A modest proposal to transform HOPE
The deficit facing Gov.-elect Nathan Deal and the state Legislature is approaching $2 billion, and Deal is already warning that education budgets will once again be slashed. More teacher furloughs, more layoffs, more crowded classrooms, shorter school years … the list of impacts is lengthy and troublesome.
In the meantime, Deal is also insisting that the state corporate income tax — which generates $600 million a year — be eliminated to make the state more “business-friendly.” Yeah, that would require still more cuts in education, but hey, it’s all about jobs, you know.
In addition, the state tax-reform commission is expected to propose lowering the income tax and increasing the state’s reliance on sales-tax revenue, a move designed to shift still more of the tax burden onto the working and middle class and away from the wealthy. True, we’re already a low-tax state, but we ought to do anything we can do to help out the real producers.
But you know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking we should abandon the half measures and the pretending and really go for it. Our leaders should admit to the world and their constituents what they really think about the state of Georgia and its people, and I know just the way to do it.
Take the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship, which generates almost $1 billion for college tuition and pre-kindergarten programs. I mean that literally: Let’s take it.
Let’s stop wasting all that money on silly efforts to raise education levels in Georgia — we all know that’s hopeless anyway — and instead use it on things that really matter. Let’s impress them with just how far down this line we’re really willing to go.
So, if you’re a CEO and you bring 50 jobs to Georgia, we’ll cut you a personal check for $1 million. Five hundred jobs will net you $10 million deposited in the bank account of your choosing. With a billion dollars in the kitty, we could bring an additional 50,000 jobs to Georgia without breaking a sweat.
We could rename the program Helping Out Private Enterprise, or HOPE. It would be a public-private partnership that no other state could match. Think of the growth our new HOPE would bring! Think of the prosperity! It would be a marvel, I tell ya!
– Jay Bookman
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224 comments Add your comment
Kamchak
December 15th, 2010
3:22 pm
…go ahead and tell us what does.
In a consumer based society, that would be “demand” for goods/services.
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:23 pm
sfd 3:17 – that is completely selective data mining. And you know it. Or should.
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
3:23 pm
Corporate Angels Spreading Hope IS all wrong. I doubt that any corporate angels are buying lottery tickets. From what I have read, people with low incomes who cannot afford it are the larger population wasting their money. When I read how much the people running the lottery are making, I realize it is not all going to HOPE. That was just a start.
Lil' Barry Bailout
December 15th, 2010
3:23 pm
Thank you mister obvious
Doggone/GA
December 15th, 2010
3:25 pm
“go ahead and tell us what does”
Buyers
Doggone/GA
December 15th, 2010
3:26 pm
“corporate angels”
You missed the example. A “stage angel” is who GIVES the money to the stage production. So “CASH” would be the “corporate angel” who GIVES the money to the corporations
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:27 pm
Dusty – not true. You’d be amazed how stupid some wealthy people are. A&B attorney won a million dollars playing the lottery once. My wife (despite the fact she was a math major in college, go figure, I still don’t get it) likes to play it every so often.
Lil' Barry Bailout
December 15th, 2010
3:27 pm
I wasn’t actually expecting intelligent answers from libbtards, so I’m not surprised at the moronic responses so far.
Kamchak
December 15th, 2010
3:27 pm
Thank you mister obvious
Clearly not so “obvious” to you, else you would have included in that puerile rant at 3:19.
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:28 pm
Oh, and the retards I used to work for, that were associated with Lehman Brothers, liked to play the lottery fairly frequently. That at least made more sense…. stupid people doing stupid things repeatedly….
popeye
December 15th, 2010
3:30 pm
Both of my kids graduated Summa Cum Laude from UGA with the assistance of their HOPE scholarships, still cost me a bundle, but without the HOPE I would still be in debt over my ears, and would not have had the capital to spend on their continuing education.
stands for decibels
December 15th, 2010
3:30 pm
completely selective data mining.
what, pray tell, is selective about tallying up the net job growth during two terms of a President’s administration?
Common Sense isn't very Common
December 15th, 2010
3:36 pm
Jobs come from businesses and companies….. lower taxes, more business. More business, more jobs. More jobs, everyone happier…
But demand creates jobs as we have seen since 2003, NO DEMAND = NO JOBS, NO MATTER what the tax rate is cut to it seems
Hillbilly Deluxe
December 15th, 2010
3:36 pm
I haven’t read through the comments so I may be repeating some of what’s been said.
