Another Washington Payoff, Another Travesty

I didn’t want to write about politics in this post, because besides eating tainted oysters, it’s the only other subject that makes me sick to my stomach on a regular basis. But with the quick passage of HR 1586, I simply had no choice. I’m so mad right now that I’m fogging up a twenty-two inch computer monitor from two feet away.

This bill is informally being called, “The Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. I say “informally,” because they rushed it through so quickly that they actually didn’t give the bill a title. Costing a total of 26.1 billion dollars, 10 billion of that is earmarked for grants to school districts to save what is purported to be over 300,000 teacher jobs.

“What a righteous cause,” you might say. “As a former teacher, you must be thrilled that the government has finally done something right.” Well, forgive me fellow teachers, and all you pro-education zealots out there. I’m not the least bit thrilled, and our demented politicians have gotten it wrong yet again!

In short, this government is out of control when it comes to spending. And that refers to spending on “good” things, as well as “bad.” We are at a point in our history that each new dollar expended will have to be accounted for and paid back by the very children who were gratuitously posed around Speaker Pelosi in her photo op signing ceremony. How sad is that for them?

Of course, the majority party would argue that the money is coming not from us, but from new taxes on those “greedy” corporations who earn overseas income. Pelosi’s even gone so far as to say this bill “reduces the national deficit by 1.4 billion dollars.” Right, and I’ll be playing center for the L.A. Lakers next season.

Face it, Folks, Washington doesn’t gave a hoot about your kids and their education. It’s reality is that teachers are one of the largest and most reliable voting blocks the majority party has in its ranks. I should know, because I’m still a registered Democrat. And the other constituents who will benefit from the remaining 16 billion dollars of the bill, are poor Americans who mostly vote like teachers, that is, if they vote at all.

So why select teachers as the “cause celebre” for saving jobs in this disastrous economy? Are they “better” than clerks, office and factory workers, or people in the service industries? Is it because they’re better educated and more important to the health of our society? I don’t think so. And when you consider the implications of tenure, they actually begin with better job security than most.

No matter how you slice it, then, the political motivation for HR 1586 is clear. If you take care of teachers, they’ll take care of you at election time. And all the while, you can save face as you slip them the bribe, because, of course, it’s really “for the children.”

With November soon upon us, this week’s legislation is a partisan wolf masquerading as an honorable philanthropic gift to lambs. But anyone with basic common sense and the willingness to look forward honestly, certainly realizes one immutable point. Once they’re fattened up by the farmer, sweet little lambs become lamb chops!