David Obey: “The President has not asked us to spend more money. What happened is very simple: The majority party in this House…”

“The President has not asked us to spend more money. What happened is very simple: The majority party in this House decided that they wanted to spend $7 billion more on the Pentagon budget than the President wanted them to spend. The President decided, in the midst of the Bosnia crisis, that while he was opposed to that increase, he would accept the passage of that bill as a good will gesture during budgeted negotiations, as much as he did not want to spend that additional money. So that $7 billion is moved over to the Pentagon. Now the majority party is insisting that that $7 billion come out of the hide of environmental cleanup enforcement, out of the hide of education, and out of the hide of the Interior appropriations bill. So they have made these cuts in education programs, in job training programs, in drug education programs and the like. The President said, ``I do not think that is a good idea, folks.'' So he came down here and suggested offsets. I have got a copy of them in my hand. He suggested spending offsets, areas of the budget that could be cut in order to finance the restorations he is looking for in education and training and in the environment.”