In my opinion, there are quite a few topics here, rolled into one.
One the subject of the corporate tax, Sonny lowered all kinds of business taxes and I don’t see that that has benefitted the state, as a whole. Sonny himself seems to have made out pretty well, though.
As for raising the sales tax, first of all it’s a regressive tax and second of all, we are already paying 7% in most areas. True, not all of that goes to the state but we still pay it when we buy something. I remember when the state sales tax in Georgia was 3%. Yes we spend a lot more money than we did then but we also have a whole lot more people, buying a whole lot more goods, at much higher prices than then, as well. Any way you look at it, we pay twice the sales tax that we once did.
On the subject of Hope, as long as there is enough money there to fund the program, it’s not a big problem. If however, lottery receipts drop to where, not everything can be funded, then I have no problem with some sort of means testing. Bill Shipp made a good point once, that the lottery is “poor people paying to send middle class kids to college”. There is a lot of truth in that. And Bill wasn’t exactly a right wing conservative, for anybody who isn’t familiar with his writings.
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:37 pm
sfd – well, let me put it this way. it would be more accurate, since you think Presidents are the sole job creators and actual magicians behind the curtain, to say Bush created 5.4 million jobs through March of 2008 and then got really stupid his last year in office and decided to fire 4.3 million of them before he left office.
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
3:37 pm
jm 3:27
How many millionaires have you see in the news who won the lottery? Everybody I’ve seen was a hard working class man or someone almost in poverty (like the man who was murdered for his winnings by some lady who was “helping” him after he got rich). I think you have found the rare example. Why don’t you give your wife enough money so she won’t be gambling?? (smile!) Did she go to school on a Hope “scholarship”?
The idea that rich people are playing the lottery is almost ludicrous.
Mary Elizabeth
December 15th, 2010
3:39 pm
Thanks much for this impacting article. In its devastatingly ironic hyperbole, it shows just how far our value for business for business sake has evolved. even to the point that, now, we wish to make education a business machine model. One just can’t do that to the human soul. The soul will find a way out!
Let us remember Ebenezer Scrooge at this time of year and remember where his priorities were, until he saw the Light by being led (-duc) out (e-) of himself through the “education” of his soul by Christmas spirits past, present and future – from his small egocentric world of accruing money for himself into a greater understanding of humanity what we are, or at least should be, about while we inhabit this planet – the expansion of our consciousness and souls by loving and serving others.
Further expansion of my remarks from yesterday’s blog about former the Prime Minister of England Gordon Brown’s words regarding the globalization of the economic interrelatedness of all nations (See his new book, “Beyond the Crash.”):
When Brown said he wanted to see America take the lead in emphasizing the need for expansion of education, especially in the areas of technological skills, he was not speaking of just education of Americans to this end; he was speaking of America taking the lead as a model for all the nations of the world to put a priority on educating their populations, also. He said even though all nations need to curtail their expenses because of the worldwide Recession (as a result of, or the first by-product of, globalization of the worldwide economic market), the ONE area that does NOT need to be curtailed is education, so says Brown, and he wants America to show this and emphasize this to r ALL of the nations of the world. Education of the young people is the one area that needs investment for the world’s economic future, so says Brown, in his book.
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
3:40 pm
Oh, hell, let’s just go ahead and close the public schools K-PhD and be done with it…I’ve got mine, I don’t give a sh*t and the jobs they’re likely to lure into Georgia don’t requite a whole lot of learning…
“We’ll give them enough education to read our road signs…”
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
3:42 pm
jm. 3:37 You are all out of date. “Bush did it!” has now been changed to “OOH my goodness!Obama”!!! Try and keep up.
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:44 pm
Dusty 3:37 – no, she didn’t go to school in Georgia. Obviously the majority of people playing are poor. I don’t deny that. But there are probably more wealthy people playing than one would think. For whatever reason….
stands for decibels
December 15th, 2010
3:45 pm
it would be more accurate, since you think Presidents are the sole job creators and actual magicians behind the curtain
If you really think I think that, there’s little point in continuing this.
popeye
December 15th, 2010
3:47 pm
Dusty….True story, back in the late 80’s or early 90’s the winner of the lottery didn’t come forward for months. The reason, he had been in jail. He had been incarcerated for robbing his MOTHER for some nickels and dimes at her trailer down in south Georgia. It takes all kinds to make this world go round!
