Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I regret that a lot of good people in this debate have chosen to question other people's motives. I am not going to do that. I will ask some people that I know to have good hearts to think for a second and let us try to set some priorities and let us try to set some priorities involving our Nation's children. For those Members who do not have a military base in their district and therefore may not be familiar with Impact Aid, it is a program designed to help pay the cost of children whose parents either live on a base, work on a base or do both. In my hometown of Bay St. Louis, about 60 percent of my property taxes go toward paying for the schools, building the schools and paying the administrators. About half of the sales tax, which is the majority of State taxes that are collected in Mississippi, go to paying classroom teachers. But if a person is in the military, if they serve at Keesler Air Force Base or the Navy construction battalion and they happen to live on that base, well, then they do not pay property tax. They are serving their country, but they do not pay property tax. Therefore, they are not contributing directly toward the building of those schools in Gulfport and in Biloxi.”