TARGETING BUSH TAX CUT, DEMOCRATIC LEADERS SET 2002 AGENDA

In a speech January 4, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) praised President Bush’s performance in the war against terrorism, but criticized both last year’s tax cut and the Republican plans for economic stimulus. He concentrated on the several domestic issues such as education, issues which he says should be higher priorities than the tax cut.

Daschle said the Republican choice of ideology over fiscal responsibility has left us in a fiscal bind during a time of war and cost us money that could be better spent elsewhere:

“Supporters of the tax cut said the surplus was so massive and so certain that we could have a huge tax cut, increase spending on education and the military, and provide prescription drug coverage. We could protect the Social Security surplus, pay off the entire federal debt in a decade, and still have enough money left over to get us through any unforeseen disasters. What we got instead was the most dramatic fiscal deterioration in our nation’s history.”

 

“One essential priority is to continue our intense focus on education. For too long, public education has been highly unequal from kindergarten through 12th grade. The new school reform law can go a long way to close the gap – but only if we stay the course, and provide the increased resources and guidance essential for schools and students to meet and fulfill the high potential of this far-reaching and genuinely bipartisan achievement.

I was proud to stand with President Bush as he signed that reform into law. But this is no time for any of us to rest on any laurels. We have only just begun to renew our education system. We have much more to do to realize the ideal of ‘no child left behind.'”