What about cruelty to taxpayers? (Sen. Tom Coburn)

Pacelle insinuates that my concerns are not based on budgetary concerns but a latent insensitivity to animals – a charge that is beneath the dignity of a response.

Moreover, Pacelle – like many special interest lobbyists – either does not understand Senate rules or is misrepresenting the rules to give credibility to his demagogic argument.

A hold is objecting to the passage of a bill by a particular means called unanimous consent or the hotline. If Majority Leader Reid was concerned about these bills he could have brought them to the floor, filed cloture and passed the bills if there really was such strong bipartisan support. Instead, Reid filed cloture on various bill designed to fire up the democratic base. The fact is the hotline process is the favored procedure of special interest lobbyists who don’t want to participate in the hard work of making budgetary choices, and who want to demonize individual senators in media interviews, op-eds and fundraising letters.

Pacelle also suggests it is “undemocratic” for one senator to want to debate bills and pay for them instead of passing them by voice vote. What is undemocratic, however, is Congress ignoring the outcry of the American people over deficit-spending in order to avoid criticism from special interest lobbyists.

Finally, Pacelle suggests his bills should pass because they are merely “rounding errors.” Maybe so, but the cost of thousands of other special interest “rounding error” bills have helped create our $13.5 trillion deficit that is strangling our economy and slowing job creation.

I have made it clear to each and every senator that I will not approve any bill that authorizes a net increase in spending. This standard applies to every bill regardless whether it focuses on animals or humans. In the future, if lobbyists want their bills to advance the hotline process I’d suggest they bring offsets to the table and leave their demagoguery and bogus arguments about Senate rules at the door.