Political Quotes

“I respond to my distinguished colleague from Georgia by saying, first of all, this is not an amendment to raise taxes. This is simply an amendment to give up $5.9 billion of the tax cut that is in the resolution. Second, there are no Federal strings attached. One of the benefits of this particular approach is we are not dealing with school policy, which can be very sensitive. We are dealing with bricks and mortar. For the most part, we are doing this through a tax credit that leverages the money so they can get a whole lot more bang for the buck. It is a way to keep us from being involved in local school policy. It provides maximum flexibility in the way the funds are used. Finally, with all due respect to my distinguished colleague, he talked about less attentive. You can translate 'less attentive' into 'less resourced.' Most of the Federal programs designed to help are for those localities and institutions that simply don't have the resources to meet the critical needs of their students. This is designed to help some of those localities, including localities with very old schools that have leaking roofs and simply don't have modern heating, air conditioning, ventilation, and other accommodations that are part of the modern school system or could not have the modern technology. This gives them a chance to compete on a more equal footing.”