Political Quotes

“a few minutes ago I met with a number of high school students out on the House steps. They had a lot of questions, particularly as it pertained to the deficit. I reminded them about my record and I told them about my priority: Education. I was a cosponsor of this bill when it first came up several years ago. It sounded like a wonderful idea. But we have spent more than $1 billion so far and it just has not worked. In fact, the statistics have come out and said that it is an average of about $26,000 a student. That is not worth it. As we look at education, the needs for parents today to send their kids, sons and daughters, on to higher education, it is important that those doors are open, but not at $26,000 a student. We can find a lot of Pentagon coffee pots to buy before we buy a pig in a poke like this program here. I would just urge my colleagues to support this amendment. We have tried it for a couple of years. It has not worked. As I have talked to my students and families in higher education institutions, there is not a lot of love for this program. It does not work. We need to be surgeons here, particularly with the deficit we have today. We need to weed out programs that do not work. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes''.”