David Obey

I believe the result would be every bit as phoney as the bill before us because it would be pretending that we could save $4.5 billion which the Constitution requires us to spend.

I want to correct that statement. Legislation brought to the House by the majority so far this summer would more than exhaust the $14 billion on-budget surplus projected by CBO for fiscal year 2000. First, the tax bill passed by the House…

I would simply make two observations. A short while ago I was asked by the majority leadership whether, as the ranking minority member on the Committee on Appropriations, I would agree to unanimous consent to bring up the legislative…

Every time I tour a plant in my district I run into workers, especially women, who are wearing wrist braces. When I ask them about their problem, the answer over and over again is the same: carpal tunnel syndrome. Where does carpal tunnel…

this argument that we have had tonight is not about cuts in this bill, it is about the way we make choices or should make choices in a bipartisan manner on issues that affect this institution and our constituents. Last month, the majority…

I think if this institution is to regain an ounce of credibility in the way it has dealt with this entire issue of the war in Kosovo, it must pass the Skelton amendment. I simply do not understand what I have seen in this House in the last…

It simply recommits the bill back to the committee with instructions that the bill not be reported if it does not reduce the bill by an amount at least equal to the average reduction required pursuant to the budget 302(b) allocation…

I would simply say, if the majority party leadership wants to save $50 million, all they have to do is to sit down with us and ask us to participate in shaping that cut so that it could be fair and balanced and real. I would urge them, do…

I would like to say that for the vast majority of us on this side of the aisle, our concern is not with the amount that is cut. Our concern is where those cuts fall. I honestly believe, as the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Pastor) has said…

To put that in context, when the majority took over, they promised that every agency in the Congress was going to have had a 25 percent cut.

I would simply like to ask one question: If we are going to cut Members' accounts, why should the majority whip receive a 30 percent increase in his account, while the average Member of this House has his account frozen?

it is important that the previous speaker understand that what has been happening in this House tonight on these motions to adjourn has nothing whatsoever to do with whether any of us want to work or do not want to work. They do have…

Mr. Chairman, as I said on debate on the rule, this is one of the most serious votes that we will be casting this year. If we cannot play it straight on this amendment, we cannot play it straight on anything. This amendment should not be…

Mr. Chairman, the gentleman is putting up a red herring. I did not say that there was pork in this bill. What I said was they are jamming $3 billion of nonemergency items into this bill to make room for $3 billion worth of pork in the…

I am going to vote against this rule. I had not intended to. Yes, when we were in discussions with the Committee on Rules and the committee leadership, I had the feeling that with the promises that we had been given that we were going to…

I do want to take just a moment to discuss this myth that somehow it is the Clinton administration which has created a military readiness problem. I would point out that for 4 rac{1}{2} years the majority party has controlled this…

As usual, the gentleman has his facts wrong. Jordan is fully offset in the Obey amendment. There is not one dime that adds to the deficit under that. I wish that if the gentleman is going to attack my amendment, he would at least first…

Mr. Chairman, we have been facing three emergencies. One is with the war in Kosovo, which this bill is supposed to be dealing with; and then we have two others, two other weather-related emergencies; one in Central America which has…

Mr. Chairman, this country is engaged in a war which is the consequence of the inability of the West to act going as far back as 1982. Mr. Milosevic has been consistently and perniciously grinding people into the dust in Bosnia, in…

If the gentleman is going to make the statement that there are Members of this House who do not care about our servicemen or the national security interests of this country, I think he ought to have courage enough to identify which Members…

But the gentleman is saying there must be a declaration of war for a time of war to exist, or is he saying there are other conditions which might pertain?

Mr. Chairman, I do this to try to avoid having to take a lot of time on a recommittal motion, and let me say this about final passage of this bill: I have frankly gotten whiplash from watching the majority party reverse its position on…

I disagree with virtually every word uttered by the previous speaker. The previous vote, in my view, represents an appalling lack of judgment, an appalling lack of will, an appalling lack of leadership, an appalling lack of vision, an…

over the last month this Congress could not have been more irresponsible in the way it has dealt with the issue in Kosovo if it had taken lessons. I would like to walk through with you the quaint way in which this institution has…

I did not call him stupid, and I do not believe him to be stupid. I called the action taken by this House stupid, and I stand by that statement.