David Thomas: “I suppose I might have a different view than what we heard in the last 35 minutes, about what a wonderful budget we have…”

“I suppose I might have a different view than what we heard in the last 35 minutes, about what a wonderful budget we have and that we can now return to the era of big government. Not everyone is happy about that, as we might have heard over the last few minutes. As we look realistically at these things, we have to look at a time that has been prosperous. It started in 1991, in fact. We moved forward. We have a surplus projected, largely because of the strong economy, of course. Also, it is a result, frankly, of a majority in this Congress that, since 1994, has held down spending. That is a little difficult for my friends to accept, of course, but we have now an opportunity to take a look at a relatively prosperous time. Certainly, we want to continue that. We want to take a look at the things that ought to be done for the people of the United States, using their tax money. We ought to take a look at how we strengthen education and return the opportunities to make the decisions about education to the local level rather than doing what the President wants to do, and that is to decide in Washington what each school district ought to have.”