David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, the former governor of Texas, Ann Richards, observed once that you can dress up a pig, and you can put…”

“Mr. Chairman, the former governor of Texas, Ann Richards, observed once that you can dress up a pig, and you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. I think that is sort of the case that we are faced with here this afternoon. This amendment is a transparent attempt to put lipstick on a pretty sad bill that underlies this whole debate. Let me simply explain what this amendment really does. This amendment is Washington at its ``finest'', pretending to do something when, in fact, it does nothing. Now, what this bill does or what this amendment does is to take $4 billion, which right now sits in the Treasury and is scheduled for deficit reduction, and it diverts it for, guess what, deficit reduction. Here is the way it works. Under normal budget processes, dollars that are not appropriated at the end of the year stay in the Treasury, and they are used to reduce the national debt. That is what happened to many billions of dollars last year when the majority party gave up on its misguided efforts to pass huge tax cuts rather than using those dollars for debt reduction. This amendment, in my view, pretends to add to deficit reduction by appropriating $4 billion, which is right now sitting in the Treasury, and it pretends that it appropriates it for a purpose for which it is already scheduled to be used, debt reduction.”