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.

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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%.

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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.

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