I can report to you that the state of this old but youthful union is good. Keeping with time honored tradition, i am pleased to report that america is much improved trade there is good reason to believe improved. There is good reason to believe that that will and can you. My duty is to report on the state of the union, our american community. The state of the union is strong. As we gather tonight, our nation is at war. Our economy is in recession. The civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet, the state of her union has never been stronger. It is because of our people that are future is hopeful. Our journey goes forward. The state of our union is strong. Tuesday, president obama delivers this years address live on cspan at 9 00 p. M. Followed by the gop response, and your reaction. Christ eric cantor talked about the Republican Partys agenda. This is about 50 minutes. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Im arthur brooks, president of the American Enterprise institute. A speech making life work. Now an ordinary introduction would chronicle erics incredible political career and talk about his numerous legislative accomplishments. But erics career, as most of you know, is not primarily a collection of accomplishments. Its a longterm effort to make a better, fairer country for all americans. Eric is someone who regularly pauses to remember the why of public policy, valuing justice for all, protecting the vulnerable and fighting against Class Divisions in american life. He cares about freedom and opportunity because he knows they lead to happier, more prosperous life for more people. He cares about those who are being left behind by Failing Schools, people who are looking for work and cannot find it and people who face barriers, starting businesses and building a better life. Eric cantor knows that behind each piece of legislation, policy analysis, is an american or someone who wants to become an american. Here heres the reason i admire eric the most i think in the years ive gotten to know him and become his friend. He fights for everyone, whether theyre going to vote for him or not, and were very honored to have him here today to hear his thoughts. After his remarks, hell take a few questions. Ladies and gentlemen, House Majority leader eric cantor. [applause] arthur, thank you very much. It is great to be here at a. E. I. Because ill tell you i am such an admirer, arthur, of what you do because you have done so much to i think put into context what it means to be a conservative and how conservative policies actually help people. And i do think that your insight and commitment in this vain has only begun to reap rewards and look forward to continuing the fight with you to try and make a better life for all americans. So thank you very much for hosting this today. You know, in washington over the past few months, our attention has been on cliffs. Its been on debt ceilings, budgets, deadlines and negotiations. All of this is extremely important because i dont think theres any substitute for getting our fiscal house in order. Theres no greater moral imperative than to reduce the mountain of debt thats facing us, our children and theirs. And our House Republican majority stands ready for the president and his party to join us in actually tackling the big problems facing this country. But today id like to focus really on what lies beyond the fiscal debate. Over the next two years, our House Majority will pursue an agenda that is based on a shared vision of creating the conditions of health, happiness and prosperity for more americans and their families. And to restrain washington from interfering in those pursuits. Well advance proposals aimed at producing results in areas like education, health care, innovation and job growth. Our solutions will be based on the conservative presence of selfreliance, faith in the individual, trust in family and accountability in government. Our goal is to ensure that every american has a fair shot to earn success and achieve their dreams. Its my hope that i can stand before you two years from now and report to you that our side as well as the president s found within us the ability to set differences aside in order to provide relief to so many millions of americans who just want their life to work again. You know, in so many countries throughout history, children were largely consigned to the same station in life as their parents, but not here because here weve seen the son of a shoe man become the president of the United States. Weve become weve seen a daughter of a poor single mom develop and build a company that turned into her being the owner of a tv network. In america the grandson of poor immigrants who fled the czarrist russia come here and that grandson became the majority leader of our house of representatives. Thats what this country is about. [applause] you know, in kitty hawk, north carolina, who bicycle job me two bicycle shop mechanics gave mankind the gift of flight. The Wright Brothers flew only 22 feet at that time, 18 feet in the air, but they performed a miracle. As a result, 66 years later, this country put a man on the moon and brought him back. That is who we are. We can do an enormous amount. The Wright Brothers father gave them a toy helicopter and never wanted his two sons to fly together for fear that hed lose them. And seven years after the original flight. In 1910, milton gave them the permission to fly together. It only lasted six minutes. Later that day, orville took his 82yearold father up into the air. It lasted seven minutes. Rising 350 feet at that time. Well milton shouted, higher, orville, higher. It is a great testament to what our country is about. In america, we have higher expectations. Since our founding, we believe that we could be the best hope to mankind. That hope led generations of immigrants to risk everything to endure a tough journey. The driving motivation for the millions of immigrants passing by lady liberty in new york harbor was the generation that came after them. And because of that