Common Sense isn't very Common
December 15th, 2010
3:47 pm
Anybody remember the bumper stickers about the lottery? ‘Didn’t vote for it, Won’t play it’
They should have added something to it. ‘But my kids will DAMN sure use the money from it’.
Hypocrites
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:47 pm
sfd – then what was your earlier point?
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
3:48 pm
jm
Lottery tickets? Lucky Seven scratch off! Immediate gratification… and I’m still ahead on that one…
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:49 pm
sfd – let’s not rehash this. I think Bush deserves some blame for some bad management and some stupid decisions. I don’t think he was as bad as people think. But that’s neither here nor there at this point. We can either make some stupid, or smart, decisions going forward. We’ll see what happens.
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
3:50 pm
JOSEF,
Where do you want us to cut expenses? HOPE is broke because it has been twisted into a giveaway fund that lost its purpose. Are we not cutting $$ in almost every program in the state? I believe in education in all forms It is top of the line but it is NOT the only important thing in the state.
jm
December 15th, 2010
3:51 pm
josef nix – yeah, every road trip, my wife loves to play. Comes bounding out of the gas station with something like that. I just roll my eyes and thank the lord she agreed that I can do the work managing our savings.
stands for decibels
December 15th, 2010
3:54 pm
One other thing and I gots to go…
Bush created 5.4 million jobs through March of 2008
even if we charitably set the cutoff point right there, that’d be pretty anemic number–that comes to ~ 63K jobs per month, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t even cover the replacement rate you need with normal population growth.
I point this out because a day doesn’t go by that some rightie doesn’t say some variant of “we had 4-5 percent unemployment under Bush and we have 9.8 percent unemployment under your Messiah!” – how the [bleep] do these guys thing we GOT to that 10 percent figure? It happened with catastrophic job losses, obviously, and I think it’s fair to say that the America shaped by the governance of a Republican President and Congress (and SCOTUS, while we’re at it) was ill equipped to weather an economic storm.
stands for decibels
December 15th, 2010
3:57 pm
well, on mo’ thing:
josef nix – yeah, every road trip, my wife loves to play.
you have my deepest sympathies.
(but I’m sure she has many, many other lovely and redeeming qualities.)
paleo-neo-Carlinist (the artist also known as Joe the Plutocrat)
December 15th, 2010
3:59 pm
I was going to comment, but what’s the point? Unemployed people don’t have “income” to tax and they “consume” far less than those with a paycheck. Reducing corporate taxes doesn’t create jobs, it creates weatlh (for business owners).
jm
December 15th, 2010
4:00 pm
sfd
yes she does…..
Matti
December 15th, 2010
4:01 pm
Although I’m normally eager to make helpful suggestions (heh…) or offer enlightenment, I find myself at a loss for words when faced with people who cannot grasp the simple logic that education matters, and that the precept of educating every citizen to his or her potential and capacity is a benefit, not a liability, to us all.
JDW
December 15th, 2010
4:02 pm
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
3:17 pm
“JDW…spoken like a good Democratic Bookman “brat”.. Gov. Elect Deal has not even been installed and you have already passed a “verdict” on him. What you like to tell me all the indictments made against him? Nor have I heard any indictments against Gov. Perdue.
Perhaps you would also like to tell me about perfect Democratic governors around the USA. Start with Illinois. Try being fair for a change.”
I base my “verdict” of Raw Deal on the facts….
Member Most Corrupt Congressmen Club
At least three outright major lies on his financial filings
Lied on loan documents by not disclosing prior bankruptcy of a principal
Abused office on countless occasions by using government resources to lobby for state business
As for Democratic crooks…didn’t vote for them either.
The real question is how you can support Deal and look yourself in the mirror?
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
4:04 pm
DUSTY–
Cut anything BUT education. HOPE was the best thing Georgia ever did. The Pre-K program was a beacon and the college scholarships made it possible to send OUR kids to get that stupid piece of paper demanded by those corporations we seek to bring in. Instead, we’re going to wind up with yet another geneation unprepared progeny and those companies lured in will be bringing in yet another generation of Carpetbaggers to fill those positions…Is that what you want?
jm
Cheap thrills are hard to find these days…tell you wife she and I know how to be happy…
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
carlosgvv
December 15th, 2010
4:05 pm
paleo-neo-Carlinist
Don’t confuse all these Tea Party lug nuts with the facts. The Republicans and Corporations have already made up their minds for them.
jm
December 15th, 2010
4:09 pm
josef nix – you can change HOPE without cutting the knees off of education spending. It needs to be needs based again, for starters. Partially SAT score driven, second. Heaven only knows we need to invest mroe money in extending the school year through summer and having longer school hours for K-12… but that’s another, but related, issue.
