by Leo Sell, Legislative Committee Chairperson
Have you ever heard the expression, “starve the beastâ€? Since the Reagan years, this has been the name of the strategy – even crusade – engaged in by conservatives to “reduce the size of government†and such. It has been a heinous and deliberate strategy to eliminate revenue and cause so much financial pressure on the Federal, State, and local governments that all would have to eliminate virtually anything that would be considered a “social goodâ€.
Well, fellow AP, you and I are part of the “beast†that conservatives have been starving. This is true from multiple perspective – Higher Ed/Public Ed, funding is abysmal. Student tuition costs have gone out of sight. Assaults on public employee pay, benefits, and pensions. Again, that’s you and me. With the latter, conservatives have tended to portray us grossly overpaid with huge and wonderful benefits that the “average person†will never see. Of course, what they’re really trying to do is use public employees as scapegoats. The old strategy of playing one group of downtrodden against another – eventually they’ll kill one another (literally or figuratively).
There’s much to be said about all of this, and rather than go on and on myself I’d prefer to share a link to an article that covers much of this in a superior manner than I could provide.
Please read it over. Pay particular attention to the information deep in the article about higher education and public employees.
We have to get the Protect our Jobs amendment passed this fall and we must elect worker/middle-class friendly lawmakers instead of these conservative ideologues would would sooner see you and I out on the streets.
And take a look at a few more of the articles available at http://www.governmentisgood.com.