hope, and those high expectations, coupled with the determination to see them through, or every generation since has had it better, up until now. Lately, it has become all too common for us to hear parents really fear that their kids are not going to have it better than them. For all of us parents, that is a scary thought. Lets face it. It has gotten a lot tougher to raise a family in america. Our goal has got to be to lemonade this doubt gripping our nations families. And to restore their hope and confidence so that they can once again see a better tomorrow for their children. My wife diane and i raised our three children, and we could not be more proud of the young adults they have become. Our nest is now empty, but i can tell you i understand the pressures that all parents are under in the tough times they are going through. Parents working, saving for college, paying for braces, helping with homework. Shoveling from one afterschool shuttling from one afterSchool Activity to the next. That is why we worry so much. Where can you afford a home in the best neighborhood so your kids will have the right school . Which Health Care Plan can you afford so you can see your doctors . Will your children make it through the nights of homework and graduate from school and if so get into a college and then are you going to be able to afford it . What about careers . These are all reallife concerns. This is what keeps parents awake at night fearful that life isnt going to work out the way they hoped. During the last several years, with the stagnant economy, too many mothers and fathers have had to come home and walk into the kitchen and tell their family they didnt have a job anymore. How is a family like that supposed to save for a rainy day when it just got tough to make it even through the next month . These are the families that should be our focus. They are desperate to have the nightmare over. And the best way to ensure their hope for the future is restored is making opportunity a reality for them and its going to come if we provide a path forward, give them the tools to take advantage of a growing economy. We need to see Business Expansion and startups created so there can be more jobs and opportunity for their kids and for them. Now, just like parents, washington has got to start showing care for the generations ahead while leaving the parenting to the parents. Now Government Policies got to strike a balance between what is needed to advance the next generation, what we can afford, what is a federal responsibility, and what is necessary to ensure our children are safe, healthy and able to reach their dreams. Now, opportunity and belief in tomorrow start with an Education System that works. In 1822 letter, Thomas Jefferson wrote, i look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource to be relied on promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of man. With an eye towards mr. Jeffersons vision, since 1965, the federal government has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into improving schools especially in lowincome areas. Over 15 billion last year and frankly, the results have not matched the investment. Joining us here today is joseph kelly and his family. Now, joseph is a heroic dad in my book, and he was worried that the Public Schools were not helping his son, who is here in the front row. He flunked the first grade and by the fifth grade, he was three years behind in most subjects. The schedule actually put him into a special education class and joseph would try and sit in on the classes in order to help his son. But was met with hostility by School Administrators and even had to obtain a court order so he could have a tutor. Violence was so prevalent in his schools, there were eight d. C. Police officers patroling it on a daily basis. They heard of a Scholarship Program and dedicated himself making sure his son and Three Sisters to have access to a school that had a safe environment in which to learn, to give an opportunity that they could see college as an option, an opportunity that mr. Kelly did not have. Within two years at a high school, he caught up to his classmates and now a student in college. And his sisters, who are here with us today as well, are attending the prep tower school of d. C. Preparatory school of d. C. And on a similar path of opportunity. I visited the school yesterday, and it is amazing. It is making a real difference in the lives of kids who without that school could possibly be lost. And this is what is at stake, because now they have great teachers, terrific administrators, small class sizes and every kid has got to succeed. No one should deny them this opportunity. [applause] joyce eff kelly nor any parent joseph kelly nor any parent should have to wait for any School System to get their act together. Throughout the country, there are promising signs that we can bring our schools and children together. San francisco Public Schools adopted a funding mechanism. And under this policy, the more students the school attracts the more money its school, the administrators and teachers receive. Lowincome students are weighted heavier as with children with disabilities and those learning english as a second language. There are incentives for schools to seek the more vulnerable population and reasons for schools to differentiate themselves and to excel. Imagine if we were to try and move in this direction with federal funding, allow the money we currently spend actually follow individual children. Students including those without a lot of money or those with special needs would be able to access a school which would give them a shot at having a successful life, a shot at earning their success and achieving their dreams and wouldnt be just subjected to the Failing School that they were assigned to. Their options ought to include not just Public Schools, private schools and also charter schools. A competitive environment where schools compete for students rather than the other way around give every child from the inner city of washington to the