Xavier Becerra: “It is not those of us on this side of the aisle who brought this legislation forward, and it is not that we wish to…”

“It is not those of us on this side of the aisle who brought this legislation forward, and it is not that we wish to constantly raise the point that these are tax measures that have tax cuts, that help principally wealthy individuals. That is the fact of this measure, that it will cost some $3 billion per year. But it is as if Congress learned nothing from the Enron, the Global Crossing, the Arthur Andersen, the WorldCom financial scandals that let so many fat cats become even fatter, that now we have a bill that would again benefit the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the majority of middle-class Americans. Really, at the end of this, if you take a look at this bill, this is an attempt to sneak vouchers through the back door for private schools again, at the expense of the 90 percent of our kids who are attending public schools. But the worst part, as you heard the gentlewoman from California mention beforehand, was that this is fiscally irresponsible. We are already running a deficit this year, when we were told by the Bush administration last year we would have a $165 billion surplus for this year. Yet we are in deficit.”