David Price: “much of our debate tonight has focused on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Republican majority's budget, on its…”

“much of our debate tonight has focused on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Republican majority's budget, on its failure to reserve the surplus, its failure to ensure the future of Social Security and to reduce the national debt, its failure to take account of the huge transportation bill we just passed, its failure in double counting the savings from veterans health care and Social Service accounts. But the Republican budget is not only fiscally unrealistic and irresponsible, it also gets the priorities wrong, and that is what I want to address in the few minutes that I have tonight. It gets the priorities wrong. I want to stress one priority, education, which is number one in my district and number one to me personally and which represents an investment in the future of our children and our country. The Republican budget would cut the education and training portion of our budget by some $4.4 billion below, below, the balanced budget agreement. Details are few and far between, but the Republicans claim to find savings by consolidating higher education programs. While the budget promises to increase Pell grants, there is no way of telling what might be cut in order to achieve that. Will work study be cut? Will State student incentive grants be eliminated?”