streets of los angeles, an equal chance at a greater destiny. One of our priorities this year in the house will be to move heaven and earth to fix our Education System for the most vulnerable and when those children graduate from high school, we must expand their choices and college has got to be an option. In 1980, the average cost of college was roughly 8,000 a year. Today, its over 20,000. And less than 60 of the students who enroll in a four year Program Graduate within six years. Clearly, somethings broken. According to president obamas former jobs council, by 2020, there will be a million and a half jobs without the College Graduates to fill them. While there is persistent unmet demand of 400,000 to 500,000 job openings in the Health Care Sector alone. Recent reports indicate there are not enough skilled applicants to fill the jobs in the booming natural gas industry. Suppose colleges provided perspective students with reliable information on the employment rate and potential earnings by major. What if parents had access to clear and understandable breakdowns between Academic Studies and amenities, what would those costs be . Armed with this knowledge, they can make better decisions about where to go to school. Students would have a better chance of graduating within four years and getting a job. Helping students realize opportunity and a career while keeping tuition costs makes sense. Costs low makes common sense. There is a proposal which addresses this goal. And i look forward to working on this in pursuing legislative action in the house. Over the course of this congress, we want to reform our student aid process to give students a financial incentive to finish their studies sooner, will encourage entrepreneurship in college education, including forprofit schools, and will fix the way we subsidize education by making the costs more transparent to parents, students and the millions of taxpayers who helped pay some of the bill. We owe it to them. Now, a good education leads to more innovation. And throughout our history, american colleges and universities have served as a cornerstone for the worlds innovation. They are a big part of why the u. S. Remains the destination for the worlds best and brightest. Investment in education leads to innovation, which leads to more opportunity and jobs for all. Our problem, the investment we make is not yielding the maximum return. Each year, our colleges and universities graduate approximately 40,000 foreign nationals with masters and ph. D. Degrees, many of whom are forced to leave the country because there arent enough visa slots in our country to permit them to stay. Rather than being able to invent things here in america, grow businesses, they do these things somewhere else. Fiona is here with us who is earning her masters at g. W. School of engineering. Originally from china, she has been in the United States for five years studying Operations Research in the Systems Engineering department. If you talk to her, youll see shes pretty smart. She would like to stay here. She wants to invest her talents in america and maybe even start her own company, but she is seeing too many of her friends with advanced degrees have to go home despite sharing of her dreams and aspirations of wanting to become part of this country. Last year, the house passed a bipartisan stem jobs act which helped fix this problem. We will act again in this congress and we hope the senate to join us this time. I look forward to fiona realizing her dreams and our country reaping the rewards of her hard work and talent, whether its college or the cost of day care, making life work for more families means reducing the economic insecurity plaguing so many working moms and dads. Over the last 20 years, the world has changed. It used to be one could make a career working for just one company. Today, the average worker stays at his or her job barely four years. Median income in 2010, was about the same as it was in 1997. Now, experts correctly point out that this statistic ignores the many working families are getting more benefits Like Health Care from their employers, not just wages. But try explaining that, try explaining that Rising Health care costs or depressing take home pay and saying that its justified, thats little to the little consolation to the working moms, because her grocery bills are higher, her kids still need have needs that are getting more expensive. The rent is up and now she is just trying to get by. I think all of us know that getting by is not the american dream. As job markets are changing, more skills, training and education are needed. Fellow job Training Programs ought to make it easier for americans who are out of work or changing their careers to get the skills they need. Yet today, the federal government has a patchwork of over 47 different overlapping programs that are not dynamic or innovative enough to meet the needs of employers or potential employees. We can fix this and we will if we can muster the bipartisan support to do so. If you are a working parent, you know theres hardly enough time at home to be with kids. Too many parents have to weigh whether they can afford to leave work for even half a day to perhaps attend a field trip or to go to a parentteacher conference. You see, laws dating back to the 1930s, make it hard for parents who hold hourly jobs to ball balance the demands of work and home. An hourly employee cannot transfer. Congress addressed this issue in 198 but did so for municipal and state employees because they have the flexibility to go about earning comp. Time and flex time so perhaps if they work one month, they can get off and join their kids on a School Activity the next. But the same privilege is denied all those employees in the private sector who are hourly or paid hourly wage. Police officer at home in my district named vickie and working a tough job with long hours while raising her kids. And her life is made a little easier because she is a local government employee. Shes permitted to work extra hours and save it up for