Kendrick Meek: “God willing, I will be there one day. We talk about a devolution of taxation, and that is when the Federal Government…”

“God willing, I will be there one day. We talk about a devolution of taxation, and that is when the Federal Government cuts the Federal commitment to the States, and the States do not have the privilege that we have. See, here in Congress we have the opportunity to put it on the U.S. Treasury. Oh, we can take that credit card out any day of the week and we do on the minute. Then every 3 weeks we knock on the bank of China or Japan and ask for more money to pay down our own interest on debt. The States do not have that luxury. The States have to balance their budget. How do they balance it, well, they do not balance it out of thin air. They raise tuition prices, raise fees on hunting and fishing licenses, they raise the driver's license fee, and simple services to local government. Then they cut their commitment to local governments and school districts. When they do that, the school districts do not have the credit card. They have to balance their budget. When they balance their budget, the senior feeding program that everyone counts on to be able to provide a warm meal for seniors, the after-school program for kids, and I am not just talking about poor minority kids, I am talking about kids in rural America, where families have to work two, three jobs to make ends meet, these sorts of things take place. The quality of life of our communities is just not a priority here.”