How are we going to survive 4 more years?
Yesterday,s New York Times editorial was about the GOP leadership looking to cut, and possibly eliminate the Pell Grants that enable poor and worthy people to get a higher education Link . Now that the election is over, all holds previously barred are unbarred, including these massive strikes in Iraq, and the raping of our society here. The massive rout in Iraq was necessary, I suppose, given that we allowed the insurgents to run off with all the weapons, and then had to go find them to prevent a lot of future bombings. But still, we've destroyed a city to get them back. We've killed lots of people to get them back. What a major screw up.
But, back to the Pell Grants......... were it not for the grants, I would not have been able to go back to school. It would have just been totally beyond my reach. I was on welfare at the time, back in the late 1970's and '80's. I had a dipshit husband and two kids. Welfare sustained us, though I knew it wasn't how I wanted to fashion my entire life. I knew I needed to go back to school, or I really was going to spend the rest of my life on welfare or low-paying, non-sustaining jobs. I needed more, not just for the money, but also for my intellectual growth, and my self asteem. So, I applied for Pell Grants, was approved, and went to college. With the two kids, ten years, and additional student loans, I got my professional degree, a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture. I subsequently took the 3-day, misery making licensing exam, passed and now am a gainfully employed person.
I now make almost $80K/year, of which a substantial chunk goes to taxes. So, instead of supporting me on a sub-subsistence living for my entire life, the Pell Grants have enabled me to be a contributor to the general economy of this country. The Pell Grants worked for me and thousands and thousands of other low income individuals, allowing us to give back to the government over and over and over what they gave to us. In other words, by not paying into a significant program now, we will all pay through the nose later in the added costs to society, and the loss in future revenues. In fact, though, the cost to fund the Pell Grants is chump change compared to what the feds spend in overall budget expenditures. There is absolutely no savings worth a damn to be made by cutting these grants. It's short sighted bullshit.
This is sickening. And, adding insult to injury, the GOP leadership and all they misguided followers want to reduce, if not eliminate entirely, the entire welfare program. What the fuck are people supposed to do? How does giving tax breaks to people at the top going to stimulate the economy, when at the same time they are proposing to take away any assistence at the bottom. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see that more and more people have become homeless, lost health insurance, and educational benefits under this oppressive GOP leadership crap, and are losing more and more of any hope of ever moving up. More and more people resort to drugs and crime, as poverty doesn't really allow much else, and the solution....... build more prisons to house the poverty stricken, outsource the adminstration and maintenance of them so corporations make tons of money on them from, yup, you guessed it, Uncle Sam. Or, should I say "Uncle Scam"? The far reaching ramificatations of defunding such a simple program is huge and wide spread.
I hate the GOP. I hate them so freakin' much. They are the most selfish, self-serving, short sighted, stupid, did I say selfish and self serving, ignorant assholes. No holds barred from me. I will continue to fight this crap for as long as it takes to unseat these assholes. I hate the leadership and I hate the people who support them. They are an insult to society at large.