a sick day or school event. Just imagine if we gave this opportunity to employees and employers at their option in the private sector. A working mom or working dad could make overtime now and reap the benefits of it when their kids needed them and they wouldnt have to miss work so they could still pay the rent. This is the kind of commonsense legislation that should be noncontroversial and moves us in the right direction to help make life work for more families. Another step we can take is on taxes. Theres a lot of talk about taxes in washington right now. For most families, tax preparation is hard and its time consuming. This time of year especially. Think about it. Think what theyre going through. What tax form are you supposed to fill out. Is it more beneficial to file jointly or separately. Is a truck or gas mileage deductible or something you are missing that the i. R. S. Will give you credit for. 193, the form 1040 was in 193 5, the form 1040 was accompanied accompanied by a twopage instruction booklet. Today, taxpayers have to wade through over 100 total pages of instruction. Just filling out a w4 at a new job is confusing. You really shouldnt need a work sheet to see how many dependents you have. Chairman dave camp and his committee are under way in their efforts to responsibly rewrite the nations tax laws. As an education policy, health care and all else, tax reform should reflect the priority of working families and the future they are trying to shape for their kids. If nothing else, we must stope putting special interests stop putting special interests ahead of our working families interests. Loopholes and gimmicks benefiting those who figured how to work the system in washington are no more defensible and the defensible than the path of spending we have been on for decades. Working families should come first. Everyone agrees a fairer, simpler tax code would give all of us more time. And in our attempt to make the tax code simpler, we must continue to demonstrate support for young parents who invest in having kids and raising a family. Because after all, they are americas most valued investors. In 1997, a Republican Congress created the Child Tax Credit specifically to help ease the financial burden of families raising children. In 2001, it was expanded. Such a policy helped to limit the size of government and resulted in fewer americans looking to the government for support. Now leading up to april 15, families will be be sieged by concerns over their taxes, but its health care and the concern for a Healthy Family that always worries parents most. Most americans have come to expect the best health care this the world, but there is no doubt in the world, but there is no doubt that that our Current System is too complex and too costly. President obamas Health Care Law resulted in higher premiums and costs for families and has made access to Quality Health care and innovation tougher. If we want to reverse this trend, we should start by choosing to repeal the new taxes that are increasing the costs of health care and Health Insurance, like the medical device tax. With us today is erin schakowsky. She has been a clinical nurse in baltimore. She spent the past 10 years coordinating the research to replace a disk to stop patients from suffering from crippling neck and back pain. She recognized she suffered from the very condition that her work aimed to treat. On her days off, erin would spend days at her daughters lacrosse tournament barely able to move and then would have to go home and spend most of her time there with an ice pack on her neck. She went in for surgery and got the new disks replacements. She is with us today and thankfully on the mend. The new medical device tax in obamacare makes it harder for researchers to develop those Innovative Devices in the United States and makes it harder for patients like erin to get the care they need. Obamacare unnecessarily raised the cost of our health care, even those with preexisting conditions could get the coverage they need without a trillion dollar Government Program costing all of us more. And thats only the tip of the iceberg when we talk about health care reform. Many families like mine are dealing with the challenges presented by aging and very sick parents. They rely on medicare for relief. In 1965, the federal government created medicare and modeled it after the standard Blue Cross Blue Shield plan at the time. In the past 50 years, both health care and Health Insurance have changed dramatically. But the government and medicare have just not kept pace. Medicaid isnt doing any better. Under the medicaid system, the rules are set in washington, but much of the bills are being paid in our state capitals. Collectively, states are spending more on medicaid than they do on k through 12 education. And states dont have the flexibility to innovate to lower costs and provide better care. As a result, in many cases, patients have been swallowed up by the system and become an afterthought. These programs are broken and many patients are going without proper care. Thats not fair to the people and the family who depend on these programs, and weve got to fix them. We can modernize medicare so it isnt complicated for seniors or Health Care Providers and make it easier for them to get the care they need in a Cost Effective manner. We should end the arbitrary part a and part b and create division and create reasonable levels for occupy expenses without forcing seniors out of pocket expenses without forcing seniors to rely on plans. Seniors who choose to receive a Health Care Treatment through doctors and hospitals working together to control costs they should save in the savings through out of pocket costs. This is good for seniors. We can provide states more flexibility with respect to medicaid that will allow them to provide better care for low income families in a way that ultimately brings down costs. Options for states should include streamlining the process for determining eligibility and allowing them to offer Health Coverage through patient