Jeff Bingaman: “there was an item in the morning paper that caused me to come to the Senate floor to speak briefly and alert my…”

“there was an item in the morning paper that caused me to come to the Senate floor to speak briefly and alert my colleagues to a serious concern which I have. The article was entitled ``Armey: Cheap Fuel Via Education Cuts.'' ``House Leader Suggests Way To Offset Cost of Gasoline Tax Repeal.'' The first three short paragraphs say: House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey, Republican from Texas, yesterday suggested that the revenue lost from a repeal of the 1993 gasoline tax could be offset by cutting spending on education. ``Maybe we ought to take another look at the amount of money we are spending on education,'' Armey said on the NBC's ``Meet the Press:'' ``There is a place where we are getting a declining value for an increased dollar. It's in education. If in fact we can get some discipline in the use of our education dollar, I think we can make up the difference,'' Armey said. Mr. President, my reaction to this article when I read it was, ``Here they go again.''”