Budget Committee: April 18, 2011 - Rep. Doggett Defends Federal Student Support for our Students and Universities – the Sparkplugs of Economic Development and Job Growth

During his questioning, he also made clear that while he shares the view that in this time of growing deficits, we must be ferreting out wasteful spending, this federal support for education is not where cuts should be made:. "I have heard this view echoed loudly by some inTexas who seem not only interested in takingAmerica back but taking it backward. If parents [and states] could shoulder all of these responsibilities, these loan programs wouldn't have been set up by President Eisenhower and others on a bipartisan basis back in the 1950s."

The witnesses agreed that getting rid of these programs that make post-secondary education attainable for so many would be "disastrous."