Yeah, she seems to enjoy it. Thank heavens she only does it when we’re on road trips. Probably says more about the monotony of my company than the thrill of the lottery….
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:10 pm
Popeye,
Good example. I wonder how he got out of jail to buy lottery tickets?
Mary Elizabeth,
Yep, Scrooge was a meanie with a lot of money he hated to give away. But Georgia is not Scrooge and only trying to make a budget. Perhaps you should read the story about the man who thought he had found someone who could make gold out of hay. Rumplestilkin, wasn’t it? Liberals seem to think that person is still out there to be found in Democratic headquarters. Unfortuately it did not work and Georgia can’t make gold out of hay either. Sometimes reality does hit home.
Common Sense is not very Common
Not everybody depends on government giveaways. My five children have earned seven college degrees (mostly science, accounting and electronics)and not on the internet. They got support from home but not a lot of money. They managed to pay for most of it by their own choice. One, just out of the army, used a Pell grant but they ran out before he finished.
Now don’t blame our children for the “sins” of adults. That US deficit was not run up by our children. But of course they will be stuck with it. We MUST start cutting now and that calls for cuts we do not like to make..
jack bull
December 15th, 2010
4:13 pm
do away with the state income tax and the ‘birthday’ tax.. sounds good to me.. if the state of Texas can do away with both, why can’t we?
popeye
December 15th, 2010
4:14 pm
Dusty … In response, he had purchased the tickets before he stuck his hand underneath his mothers mattress…ergo while he sat in jail he already had the winner in his pocket!
Pogo
December 15th, 2010
4:14 pm
I love it when liberals scream “we need to spend more money on education”. New York, which spends an average of $13,500 dollars per student, has graduation rates as low or lower than Georgia. Even with those states that have high graduation rates one must wonder, just because their graduation rates are high did they really do a better job or did they learn to cheat the system? It just may mean that they have learned how to cheat the system (by manipulating test scores) to keep the taxpayer money coming in.
Money will not fix education. I hate to sound cliche but education truly does begin in the home. As long as we have “disposable” kids our education system will turn out morons. Decent parents are a hard thing to find nowadays and most treat their childrens education as something the “government” should be in charge of. The last thing anybody should want is the government in charge of educating their children. The government can’t even handle its own affairs, much less Americas childrens education. And, as long as we treat the educational system as a job entitlement program and we can’t get rid of sorry @$$ teachers and administrators we will turn out morons. It doesn’t look real good for America’s future, does it?
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
4:18 pm
jm
I understand your point about needs based. However, I am a proponent of FREE public education and that extends to the state supported colleges/training schools. A BA/BS today carries the value of a high school diploma of just a few decades ago. If we are running schools to prepare our future to meet its basic needs and that piece of paper is a requirement therefor, then it should be free.
jm
I buy them as the fancy strikes…by no means a fanatic, but it does, as you say, break the monotony…
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:22 pm
JDW
Most corrupt congressmen club? Now that has to be a Democratic organization and Deal is a Republican.
You did not list any Deal indictments. Strange. Nor did you mention that many of his financial dealings that failed were loans to his daughter. Yeah, evil man. Helping his daughter!!
Anyway, he is busy getting things lined up and cutting expenses much to the dismay of Democrats. Let us hope he will help Georgia not make some of the mistakes he made in giveaways.
popeye
December 15th, 2010
4:26 pm
Pogo, that old logic “education begins at home” does not withstand the smell test.
A good example you have a horse (Secretariat for example) and I have a mule (we’ll call him Ole’ Rivers) and, from the day Ole Rivers is born I feed him the best food money can buy, and take him to the track everyday with the finest trainers in the world….Well, you know at the end of the day whose going to win the race….and, it ain’t going to be Ole Rivers.
Moral of the story….Some kids are faster than others!
Hillbilly Deluxe
December 15th, 2010
4:34 pm
I’ve had dealings with Nathan Deal; I’[ve had dealings with his business partner. Grandma always said if you don’t have anything good to say………………………
JDW
December 15th, 2010
4:36 pm
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:22 pm
JDW
“Most corrupt congressmen club? Now that has to be a Democratic organization and Deal is a Republican.
