David Obey: “evidently what we have going on here is that we not only have faux legislation, we now also have faux debate. We are not…”

“evidently what we have going on here is that we not only have faux legislation, we now also have faux debate. We are not having debate here. We have got members of the other side giving speeches without being willing to engage in give-and-take. I would simply like to say to my good friend from Florida, he is right. This place has been too partisan, but I would point out, we did not make this bill partisan. This was a bipartisan bill supported by both parties in the committee. It came out of the committee, and your leadership made it partisan by dragging in their partisan plan to raise the national debt by $750 billion so they could pay for their tax cut plans to the detriment of Social Security and Medicare. Secondly, with respect to the gentleman saying, ``oh, this bill is going so slow, we have to have a rule, a closed rule'', I would point out, this House has not met a single Friday this year. There is plenty of time for debate if this House works Monday through Friday. It has not been doing that, and it is the majority party that sets that schedule, not the minority party.”