Mark Dayton: “this amendment increases spending for America's schoolchildren and reduces the tax cut for millionaires. That should not…”

“this amendment increases spending for America's schoolchildren and reduces the tax cut for millionaires. That should not be controversial. It finally fulfills the promise Congress made 28 years ago that we would pay for 40 percent of special education costs and would do so starting in fiscal year 2004. The President deserves great credit for proposing, and Congress for passing, increased special education funding. We have raised the Federal share to 17 percent nationwide, but that is still less than half of what we promised. It is good, but it is not enough. We have increased spending for defense and homeland security in the last couple years, and when that wasn't enough, we increased it more. We responded to urgent needs. For once, let's meet an urgent need that isn't military. Last year's increase for special education was only 2 percent of that for the Department of Defense. We can afford to do more. The need is so urgent that surely we can postpone half of the tax cut going to the richest Americans. The President's proposal would give people whose annual incomes exceed $1 million tax cuts averaging $85,000 every year. That is in addition to the $45,000 they are already getting each year from the 2001 tax bill. So who comes first, schoolchildren or millionaires? Yes, it is a vote for our children. I yield the floor.”