Political Quotes

“I do not serve on the Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, but the Republicans on that committee voted a few days ago to increase spending on the School Lunch Program from $6.7 to $7.8 billion over the next 5 years. I repeat: the Republicans voted to increase spending on school lunches. Yet headlines all over this country said, ``Republicans vote to end School Lunch Program.'' Now, millions of Americans have a totally false impression that Republicans have killed the School Lunch Program. Actually what was done was to try to end it as a Federal program and turn it into a State program. This was done so that more money could be spent on food for kids and less on bureaucrats in Washington. Most Governors have said they could take 80 percent of the money and probably operate almost any Federal program more efficiently and effectively. However, in this instance, the Committee did not say take the School Lunch Program over with just 80 percent of the money--it said take 100 percent of the money with a built-in raise of 4.5 percent each year. This is almost 50 percent more than what inflation has been since the Reagan years. Yet some liberals saw a chance to use a political sledgehammer here, and beat us over the head with it, and with help from a supportive national media, they are creating a totally false impression.”