David Obey: “The issue is not what has happened in the past; the issue is what ought to happen now. I am amused by our friends on the…”

“The issue is not what has happened in the past; the issue is what ought to happen now. I am amused by our friends on the other side of the aisle who claim that all of a sudden the Republicans are the new-found friend of education. Over the last 6 years, since they have taken control of this House, they have tried to cut, in 4 different years, they have tried to cut education funding below the previous year--not below the request, but below the previous year funding--by about $5.5 billion. Now they are discovering that that is not so popular. And so, belatedly, they are beginning to grudgingly give ground; and instead of calling for the abolition of the Department of Education and eliminating Federal influence in education, they are now grudgingly recognizing that there needs to be a Federal role. Yet it is very grudgingly given ground indeed. If my colleagues want to see our support for the Labor, Health, and Education bill, for instance, all they need to do is to get rid of the anti-worker riders; get rid of the anti-environmental riders in the Interior bill; get rid of the anti-education riders in the Labor-Health-Education bill, get rid of the anti-health riders that they have. And what they need to do is to recognize that if we are going to fund education programs fairly, we ought to fund Republican priorities as well as Democratic priorities.”