Team Obama Suggested Cutting Food Stamps to Maintain Duncan'...

[James Horn <ontogenyx@gmail.com>]

> Thank God for David Obey, quoted here from EmptyWheel:
>
> The secretary of Education is whining about the fact he only got 85  
> percent of the money he wanted .… So, when we needed money, we  
> committed the cardinal sin of treating him like any other mere  
> mortal. We were giving them over $10 billion in money to help keep  
> teachers on the job, plus another $5 billion for Pell, so he was  
> getting $15 billion for the programs he says he cares about, and it  
> was costing him $500 million [in reductions to the Race to the Top  
> program]. Now that’s a pretty damn good deal.
> So as far as I’m concerned, the secretary of Education should have  
> been happy as hell. He should have taken that deal and smiled like a  
> Cheshire cat. He’s got more walking around money than every other  
> cabinet secretary put together.
> It blows my mind that the White House would even notice the fight  
> [over Race to the Top]. I would have expected the president to say  
> to the secretary, “look, you’re getting a good deal, for God’s sake,  
> what this really does is guarantee that the rest of the money isn’t  
> going to be touched.”
> We gave [Duncan] $4.3 billion in the stimulus package, no questions  
> asked. He could spend it any way he wants. … I trusted the  
> secretary, so I gave him a hell of a lot more money than I should  
> have.
> My point is that I have been working for school reform long before I  
> ever heard of the secretary of education, and long before I ever  
> heard of Obama. And I’m happy to welcome them on the reform road,  
> but I’ll be damned if I think the only road to reform lies in the  
> head of the Secretary of Education.
> We were told we have to offset every damn dime of [new teacher  
> spending]. Well, it ain’t easy to find offsets, and with all due  
> respect to the administration their first suggestion for offsets was  
> to cut food stamps. Now they were careful not to make an official  
> budget request, because they didn’t want to take the political heat  
> for it, but that was the first trial balloon they sent down here. …  
> Their line of argument was, well, the cost of food relative to what  
> we thought it would be has come down, so people on food stamps are  
> getting a pretty good deal in comparison to what we thought they  
> were going to get. Well isn’t that nice. Some poor bastard is going  
> to get a break for a change. [emphasis original]
> Do read on.  Fascinating.
>
>
> --
> Posted By Jim Horn to Schools Matter at 7/18/2010 07:20:00 PM