Dick Durbin: “I certainly want to see stability in Iraq. We all do, because otherwise it could disintegrate into another vacuum, a…”

“I certainly want to see stability in Iraq. We all do, because otherwise it could disintegrate into another vacuum, a terrorist training ground. We don't want that to happen. But it is curious to me, when it comes to the military cost of that war and the cost of reconstruction, there is no end in sight. It doesn't seem to bother people from the administration to continue to call for billions of dollars for this purpose. But I would like to ask the Senator from Nevada this. He was serving here, as I was, when this President came in with something called No Child Left Behind, where we were going to send money to the schools across America for accountability and testing and upgrading of teacher skills. If I am not mistaken, this President had a White House bill signing ceremony, with Democrats and Republicans all applauding his No Child Left Behind. Yet when we look at the budget that was sent to us by this President, he is not providing the resources that we know will be needed for these schools. The Senator's State, I think, may be leading the Nation in the growth of school enrollment. In my State, we are struggling with our own deficit and cutbacks of State assistance to school districts. So here we have President Bush's new mandates in No Child Left Behind, with no money to pay for them, while the local sources of revenue, from State sources and local property taxes, cannot keep up with demand.”