directed health care or flexible benefit programs and make it faster and simpler for states to gain approval of federal waivers to modify their medicaid program. Now longterm, controlling Health Care Costs will require smarter federal investments in medical research. Many of todays cures and life saving treatments are the result of an initial federal investment and much of it is spent on Cancer Research and other grave illnesses. One of the most courageous people i know is katie and she is here with us in the front row and i have known her for many, many years and her mom. Katie was diagnosed with cancer just when she was one year old. That is any parents nightmare and katie and her family went through a tremendous struggle trying to deal with this tumor that was discovered and by the time she was seven years old, the family went to st. Jude in memphis and had a successful radiation treatment. Katie is doing well today, but shes still worried about her condition and the family will soon return to memphis as she often does to make sure that shes going to stay on this path to having her life work again. And i know [applause] come up here and see her smile, she has the best and most brightest smile than anybody i know. Its an inspiration. Her mom and her family are interested in seeing smarter federal investment in Childhood Cancer and for us to continue to play that role that can make life work for families like katies again. Prayers do help, but we have got to pray that the scientists and researchers, that they find cures to the diseases so that our parents and grandparents dont leave us too soon, so children like katie are not robbed of a healthy life. And there is an appropriate role, and a necessary role for the federal government to ensure funding for basic medical research, doing all we can to facilitate the medical break throughs for people like katie should be a priority. Now, we can and we must do better. This includes cutting unnecessary red tape in order to speed up the availability of lifesaving drugs and treatment and reprioritizing existing federal research spending. Funds currently spent by the government on social science including on politics of all things, will be better spent helping find cures to diseases. Scientific breakthroughs are the result of and helped contribute to americas being the worlds capital of innovation and opportunity in nearly every field. For this and many other reasons, people across the globe want to become part of our country. We must never diminish that desire or worse, become a place that is no longer desirable. Its no secret that there are more than 11 Million People here illegally, many of whom have become part of the fabric of our country. They like us have families and dreams. While we are a nation that allows anyone to start anew, we are also a nation of laws and thats what makes tackling the issue of Immigration Reform so difficult. In looking to solve this problem soon, weve got to balance respect for the rule of law and respect for those waiting to enter this country legally with care for the people and families, most of whom just want to make a better life and contribute to america. A good place to start is with the kids. One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents. And it is time to provide an opportunity for legal residents and citizenship for those who are brought to this country as children and who know no other home. Im pleased that many of my colleagues in both chambers of congress on both sides of the aisle have begun work to address these issues and im pleased these discussions are given immediate priorities. Its the right thing to do for our families, for our security and for our economy. Now there are some who would rather avoid fixing problem in order to say this is a political issue. I reject this notion. I call on our president to help lead us towards a bipartisan solution rather than encourage the common political divisions of the past. A sonnet was placed at the statue of liberty in 1903. Parts of it read, here at our seawashed sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch. From the beacon hand glows worldwide welcome. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. The message of this sonnet should sound familiar to most of us. The image of the statue of liberty blended with the stories of our past serve as a humble reminder of who we are as a country. Its the reason im able to stand here before you today. Like so many of the generations living in Eastern Europe at the turn of the last century, my grandparents fled the vicious antisemitism to come to america. Widowed at a young age, my grandmother raised her two sons in a tiny apartment on top of a Grocery Store that she and my grandfather opened. With little but her faith, thrift and hope for a better tomorrow, my grandma worked seven days a week to ensure that my dad and my uncle could realize a promise of this great country. And today, my children and i stand as proof of the possibility to what may have seemed to her then like an impossible dream. To uphold this legacy, those who have come before us, washington will need to make some choices. And in a divided government, these choices are often tough. We in the House Majority remain committed to making those tough choices and stand ready to lead with this president. Higher, one shouted from the air, higher, making life work Milton Wright once shouted from the air, higher. Making life work for more working people and all who want to work is the best way to a future of higher growth and more opportunity. Thank you very much. [applause] questions . Yes, sir. Are these thoughts today going to be incorporated in legislation or is this the beginning the state of virginia pushing the candidate . Finally seeing a republican candidate . Not the latter. We do intend to propose legislation working with our committees to move forward on many, many of these issues. Do you stand by the principles in the immigration legislation . I have not looked at the details of what the senate has put out. I will say that