Vito Fossella: “like all things in public life, in the covenant that exists between the people and their elected officials, the…”

“like all things in public life, in the covenant that exists between the people and their elected officials, the overriding issue is trust and credibility. Now, we have heard for the last few days an attempt by the other side to divert attention away from the fact that we were going to deliver much-needed tax relief for the American people, phasing out the marriage penalty tax, helping small business owners with health insurance deductibility, raising it to 100 percent, and, above all, helping farmers across our country. Now we hear that education is the issue. Of course it is the issue. We all want to see education improve. But every attempt we have to take the bureaucracy out of Washington and bring it back home to Staten Island, Brooklyn, across the country, we are opposed. We passed education savings accounts to give parents more flexibility to do what is right for their children, not the Washington bureaucrats. Threatened by the President, vetoed by the President. Opportunity scholarships for the poorest students in the Washington, D.C. school system passed this House and Senate, again giving power back to parents locally. Vetoed by the President. Let us end the rhetoric. We all want to improve education. The question is how do we do it. We say give it back to the people, back to the parents, back to the teachers.”