David Obey: “There were three main issues associated with this conference. First, should we add $4.1 billion to defense spending…”

“There were three main issues associated with this conference. First, should we add $4.1 billion to defense spending, increasing overall spending by that amount, and reducing the surplus by that amount? The conference said ``yes'' to that question. Second question: Should we increase efforts to fight dreaded diseases by increasing spending for NIH by $1.6 billion, which would increase overall spending by that amount? The conferees said ``no'' to that question. Third: Should we increase student assistance by as much as $200 per grant in order to offset the higher cost of higher education and pay for that by a small cut in the size of tax breaks planned for the high rollers in this society? The conference again said ``no.'' Those are the issues before the conference. Those are the issues before the House today. This huge Republican tax cut will simply not permit us to do what nearly everybody knows we ought to be doing to help students get the kind of education they need. That reflects what Candidate Bush said in my State last week. He is reported in the Eau Claire newspaper saying as follows: ``George W. Bush gave strong indications Thursday he is not inclined to increase Federal spending to give more grants to students to go to college. Bush, who attended both Yale and Harvard, conceded that some people have complained that loans carry a repayment burden. ``Too bad,'' he said.”