David Obey: “The Republican majority, as I said earlier, made a conscious decision over the last 2 years to provide $2 trillion in…”

“The Republican majority, as I said earlier, made a conscious decision over the last 2 years to provide $2 trillion in tax cuts, all of which were paid for with borrowed money; and by doing that, they decided they were going to put the Congress in a box and the Congress would, therefore, not be able to adequately fund a number of crucial investments, including education and health. This bill now is suffering from the consequences of that action. What we are trying to do by this amendment is to get the House to reconsider its decision. The gentleman from Texas said that those of us on the minority side of the aisle are desirous of raising taxes. This amendment does not raise taxes. What we are asking this House to do is to limit the size of the tax cut for the 200,000 Americans who make more than $1 million a year.”