You did not list any Deal indictments. Strange. Nor did you mention that many of his financial dealings that failed were loans to his daughter. Yeah, evil man. Helping his daughter!!
Anyway, he is busy getting things lined up and cutting expenses much to the dismay of Democrats. Let us hope he will help Georgia not make some of the mistakes he made in giveaways.”
Most Corrupt Congressmen, nice bipartisan list including 16 Republicans and 10 Democrats.
As Deal has the bank that made the loans in his pocket he may repeat may escape indictment. Grand Jury is still out.
I did not criticize his financial dealings merely his attempts to avoid disclosure as required by law.
As for cutting…I see he wants lower taxes and less for education…real visionary that guy
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:37 pm
JOSEF,
Sometimes your heart gets bigger than your head.! We cannot have free education, free medical care, almost free homes, free tranportation,and free food. The same argument has been made for most of those things such as saying that everybody will be stupid, undernourished and no busines will come etc. etc. etc. Business will not come to acquire high taxes either.
Somebody is going to have to pay for something. Are you suggesting that our TAXES (total income) will cover all needs? That would mean total government control.
I am dead set against that. Don’t want to lose my independence You should hear me try to sing “America the beautiful!”
BADA BING
December 15th, 2010
4:38 pm
To hear tell it, everybody wins or ‘breaks even’ on the lottery. Vegas knows the old saying about everybody breaking even, then how come the casinos make millions of dollars? Most people lose, a few win big.That being said, I drop a few bucks on the lottery. You spend $3 dollars in Starbucks for something you really don’t need, but won’t put a dollar on a $100 million lottery?
Kamchak
December 15th, 2010
4:40 pm
You spend $3 dollars in Starbucks…
Not in this lifetime.
jm
December 15th, 2010
4:40 pm
What a joke. As if there isn’t a quid pro quo already as soon as she went to work for GS after being the CA Treasurer. Dirty Democrats…. someone should go to jail for this.
Goldman Sachs Moves Kathleen Brown to Midwest Role (Update1)
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By Christine Harper and Michael B. Marois
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — Kathleen Brown, who runs the West Coast municipal finance team at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., will move to a newly created post in Chicago after her brother Jerry Brown was elected California’s next governor.
Brown, 65, will become chairman of investment banking for the Midwest, New York-based Goldman Sachs said in an internal memo today. The former California state treasurer joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director in 2001. Michael DuVally, a spokesman for the firm, confirmed the contents of the memo, which was signed by David Solomon and John S. Weinberg, co-heads of investment banking.
“Kathleen is taking on this new role because it broadens her client focus,” DuVally said. “Had she continued to work with California municipalities, it might have created the perception of a conflict of interest.”
Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, lent the state $1.5 billion in November as part of a syndicate of six banks. The arrangement provided California with a $6.7 billion bridge loan to help pay bills after a budget impasse left the state short on cash. Goldman Sachs was also the lead underwriter on $4.93 billion in bonds sold by the state since Jan. 1, 2009.
BADA BING
December 15th, 2010
4:41 pm
Kamchak, I don’t go to Starbucks either.
JDW
December 15th, 2010
4:42 pm
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:37 pm
“Somebody is going to have to pay for something.”
First thing you said that made sense…maybe we should start with tax cuts that make no sense and go from there.
paleo-neo-Carlinist a/k/a Joe the Plutocrat
December 15th, 2010
4:45 pm
we need to come to an agreement on the value of education in terms of the values imparted via education. know what I mean? it’s great to acquire knowledge, but skill is better. let’s face it, folks, (most of) the people making the REAL money are morally/ethically challenged, soul-less, parasites and pimps. seems to me we need to determine if we “value” intelligence, ethics, and altruistism, or if the “he who has the most toys wins” (remember this 1980’s bumper sticker?) ethos is what’s best. and please, all you free market wags and wanna-be wealthy types, spare me the lectures.
jm
December 15th, 2010
4:45 pm
Your tax dollars. Hard at work paying government workers and contractors…..
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=apvu1fEpzwBU
The Washington metropolitan area emerged as the wealthiest and most educated region of the past five years. The only three communities with median household incomes higher than $100,000 are in suburban counties in Virginia. Maryland, which also borders the nation’s capital, saw income levels in Howard County increase at the eighth-fastest pace in the U.S. since 2000.
