Political Quotes

“where in the world were the bleeding hearts an hour and a half ago when I stood down in this well and pleaded with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to face up to the mandate that they gave 21 years ago which is destroying every school district in this country? Not one of them was here. Mr. Chairman, for 20 years they have refused to step up to the plate and put the 40 percent they promised into special education, and for 2 years my side of the aisle has done exactly the same. And now they want to exacerbate the problem. Mr. Chairman, I will not have a snowball's chance in Hades of getting any money to step up to the plate to do something about the 40 percent unfunded mandate in special education because they are now taking the 1998 money away from me. Where were they an hour and a half ago when they should have been here? Dislocated worker training is not an unfunded mandate. The summer youth training is not an unfunded mandate. Head Start is not an unfunded mandate. The Goals 2000 is not an unfunded mandate. Title 1 is not an unfunded mandate. Eisenhower Teacher Training, unfunded mandate, and it is not zeroed out either. It is moved into what we call chapter 2, which is where it should be, which gives the kinds of flexibility we need. But to think my Democrat colleagues would then have the gall not to step up to the plate and do what they should do for local school districts, which is deal with the IDEA problem.”