Tom Harkin: “I thought what is good for the goose is good for the gander. There are Senators on that side of the aisle who have…”

“I thought what is good for the goose is good for the gander. There are Senators on that side of the aisle who have amendments to increase spending in this bill: Senator Cochran, Senator Collins, Senator DeWine, Senator Inhofe, Senator Jeffords. Those are the only ones I have right now from their side that I know of who add money to the bill. It is not only Democrats; Republicans, too. There are some on that side of the aisle, as well as on this side of the aisle, who understand we have unmet needs in this country when it comes to dealing with education, health, human services, and research. I point out there is all this talk about how much this budget has increased. It all depends on how you look at it. It depends on your baseline. It depends on your numbers. The Senator from Texas probably knows that as well as anybody around here. So we can look at it a different way. Let's look at it this way, for example: Twenty years ago, the share of the dollar that went for elementary and secondary education in this country that came from the Federal Government was a little over 11 cents. In other words, 20 years ago, 11 cents out of every dollar that was put into elementary and secondary education came from the Federal Government. Today, that is down to 7 cents.”