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:46 pm
HillBilly Deluxe,
My neighbor is from north Georgia and her granny says GOOD things about Nathan Deal. Seems to think his problems were more a family kerfootle than anything. But, the thought of another term with that ! that ! that! former governor was enough to turn folks to almost anyone, say Mickey Mouse.
I’m willing to give Deal a chance. (It IS Christmas.)
Kamchak
December 15th, 2010
4:48 pm
and please, all you free market wags and wanna-be wealthy types, spare me the lectures.
You really don’t believe that’s gonna happen, do you?
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:51 pm
JDW 4:42
I always make sense. That is why my children are so smart! (and why I am a Republican!!!!) Thought you would like that one.
JDW
December 15th, 2010
4:52 pm
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:46 pm
“I’m willing to give Deal a chance. (It IS Christmas.)”
Deal is just like the scorpion…
The Scorpion and the Frog
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion
says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”
The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp “Why?”
Replies the scorpion: “Its my nature…”
Deal’s nature is to pad his pockets and damn the consequences for the state.
JDW
December 15th, 2010
4:55 pm
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
4:51 pm
JDW 4:42
“I always make sense. That is why my children are so smart! (and why I am a Republican!!!!) Thought you would like that one.”
Take heart, there is hope for them yet…I voted consistently Republican until 1996 and then I learned.
egerddy
December 15th, 2010
4:55 pm
Spend more money on education……….can anyone spell APS…Atlanta Public Schools. We don’t need no edumacation. We needs big erasers! Don’cha just love it when a plan comes together!!! Cheat so we can compete for HOPE so that we can take remedial courses in college that we’ll still flunk! Can I supersize that order, sir!!! Sad but true….
Trusslady
December 15th, 2010
4:56 pm
Here’s what they’ll do – cut Corporate taxes to entice businesses to start/relocate in Georgia. Cut education so that there is no available workforce. Corporations will complain they can’t get the workforce they need; they’ll bring in H1-B visa workers from India at a fraction of the cost of hiring Americans. Voila! Corporations are happy. And if the uneducated masses who keep voting these yahoo’s into office can’t find employment, well then they must be lazy slackers!
Matti
December 15th, 2010
4:57 pm
JDW @ 4:52,
Fitting parable.
Mary Elizabeth
December 15th, 2010
4:58 pm
Dusty 4:10
Generally speaking, you would be right. However, there are more factors than meets the eye when observing a little closer. Funds for education have been cut by 7 billion dollars over the last decade and the cuts began well before the Recession hit. Remember, Republican ideological mantra is to cut government as much as possible and they played this out even when funds were available. Boils down to choice it seems when we have such a strong ideological impact in this state: Do we want the masses of children educated by for-profit private schools or by non-profit public schools. Thomas Jefferson was a strong public “common good” school advocate. Watch out for private schools being used for personal finanacial gain if the pendulum swings too far right.
Thanks for writing me. Got to run for more Christmas shopping. Check you later – maybe in the next day or two. Merry Christmas! And Happy Holidays to all!
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
5:00 pm
DUSTY
Why not? We can have free enterprise…
Seriously, though, you miss the point that it is in our social best interest to provide these things…nobody is saying that the private institutions cannot exist and prosper, but NOT at the expense of the general welfare…an educated, healthy, well fed, well clothed and well housed society is a productive one.
Civilization owes its very genesis to that mutual assistance aimed at providing those fundamentals. It is that Divine Spark that brought us from the trees to the stars…
DannyX
December 15th, 2010
5:01 pm
My neighbor knows Deal also. His grandpa said Nathan Deal got a cushy no-bid government contract. He then started charging twice the normal rate. Says Deal is always polite. Says “Merry Christmas.” Even uses his blinkers.
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
5:04 pm
TRUSSLADY
Much truth, but where is the choice that’s NOT a yahoo…?
jm
December 15th, 2010
5:04 pm
josef nix “Civilization owes its very genesis to that mutual assistance aimed at providing those fundamentals. It is that Divine Spark that brought us from the trees to the stars…”
But not for free. Trade, specialization, and enterprise built our civilization. Not giving away things for free…..
thomas
December 15th, 2010
5:07 pm
JDW
December 15th, 2010
4:52 pm
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold; the bird froze up and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.
A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!
