Lloyd Bentsen: “I do not usually speak on a lot of bills and I do not think anybody in this House necessarily is against education. I…”

“I do not usually speak on a lot of bills and I do not think anybody in this House necessarily is against education. I think all of us are in favor of all the kids of this country having the best education that is available to them. But I have a particular problem with this bill. Mr. Speaker, I think this bill in many ways is worse and different than the voucher argument, and we can have the voucher argument and I am sure we will have many more. But this does not involve a direct subsidy or whether we are for it or against it. It is an indirect subsidy. Mr. Speaker, I do not necessarily think this bill is going to help the poor or the middle class move out of the public schools, that the public schools are bad, or make public schools compete. The way this bill is structured, the people who are going to really benefit are the people in the upper income levels because it is a deduction. It is the people who have the disposable income. The people who are making up to $160,000 a year are going to benefit.”