James M. Jeffords: “the fiscal year 1997 budget resolution deserves accolades for its goal of achieving a balanced budget by the year 2002.…”

“the fiscal year 1997 budget resolution deserves accolades for its goal of achieving a balanced budget by the year 2002. I support this worthy ambition, yet I cannot fully support the manner in which it achieves this result. Unfortunately, the resolution before us today requires education to shoulder an unhealthy portion of discretionary cuts in order to achieve a balanced budget. As I have said countless times in the past, cutting education spending may--on paper--help balance the budget. In reality, however, cuts in education do the exact opposite. Decreases in education spending gut already scarce dollars for programs designed to raise the standard of living, provide better jobs and training, and consequently increase our tax base resulting in more revenue to fill the Federal coffers. Let us not be shortsighted and limit the most critical investment we can make toward a future downpayment on our debt. For these reasons I support the amendment offered by my colleague from Pennsylvania to restore funding for education discretionary spending.”