Karen Thurman: “I too worked in one of those places that nobody wants to talk about, those portables. But I say to the gentleman, I am…”

“I too worked in one of those places that nobody wants to talk about, those portables. But I say to the gentleman, I am tired of hearing on this floor about how we controlled the House and we controlled the Senate for those first 2 years with the presidency. We were paying down a debt. There was no money. There could be no discussion about these issues. And on top of that, we had our States, because at that time I was in the State Senate in the 1980s, and this country was going through a recession. There was no money in the States to deal with these problems. So these things just went up and up and up. Now, they want to come and say well, you did not do anything about it. Well, this is the first time we have had any surpluses to even be able to talk about it, and now what we are trying to talk about is $25 billion to do school construction, and the rest of the K through 3 program where we have been putting teachers. I am also tired of hearing about how we are taking this away from the local level, it is their issue, they ought to be able to control it.”