Jack Kingston: “Well, the reason why I asked that before the gentleman leaves is today, in agriculture appropriations, we had probably…”

“Well, the reason why I asked that before the gentleman leaves is today, in agriculture appropriations, we had probably about a 1- hour debate on the State of Texas's right to privatize part of its food stamp distribution. One of the things that is ridiculous about the proponents of this, and they are all the liberal Democrat faction, is that States should not be able to have the right to privatize something without permission of Congress, because I guess here in Washington people know more about Texas than the good folks down in Austin. I understand Pennsylvania, Florida, and New York are also looking at these privatization plans. It is just a distribution method which they found to be more effective. Madam Speaker, when I think about the private sector, which they fear so much, I think about companies like AOL and UPS and Home Depot and Cingular Wireless. When I think about the Federal Government, I think about the IRS, the Immigration Service, FEMA, and the post office. Yet here are these folks who are defending the Federal Government and saying that they should not get involved with the private sector. But that is just one amendment that we are fighting that saves taxpayers' dollars that we want to make sure that States have the right. But there are some other examples of savings that we are trying to get out of this budget.…”