Edward Livingston: “I have heard all of this lamentation by my friends in the minority who decry the fact that we have not passed their…”

“I have heard all of this lamentation by my friends in the minority who decry the fact that we have not passed their agenda. Well, I am sorry. Such are the trials and tribulations of the minority. No, we did not want to pass the tobacco taxes because we did not think that 'Joe Six-Pack' should pay any more taxes. We do not want to pass any more taxes. We passed a tax cut in this House of Representatives over the objections of most of my friends on the Democratic side, and the President threatened to veto it, and we have no tax cut. But America is still taxed as highly today as it has since World War II. I know that the President has said he would like to fix broken schools, and that is a fine objective. I appreciate that. But 95 percent of the education budget has been picked up by the States throughout the history of this country. In fact, up until 30 years ago, 100 percent of the education budget was picked up by the States. Once one starts getting the Federal Government involved in the building of schools, there is no end to it, and the taxpayer is already overburdened. The money does not just grow on trees. The money has got to come from somewhere, and it is a tremendous cost. Next, there is the phony campaign finance law that the Democrats are always lamenting. I will only say that most of the campaign violations that are being investigated of existing law did not happen at the Republican National Committee. They happened elsewhere.”