Mark Souder: “the last speaker, I realize he is not on the Education Committee, but stated an appalling misrepresentation of what has…”

“the last speaker, I realize he is not on the Education Committee, but stated an appalling misrepresentation of what has happened on two different fronts. First off, as he probably realizes, or should, this is not an appropriations bill, this is an authorizing bill. Secondly, what cuts? We readjusted the student loan rates, made them more fair. We went through committee, watched the misrepresentations of how this proceeded, and it continues today. There are fixed rates now that as the interest rates go up, students around America are actually going to save tremendous amounts of money. Where this cut language comes from is baffling. As a budgeting technique, the exposed risk of the Federal Government, because we are on fixed versus variable, budgets as a cut, but in reality could have saved the government and saved the students in the long run here if you believe interest rates are going to rise, which most people believe they are going to. It is just an appalling misrepresentation to walk down to Congress and say that we have been cutting education when, if anything, education has been the fastest growing discretionary part of our budget. We have steadily increased funding for education, and now we have an authorizing bill, not a spending bill, an authorizing bill, and any number in there is funny money. What really matters is what you appropriate in education. The bottom line is this: at two ends we have a problem.…”