David Obey: “Let us take a look at what the effect of that would be on the local school districts. You would require local school…”

“Let us take a look at what the effect of that would be on the local school districts. You would require local school districts to lay off 40,000 teachers. Am I going to support a unanimous-consent request for that? Absolutely not. It means you would nail in the large reductions in Federal support for School to Work programs. Am I going to support a unanimous-consent request to do that? Absolutely not. It means you would nail in the huge reductions in enforcement for environmental cleanup. You think I am going to support a unanimous-consent request to do that? Absolutely not. I will offer a unanimous-consent request to eliminate some of the abuses of funding which the gentleman claimed he was concerned about last week, but I am not going to support a unanimous-consent request that will tell schoolteachers that 40,000 of you are going to get pink slips so you can continue to provide tax cuts in your budget for very wealthy people making over $200,000 a year. That is not responsible and the gentleman knows that.”