Political Quotes

“Today's bill is another element of a Republican agenda that has consistently weakened our Federal commitment to educational opportunity. I agree with the American Council on Education which said: ``The Federal Tax Code is no substitute for the Pell grant, Federal Work-Study, and other Federal student aid programs.'' Republicans have voted again and again in this Congress to cut these investments in our future. House Republicans approved a budget that would eliminate $90 billion of Pell grants, would deny 125,000 students Federal Work-Study assistance, and would have reduced funding for Hispanic-serving universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Now the Republicans come to the floor and are really boasting of the fact that this particular version of the bill does not cut Federal tax incentives for education as much as they wanted to. {time} 1615 As originally introduced by my colleague from Tennessee, this bill would have denied 5 million Americans every year an opportunity to use education tax incentives that exist under current law. They would have slashed assistance under the act by $5 billion a year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. And so they went back and tinkered with it a little bit, and they are here today to brag that they have a D-minus bill and that is better than the failing bill that they offered initially. I understand that after years of opposing this particular incentive, they might want to change course.…”