David Obey: “If the gentleman is going to make the statement that there are Members of this House who do not care about our…”

The way I see it, we're watching a let's pretend attack on the deficit tonight by singling out these items that cost about a million bucks. If Members are concerned about the deficit, I would ask, why did they vote for two tax cuts…

I would simply say, Mr. Speaker, that the White House submitted this request for disaster relief over a month ago. Everyone in this institution has known about it; in addition to which, the gentleman's staff has known for a good 2 weeks…

We are not adding one dime to the deficit by what we are adding to the summer jobs program. We are fully paying for it by cuts in other programs.

I happen to agree with the gentleman from Virginia on the substance of the issue. But the fact is that the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee voted in open session with open debate to adopt the Cole amendment. Now, as chairman of the…