Russ Feingold: “I regret that I opposed a number of amendments to this legislation that I might otherwise support because they are not…”

“I regret that I opposed a number of amendments to this legislation that I might otherwise support because they are not adequately offset. The legislation before us already puts us at risk of raiding the Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds. We spent much of the past 8 years working to climb out of a deficit ditch, and this bill steers us right back toward it. This is not authorizing legislation subject to the further scrutiny of an appropriations process. Unlike other measures that come before us, this bill and the amendments to it have a direct and immediate impact on our budget. A number of amendments have been offered to this measure that, while laudatory in their goals, further aggravate the fiscal position in which the underlying bill puts us. Without language offsetting the cost of the proposal, the amendments only add to the already fiscally irresponsible cost of the bill. For that reason, I have opposed many otherwise worthy amendments.”