David Obey: “I certainly expect that by the end of June the House will have all or almost all of the appropriations bills through the…”

“I certainly expect that by the end of June the House will have all or almost all of the appropriations bills through the House, but frankly, I think that means almost nothing. I do not know of a baseball game in which we score a run by having 12 or 13 men standing on first base. The way it works in government is passage of the House gets us to first base, passage of the Senate gets us to second base, passage of the conference report after we iron out agreements between the Senate and the House gets us to third base, and signature by the President gets us home. Six of these bills that we have ground through day after day and night after night are stuck on first base. A few of them may get to second base. All six of those are not going to get home. They are not going to get a presidential signature until they begin to reflect reality. The problem is, we have gone through a huge debate taking many, many hours, on bills that we all know are not real. We all know that, in the end, the majority party is not going to be able to provide $90 billion in tax cuts for those who make over $300,000 a year, they are not going to be able to provide $200 billion in inheritance tax cuts for the richest 400 families in this country because the President is not going to sign those bills.”