Budget Wars

Over the past 10 years, the United States has waged two long wars. These wars have been VERY expensive. Elected officials of the Republican Party have been strong advocates of these wars.

For most of those 10 years, appropriations to fight America's wars were kept "off budget," funded with "special" bills. Bills that passed with strong bi-partisan support. It was not until President Obama took office in 2009 that the cost of our wars was included in the budget.

During these wars, for the first time in our history, our government lowered taxes during wartime, putting the ENTIRE cost of our military adventures on credit cards held by major investors like China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the global financial industry, the Social Security Trust Fund.

The interest on the U. S. Government's credit cards was faithfully paid to debt holders like China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the global financial industry. (To the Social Security Trust Fund? Not so much.) NO payments were made on the principal. Government debt increased by trillions of dollars.

After years of speerheading profligate spending, Republicans now insist on steep cuts in government spending to reduce the deficits they played the major role in creating. But they adamantly refuse to support any measures that would increase revenues. They also adamantly refuse to curtail military spending.

Are you with me, here? Republicans are refusing to raise revenues or decrease military spending and they insist America must live within its means. How, you ask, can this be done?

First, unofficially "restructure" government debt by "forgiving" the debt owed to the Social Security Trust Fund. Ignore it. Pretend it never happened. Categorize Social Security as an "unfunded" entitlement. Cut Social Security benefits to the bone, raise the retirement age and privatize its sister program, Medicare (effectively dismantling it).

Second, dismantle the regulatory agencies that were created to oversee the financial industry, protect our environment, the workplace, the food and drugs we consume. Entrust private industry with "self regulation" (an oxymoron).

Third, defund agencies that support and create infrastructure - public education, roads, bridges, railroads, power grids, water and sewage systems.

Fourth, "restructure" public pension systems and neutralize public unions to decrease public liability.

Fifth, privatize what were once government responsibilities - military logistical support, roads, water supplies, prisons.

This is not going to end well.

School Budgets and Taxes

Yesterday voters in my town rejected the proposed school budget. Last night the school board passed it anyway. State law permitted its passage because it was not more than 1.6 percent over last year's budget. The new budget entails a 9.8 percent school tax increase. It also contains significant cuts in programs and personnel. The increase is less about escalating cost than the deep cuts in state funds available to local school districts.

While our governor seeks to cap real estate taxes - the means by which school districts, towns, cities and counties fund their services, the state budget contains deep cuts in state aid to local education. This puts local school districts between a rock and a hard place.

Local funding of school districts inevitably results in wide swings in education quality. Wealthier communities are better able to support their public schools, poorer communities struggling under their tax burdens find it difficult. In our stratified society this means the quality of education students receive is usually tied to the size of the local community's wallet.

I have heard many members of my community complain about their school taxes because they do not have children or their children are grown. They believe that education should be the responsibility of the students' parents. This is wrong. A well educated populace is essential to a healthy society.

For now, our educational system is crumbling as fast as the rest of our country's outdated, under-maintained infrastructure. And while Washington and the state capitols cut the "fat" out of national and state budgets, the burden on localities grows heavier and heavier. This tax burden has the additional impact of exacerbating the housing crisis as homeownership becomes more expensive.

We all want the services. We just don't want to pay for them. If current trends continue we won't be able to pay for them.

Dismantling Public Education in America

For years we have been told that American public education has fallen behind its global competitors and must be fixed. Programs like "No Child Left Behind" and "Race to the Top" were designed to fix the system's shortcomings. We were informed the United States had no hope of competing in the global marketplace without an educated populace.

But now... across the United States tens of thousands of teachers are being laid off as beleaguered states and municipalities confront unmanageable budget deficits. Funding for public schools and colleges is being slashed to the bone.

Teaching is labor-intensive. It involves long hours trying to interest pupils in something besides I-Tunes, YouTube, texting, trolling the mall and watching television. Not all teachers are created equal. Some few can stimulate the most obstreperous youngsters. Others can bore the pants off the most eager students. Most fall somewhere in between. The larger the class size, the more difficult the challenge.

The nuns at the parochial school I attended in the 1950s proved it is possible to teach large classes. They were able to create an atmosphere of rigid discipline. If you acted up in the line to lunch (military precision was expected), you probably got a not-so-gentle tap from the "clacker" every nun carried. For a classroom breach of behavior, you might be sent to stand at attention in the hall for 15 minutes, then submit to a tongue-lashing that flayed your soul. If misbehavior persisted, you would be sent to "Sister Superior." In class you could be held up to your classmates' ridicule and contempt. If all else failed? You were expelled and sent to the public school system, which had to accept you.

Public educators do not have access to such methods. They are expected to handle larger and larger classes and handle discipline problems without effective tools and with precious little support from either their administrators or communities.

Teachers pay a lot for their education - tens of thousands of dollars, much of it at public colleges. If there are no jobs, students are not going to make that sacrifice to enter the field.

So, as more and more teachers are laid off and the unions that support those that remain are weakened, we will experience further deterioration of public education.

Do we have an alternative? It's difficult to see one at this point. If the funds are not there, they are not there. In a society that no longer makes anything and in which minimum wage jobs and high unemployment have become the norm, the tax revenues do not support the costs.

Are we in deep doodoo? You betcha.