Elijah Cummings: “When we look at some of the information that we have been looking at here lately with regard to this whole $87 billion…”

“When we look at some of the information that we have been looking at here lately with regard to this whole $87 billion, it is very interesting to know that that $87 billion can do a lot of things with regard to our education system. Mr. Speaker, $87 billion will hire 2 million new teachers. That is a lot of teachers. And we could spend an additional $1,824 on each child in American public schools. We could spend seven times more than the President's proposal for title I education programs in fiscal year 2004. The reason why we are bringing this up is because we want people to understand that we just spent about $80 billion a few months ago, and now the President is talking about another $87 billion. And again, one of those kitchen table questions is what should we expect in the future, Mr. President? Will you be coming back to us asking for some more money? Some people look at it and say, oh, you are attacking the President. It is not about attacking the President. It is a question of accountability. What we want the President to do is be accountable.”