David Obey: “But I kind of feel like Yogi Berra. This is deja vu all over again. And I think we really do need to understand why we…”

“But I kind of feel like Yogi Berra. This is deja vu all over again. And I think we really do need to understand why we are here and what the practical steps are that must be taken if we are to get out of here in a reasonable length of time. This House has had sort of a schizophrenic history the last 2 years on appropriations bills. Last year, I thought we had a very good year, and I thought that both parties could genuinely be pleased about what was produced in the appropriations process. After the fight over the government shutdown several years ago, where my friends on the other side got badly burned because they thought they could shut the government down to force the President to cave into their priorities, and they were proven wrong, in reaction to that, last year, I thought they behaved quite responsibly. And, as a result, we had a bipartisan approach to virtually every appropriations bill except one.”