Time for a Little Education

from truthdig:




Time for a Little Education

Posted on Mar 23, 2011
By Jim Mamer





I’m a retired teacher and I’m pissed. No matter what form of media I look at, I’m confronted with constant references to the various budget crises. The federal government has a deficit. States have budget problems. Cities face massive shortfalls. And school districts are on the edge of bankruptcy. The crises are real, but the search for culprits has degenerated into a hypocritical attempt to score political points.

Predictably we are faced with very different narratives of how we got here. While some are complex and worthy of debate and discussion, others are little more than a search for scapegoats. Take, for example, what comes from an increasingly shrill conservative chorus. After eliminating most of the usual suspects, the source of our fiscal problem becomes pretty simple. Our debts can’t be the cumulative result of multiple tax cuts. The crisis has nothing to do with our ongoing, unnecessary and counterproductive wars. It can’t be the fault of the bankers and brokers who defrauded millions with securitized debt obligations based on bundling large numbers of “liars’ loans.” It probably has nothing to do with our failure to tax most Internet sales, and it certainly can’t be because hedge fund managers are allowed to treat a portion of their income as capital gains.

Instead, the cause identified by most Republican governors, legislators and pundits is simple; government spends too much, and a lot of the blame falls on the public service unions. Indeed, at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., one panel was titled “Bleeding America Dry: The Threat of Public Sector Unions.” That’s right: The firefighters, the police and the teachers are bleeding the country dry. They are paid too much and have way-way-too-generous benefits. They should be ashamed of themselves, their unions and their pensions. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/time_for_a_little_education_20110323/

and not pay the pensions. In order to do this they need to paint teachers firefighters and police as the bad guys out to rob the common man. One would have to be a complete halfwit to buy their reasoning but apparently we have plenty of halfwits.

do away with the jobs that allowed people to have a sense of dignity and let them purchase items that they needed and sometimes wanted, you just screwed the pooch.

I didn't read the complete piece but I'm living and watching the drama unfold in my own life, and the lives of others.

The people I talk to don't mind paying taxes to complete the social contract, they've never had a capital gain, or gotten an inheritance over 10K that didn't get spent on a home repair or a automobile and I'm not talking bmws or maseratis.

We're screwed because money screams in the ears of the elected officials and they sure as hell aren't going to cut thier gravy train off to worry about poor little us..

We should put an end to their bullshit in short order. That is if we can get more than 15% of the registered voters to go to the polls.

This keeps everyone all work up and mad at the other guy, and diverts attention away from the flaws in our government and the other powers-that-be. We only have so much anger to go around, and they want us fighting among ourselves.

Well, they have always had another goal---get rid of unions. This strategy will take care of two birds with one stone.

When will we learn (or not "we" as much as those halfwits mentioned above).