i looked to and admire the work that senator rubio has done and in that spirit think that we can work towards a solution and do so in quick fashion. Today the government is very inefficient and lots of money being wasted. In congress and in newspapers, the focus is on cutting budgets and reducing spending. Do you intend to put focus on outcomes on making reduction in expenses and getter Better Outcomes inefficiency or just cut money and hope efficiency comes out . Obviously, we want to be smart about the way taxpayer dollars are being spent. And my message today is to make sure that we explain and demonstrate how our proposals actually benefit people. Its about making life work again for more people. I think that so Many Americans feel disenfranchised and dont understand why washington cant be of some help to them and we have put policies on the table and we will go forward with this agenda with the conservative emphasis on individual effort, opportunity, selfreliance and opportunity for more people. Thats what its about. And we can show and demonstrate to make life work again through these proposals. You spoke about Health Care Costs. The thing is that in america, we have the most Expensive Health care in the world, we are about twice the number two. Is there a need for america to maybe move to target maybe the number two in the world instead of number one in terms of Health Care Costs . The system is too costly and too complicated. Our efforts at reform are aimed at trying to reduces to increase reduce those costs to increase access to care. We talked about erin and the impact of the president s Health Care Law that will negatively impact patients because of that tax that is going to be put in place. We have to increase the ability for lower costs and smarter and less utilization of our system and we have to come to together to make choices when it comes to the medicare system, medicaid system to effect those outcomes. I would say, we arent going to were never going to get a handle on our Health Care Costs longterm unless we go about making sure the investments are made in basic medical research so we can see the treatments and cures that we so desperately need. Good afternoon, mr. Leader. I was taken by your familys past and the Scholarship Program here. What do you think the republicans in the congress can do to get more people in the United States to pursue careers in the stem fields that there seems to be so many opportunities . There is obviously a lot of need. And when i spoke about colleges and for them, we would like to see them provide clear and understandable information to parents when they are trying to make the decision not only to put a lot of money to work for their kids education or have to borrow money, to make it so that they know what the return will be. Its important for us to know, there are a lot of job openings in certain areas and colleges arent doing their job in readying our students for the work force of today. And thats one big thing that we have to handle is to demonstrate, that this is where you are headed and obviously something is not right that they have that many job openings and unemployment the way they are. Im with the rural school and community trust. I would like to pick up on the example as to the weighting system in the San FranciscoSchool System. In title i, we have a weighting formula in how we distribute resources. We have 12 million kids in Rural America and they dont meet a lot of those thresholds and we spend less investing in those young people than we do in urban areas. We dont advocate of rural versus urban, so what would you do in your plan . The weighting situation is different than what you are talking about. And the weighting issue is about giving preference to special needs children, children in low income, to set the incentives right for schools and there will be incentives for schools to differentiate themselves and attract those kinds of kids. If you talk to joseph kelly, his kids and the kids with us in the front row, they would have been destined to a school that had eight d. C. Police officers patrolling. If you dont have a safe environment, you dont expect them to learn. It really should be that these schools have an incentive to go after and compete for the kids, not the other way around. There shouldnt be any monopoly here. There is a lot of controversy around this in terms of teachers unions and the rest. We are talking about the lives of these kids and we have to save these kids and the proposals we are going to be about are aimed directly like that, families like joseph kellys and kids in the rural areas. We are hearing about republican governors and senators and house members about whats most important for the republicans as they go forward. For the average american trying to figure out where the Republican Party is headed now after the election, who should the public be listening to . Who really speaks for the Republican Party at this point . I would differ a little bit. The average american is not thinking about and trying to wonder about where the Republican Party is. They are thinking about how to make their life work, which is exactly what we are talking about here today. Joseph kelly doesnt care where the Republican Party is going, he cares about his kids. Fiona doesnt care where the Republican Party is, but the ability to stay in this country to help all americans, republican, democrats or independent. I can assure you katie and her mom dont care what republicans are advocating here. They want to see results. The point of my talk today is to say that we republicans in the house are dedicated to those. Can you say a few more words about what you see is the proper role for the federal government in education. I understand why democrats and progressives want centralized education programs. Dont republicans see it as a state and local function . As a parent of three kids, all of whom went to Public Schools and two in college and one in the work force right now, one in the work force right now, education starts with parents