Sam Brownback: “I appreciate the chance to talk about some of these economic issues, and I join my colleagues from Minnesota and…”

“I appreciate the chance to talk about some of these economic issues, and I join my colleagues from Minnesota and Pennsylvania in a discussion of these items. I note from the discussion of my colleague from Pennsylvania that he focuses on human capital, which I absolutely agree with. I have a few charts I will cover in a few minutes about an investment in human capital I hope we can all agree on, and that is trying to encourage and rebuild the family structure in the country. This is something I have worked on across the aisle with my colleagues, particularly in the District of Columbia when last year I was chairman of the DC Appropriations Subcommittee. We were deeply concerned about the lack of family formation in the District of Columbia, so it became the key area and the initial place to begin to develop human capital being within the family structure. We are finding in the District of Columbia and in many urban areas in particular, and all across the country, but in the District of Columbia in total we had 63 percent of our children born out of wedlock. This puts a child in a situation where it is more difficult to develop human capital.”