David Obey

Mr. Chairman, I would simply assert that this is not a request for an audit tonight. This, in my view, is simply another ideological attack against an agency that a number of people in this House have never liked and would abolish if they…

let me simply take 30 seconds to say I think that the observations of the gentleman from New York (Chairman Walsh) should be recognized, and that language has to be fixed in conference if a lot of people who would like to support this are…

if the Members of the majority can stand the shock of my speaking from the majority side, I would simply say that I had not wanted to go through this amendment because there are a number of things in this bill that I do not want to cut…

I am for the dollars in this amendment and in the bill. Let us talk about them both together. I am for the dollars that we need to fix the TRICARE problem, the health care problem. I am for the dollars to help with the recruiting and…

Mr. Chairman, if I could have the attention of the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spence), I would just like to say that while I disagree with his words, I wanted to express the appreciation of every single person in this House for the…

That is the problem. Does the gentleman know how many times I have seen presidents waive milquetoast language? The problem is not just with the waiver, the problem is that this language is so weak in the first place, it would not even…

I simply cannot, in good conscience, abide in any way this legislation before us today. Five years ago, when the majority party took control of this institution, we were told that we were going to see a new day and that we were going to…

I am all for the trust funds, but I am not for placing this particular trust fund ahead of every other need of government. That is unfair. It is not right to have a 41 percent increase in 3 years for this program, while cutting all other…

Mr. Speaker, despite the fiction we have just heard, we have a letter from the head of the Congressional Budget Office which spells out that the Republican budget so far has eaten into $17 billion of the Social Security surplus. So much…

Despite the fact that our majority party friends have taken $12 billion of education money and slipped it one day over into the next fiscal year so they could hide it in this year, despite the fact that they have taken almost $4 billion at…

When I described the 80 percent, I said if you assume worst case scenario, which is the Republican actions on the budget so far, that you would have that 80 percent--20 percent split. So if you want to know why that is so bad, do not…

With respect to veterans' health care, everyone has said that the original budget request was inadequate. We all agree on that. On this side of the aisle, during consideration of the Veterans Department budget we asked that $2.4 billion be…

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about this one penny for every dollar. There was an amendment to this bill that would have given $508 million to help farmers who have lost everything. These are hours of desperation, not a time of celebration…

Despite what we have just heard from the past two speakers, the Congressional Budget Office this morning has indicated that you are spending this year $17 billion out of Social Security. What I said on the floor is that you should be…

I will be voting for the bill and the rule, but before I do I would like to get some things off of my chest about what I think the real problems are. I do not think that the committee was wrong not to include dairy in this bill because…

I do not in any way blame the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) or his colleagues in the majority party on the Committee on Appropriations for the fact that we are here with only about 5 percent of the budget passed for this year because…

my concern is also that this is a Congress which has a rendezvous with prevarication. We just heard a lot of debate on the previous bill where Members promised that they would not be dipping into the deficit and promised they would not be…

Let me say that this motion to instruct is very simple. It asks the Congress to think about the kind of threats that we will face in the future, not the kind of threats that we have faced in the past. We must be mindful of the latter, but…

I do want to take this time simply to point out that the minority was not told until a very few minutes ago that these motions were going to be made at this time today. We are in the situation where several of our ranking subcommittee…

I would simply like to reiterate to the gentleman what the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) has indicated; that when we first discovered the possibility of the reduction of the beds for that facility that Senator Kohl and Senator…

let me say I very much understand what motivates my colleague, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kleczka), to offer this amendment. I have not the foggiest idea whether the standard being proposed or even contemplated by the agency is the…

the gentleman from Oklahoma says that the District of Columbia should not be able to use taxpayers' dollars to petition for the right to be represented in this body. What he forgot to tell us is that it is their money. Each of us…

Mr. Chairman, this bill is an absolutely wonderful bill unless my colleagues think that the Congress ought to spend our time responding to the legitimate needs of the American people. If they do, then it turns out to be a bit of a turkey…

Mr. Chairman, let me say the remarks that I will make are in no way intended to criticize either the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee or the distinguished ranking member. They have both done the best job they can under the…

Mr. Chairman, I certainly understand the motivation that leads the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) to offer this amendment. It is ridiculous that this bill carries the $4.5 billion required to conduct the census as an emergency…