Bob Wise: “Mr. Chairman, this is the Congress that is trying to be family friendly. We hear a lot of talk about helping…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is the Congress that is trying to be family friendly. We hear a lot of talk about helping middle-class families and we talk a lot about how families have to balance their budgets, all of which is true. So we can learn from families. I have heard the analogy often about families sitting down around the table at the end of the month, which is what we have to do, what every family I know has to do, to balance their budget. And as the families balance the budget they know there is something crucial. They know the difference between consumption and they know the difference between investment, they know what it is, they know what is the difference between a dollar that is spent on children going to a roller rink or to a movie, or a dollar spent for food or basic consumption and the dollar spent for investment into the house, into the car, into education. So, families break their budgets up. Yes, they have to balance, but they break those budgets up into operation and maintenance, or consumption and investment, and so that is why we make mortgage payments every month and that is why we borrow for our automobiles and that is why we borrow for the most important probably of all, to send our children to college and to school.”