David Obey: “I am for doing both, but I am not for spending over $1 billion last year and almost that amount this year over 1,000…”

“I am for doing both, but I am not for spending over $1 billion last year and almost that amount this year over 1,000 miles away from home when we still have drug addict after drug addict roaming the streets of our cities untreated and unable to get into the drug treatment programs that we have provided in this country, simply because this Congress is too misguided and does not provide the money. It seems to me that this amendment is a token effort at what we ought to do on this program, and I, for one, intend to support it. I have no illusion that it is going to pass, but it is what we ought to do and, most of all, this Congress ought to have a full-blown, detailed debate on this issue after we have had briefings from the administration and others so that we know what the facts are on the ground and we are operating on the basis of facts, not ideology, or operating on the basis of substance, not politics. I think the leadership of both parties has been disgracefully negligent in getting us to drift into this war without any real thought about what the outcome is going to be.”