[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 141 (Tuesday, September 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   THE VALUE OF STUDENT AID PROGRAMS

  (Mr. POSHARD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POSHARD. Mr. Speaker, when I graduated from high school in 1962, 
I grew up on a small family farm, and my folks did not have the money 
to send me to college. I went in the U.S. Army, and I spent 3 years, 
and when I got out, I enrolled in Southern Illinois University, and my 
Government really enrolled with me.
  I was able to go there on the GI Bill. I was able to get a job on 
campus working in the physical plant through the student work and 
financial aid program. The National Student Defense loans at that time 
helped my young striving family to get by.
  These were all really important programs for working-class families' 
children who needed a college education, and we need to keep those 
programs alive today.
  It is not a matter in this country of whether we need to balance the 
budget and bring down the deficit. We brought down the deficit from 
$291 to $160 billion this year. In 3 years, under the President's 
budget, we are going to continue to bring down the deficit.
  The question is whether we need to finance a huge tax cut and offset 
these programs more than what we have to, and that is the debate in 
this House.

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