Education, The Political Pawn That Could Lead To The Downfall Of America

Education, The Political Pawn That Could Lead To The Downfall Of America

April 27, 2012  By D. DiFrancesco

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." 

Thomas Jefferson

President Thomas Jefferson

For all of his faults, Thomas Jefferson was a huge proponent of free public education up through and including university education.  He viewed educating the populace as one of, if not the most important safeguards to preserving our democracy.

Why is it then that education is always one of the first things that gets put on the chopping block when budget discussions occur.

1786 August 13. (to George Wythe) "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness...Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."

Thomas Jefferson

For the first time in our history, our children are receiving less of an education than previous generations did.  In a country as great as ours, this is an absolute disgrace.

If you want to see examples of this, you need to look no further than this weeks headlines. Contained within you will find examples of our nations educational system being used as a pawn for political gain, and in some cases profit.

The Washington Post reports, House approves student loan plan; White House vows veto over health fund depletion,  Please tell me how bankrupting college students before they even get to truly contribute to society is in this nations best interest!  What we are looking at is the Republican Party tying their student loan plan to an attempt to destroy the President's health care initiative.

READ THE COMPLETE POST.

Has President Obama Overstepped His Constitutional Authority As Republicans Claim?

President Barack Obama

Read the complete article at my new blog site!

April 25, 2012

By: D. DiFrancesco

We Can’t Wait - President Obama's slogan signifying the administrations unwillingness to wait for Congress to decide on domestic policy issues.

President Obama is not letting congressional gridlock slow our economic growth.

"Without a doubt, the most urgent challenge that we face right now is getting our economy to grow faster and to create more jobs…. we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will."

- President Barack Obama, October 24, 2011

Is President Barack Obama's willingness to use all of the tools at his disposal, and in the process bypassing Congress, appropriate in light of the ongoing gridlock caused by the extreme partisanship and inflexibility that exists in the right wing of the Republican Party?

Selfishly, I would say yes, but does history support this?

Read the complete article at my new blog site!

Do Higher Income Tax Rates Produce Lower Unemployment? History Says They Do!

April 18, 2012

By: D. DiFrancesco

Out of my own curiosity, I decided to look at the relationship between the top income tax rates by year and the annual unemployment rate.  My conclusions are based on the years 1950 through 2011.  I would also like to state that I am neither an accountant nor an economist so the statements I am making are my personal opinion based on what I see in the numbers.

The figures used for my conclusions were derived from two sources, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Tax Policy Center.

In the process of doing this analysis I learned some things which I found pretty fascinating...

• The top tax rate during the 61  years being reviewed  occurred in 1953 with a rate of 92% and ironically, the annual unemployment rate was the lowest of any of the years sampled at 2.93%.

READ THE COMPLETE STORY.

Vermont Passes Landmark Resolution Calling for Constitutional Amendment to End Corporate Personhood

A demonstration calling for the overturn of Citizens United in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on February 23. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In what I hope is the first of many, the Vermont State Senate voted 26-3 to call for a constitutional amendment to make it clear that corporations are not people.

The measure, spearheaded by State Senator Virgina Lyons (D) in conjuction with Move to Amend was supported in a bipartisen fashion.

Aquene Freechild, the senior organizer with Public Citizen’s Democracy Is For People Campaign says, “Support for the resolution cut across party lines. Six towns in Republican districts and 13 cities and towns that have sent both Democrats and Republicans to the state Legislature voted for the resolution by wide margins.  This bipartisan opposition to the Citizens United ruling mirrors several nationwide polls on the issue.”

Read the complete story.

Rep. Allen West's Ignorant Comments Show Why the Republican Party Is Not The Party of the American People

With all of the negative and horribly unhelpful comments made by representatives of both the Republican and Democratic party's this election season, Rep. Allen West's (R-FL) has to be some of the most inflammatory I have heard.

We have had Republican talking head, Rush Limbaugh's insulting remarks to Sandra Fluke, calling her a slut and a prostitute after her testimony before House Democrats.  And just yesterday, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen's comment about Ann Romney, who as a stay at home mom, "never worked a day in her life." inciting a Republican backlash and causing everyone from the White House to RNC chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to apologize and distance themselves from her comments.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL)

As if these were not enough, now we have Rep. Allen West, who when asked by a constituent at a town hall meeting in Jensen Beach, FL, how many members of Congress are "card-carrying Marxists?"  stated, "I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party."  Has the entire Republican Party gone off the deep-end?

West's campaign manager, Tim Edison, in what appears to be an attempt to soften the inflammatory rhetoric spewed by the Representative, says the members in question belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus.  What does that mean as if it is any less disrespectful.

Read the complete story.

Republicans Hope for Economy to Fail...More Suffering for the Middle Class

It should come as no surprise that the Republican party and its candidates are hoping for the failure of President Barack Obama's economic policies going into November's election.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said criticism from Republicans on Friday’s worse-than-expected jobs report was reflective of their political motives.

“What's really bothersome to me is that it almost seems like my Republican colleagues in Congress and Mitt Romney are rooting for economic failure,” Wasserman Schultz told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley. “I mean, they've been hyper focused on one job, Barack Obama's, for really the last two years. And we all need to be pulling together to focus on moving the economy forward for the middle class and for working families.”

Read the complete article.

Romney Out of Touch and Spouting Lies in Preparation for the General Election

April, 5, 2012

By: D. DiFrancesco

Mitt Romney

I am now firmly convinced of what I had only suspected for months now, the Republican presidential candidates have run out of things to complain about.

Mitt Romney, the likely Republican nominee for President is beginning to firm up his talking points  for the general election in November. Items such as the economy, gas prices, the middle class, and the size of government are key on his list.

Lets take a look at these one by one and see how things stand.

The Economy

Mitt Romney stated the following on Tuesday, "There is no question that under this president, this recovery has been the most tepid, the most weak, the most painful since the beginning of our recorded economic history, and I'm including the Great Depression."

Read the full article.

Obama Confronts Republicans for Covertly Promoting Social Darwinism on the Backs of the Poor

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis)

During a speech today at an Associated Press luncheon, President Barack Obama finally called the House budget plan supported by Mitt Romney and a vast majority of Republicans exactly what it is, “social darwinism”.

This budget, proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis) and passed by the house on a primarily partisan 228 -191 vote will be disastrous for the middle class, the poor, and the elderly and the Republicans don’t seem to care in the least.

This budget will lower the tax rates by eliminating the six tax brackets in favor of two, one at 10% and the upper level at 25% down from 35% for the wealthiest Americans.  In addition, this budget aims to slow the growth of the federal deficit at the expense of social programs that help the poor and elderly.

Read the complete story.

Obama Comments on Obamacare Case Currently Before the Supreme Court

President Barack Obama

April 2, 2012

During a press conference at the White House attended by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Barack Obama issued a bold statement to the Justices of the Supreme Court regarding his healthcare initiative, the Affordable Care Act, also know as "Obamacare".

Obama stated, "I'm confident this (Obamacare) will be upheld because it should be upheld". He went on to say that overturning the law would be "an unprecedented and extraordinary step", comparing a rejection of the law to judicial activism.

Read the full article.