Steven Holt: “A quarter of a century ago, when the budget process was established, it was established so that we could look at all of…”

“A quarter of a century ago, when the budget process was established, it was established so that we could look at all of the numbers in a measured, considered way, the income and the outgo, and make sure the numbers added up. It was not intended to be done in the dark of night in a hurried manner with some numbers there and some numbers not there and who knows what is there. Well, that is what we have ended up with today and this is a flagrant violation of the whole spirit of the budget process. And in this hurry to get this tax cut through in an ill-considered way, we end up with a terrible shortchanging of the American people. Take education, for example. Inadequate consideration for our national need to recruit teachers, to find ways to get the 2.2 million teachers that we need in the next 10 years to keep up with the retirement and attrition in the ranks of teaching. Insufficient attention to the need for new facilities and modern classrooms, where classes of a reasonable size can meet in good conditions. And with insufficient attention to the other concerns. Take special education, for example: under IDEA, if we are going to meet our national obligation, the Federal Government's obligation for special education, that would come to something on the order of $100 billion over 10 years. Do we find that in this budget resolution? No, we do not. Education is shortchanged at every turn.”