David Obey: “This amendment seeks to do a very worthy thing: It seeks to increase support for respite care. God knows, having watched…”

“This amendment seeks to do a very worthy thing: It seeks to increase support for respite care. God knows, having watched my mother-in-law for 7 years, having watched my father-in-law take care of her every day, God knows that anyone who has ever seen something like that understands that we need a lot more respite care. But having said that, I want again to use this amendment to illustrate what is happening on this bill, because here is what the amendment says: Page 63, line 4: After the first dollar amount insert, reduce by $20 million, increase by $20 million. Now, what the amendment really does is simply to serve as a vehicle by which these two worthy Members can raise the issue that there is not enough money in this bill for respite care. And you know what? There isn't. And there isn't enough money in this bill for CDC; there isn't enough money in this bill for NIH; there isn't enough money in this bill for education; there isn't enough money in this bill for Pell Grants; there is not enough money in this bill to sufficiently reduce the Social Security backlog; there is not enough money in this bill to keep all the Social Security offices open that are closing around the country.”