the Republican leadership, by denying to the alternative to their proposal, those same exceptions to the rule. That is what you did yesterday. Then yesterday you said any Member who had a germane amendment was given the grand total of 5 minutes to discuss it before the hammer came down. And now today, you are saying that the rest of the Members, who have not yet been able to even offer an amendment for consideration, are going to be denied the opportunity to do so.”