The morals of this story are:
Not everyone who drops $h*t on you is your enemy.
Not everyone who gets you out of $h*t is your friend.
And when you’re in deep $h*t, keep your mouth shut
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
5:10 pm
JDW, 4:52
Good story there . Never trust a scorpion. which reminds me. Aren’t you ready to return to your proper Republican status? I mean there are broken promises scattered all over the Obama White House. You can’t move without stepping on one. Not to mention that Bush looks like a diamond in the rough of rowdy spendthrift Democrats?
Welcome back to the fold. As you said, there’s always hope (just not the same old style HOPE)…
Kamchak
December 15th, 2010
5:15 pm
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
“She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be an Obama Democrat.”
“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”
The man smiled and responded, “You must be a Republican.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”
“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”
JDW
December 15th, 2010
5:15 pm
@jm, she has a bad premise:
“Over the last 60 years, federal government receipts have averaged 18 percent of gross domestic product. Whether the top marginal income tax rate was 92 percent, as it was during the 1950s, or 28 percent, as it was for a short spell in the late 1980s, the government can’t manage to snag a bigger share of the pie.”
in recent history we have had two years where the federal government brought in more than they spent…1999 & 2000. 1998 & 2001 were within shouting distance. Respectively tax revenues as a % of GDP were 20%, 20%, 20.9% and 19.8%.
I believe the reason for that was the following:
–We did not deficit spend forcing more money into the pot available to fund new businesses which are the ones that create the jobs leading to more tax collections.
–The Administration raised taxes in 1993 to an appropriate level.
–The PayGo principle was enforced requiring any new spending to be funded.
The first thing the Bush Administration did was lower taxes to an unsupportable level. Then they overturned PayGo and started deficit spending again…i.e. Medicare Part D, wars, etc….
The end result of those decisions led us to today.
I think the recent formula put for the by the Deficit Reduction Commission where spending and revenue equals about 21% is the way back…we have been there and it works.
JDW
December 15th, 2010
5:17 pm
@Thomas…that one is good too…especially with all the $hit flying around here.
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
5:18 pm
jm
I would make the argument that it owes its very genesis thereto. but in its development, to use your words, it was built on precisely what you say. The structure must be maintained or it collapses and, if we do not maintain that structure through providing the tools to do so, all we will be left with are some spectacular ruins for some more rational civilization from out somewhere near Alpha Centauri to come visit and shake their heads in bemused wonder of “what were they thinking?”
Jackie
December 15th, 2010
5:23 pm
Free public education is what has propelled the United States to the front of the world economic order. It is still the one single thing that has kept the USA at the top of the list for companies to do their business.
Did you ever notice how many of the foreign auto, electronics manufacturers and drug companies have a major portion of their industrial capacity in the USA?
BMW announced a few weeks past it was moving most of its industrial production to its Spartanburg/Greenville, SC facilities because the level of education is superior to any of their other world locations and the cost of labor and benefits are close to some of the lowest in the world.
A cost / benefit analysis would clearly show why the American worker is the most productive in the world.
Low-information voters only see the numbers the equate to “cuts” in all segments of society if it means not cutting their pay or benefits.
popeye
December 15th, 2010
5:23 pm
As we speak the vote in the house for the repeal of DADT is 259 yeas 176 Nays…..
This is a good thing, and about time!
JDW
December 15th, 2010
5:23 pm
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
5:10 pm
JDW, 4:52
“Aren’t you ready to return to your proper Republican status? I mean there are broken promises”
You mean like Reagan:
–Deficits don’t matter
–Trickle down economics
–We would never sell arms to Iran
Or Duhbya:
–We don’t torture
–Mission accomplished
–We only need 50,000 troops to secure Iraq
–Pay no attention to actually counting the votes…my state party chairman says I won
No I shall remain blissfully independent…a fiscal conservative and possessing a heart.
While the current Administration is not my ideal, they are far far better than either their predecessor or the other option.
JDW
December 15th, 2010
5:25 pm
@Kamchak 5:15 Now thats funny
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
5:27 pm
Jackie…
And what Spartanburg/Greenville schools did in that process is a little known story…they went, asked the German companies what they needed, got the money to rolling in and provided a work force educated to the needs of the community…
Another one to look at is Dalton, Georgia…
popeye
December 15th, 2010
5:28 pm
Kamchak … Everytime I hear that joke it get’s funnier. Perhaps because it’s sooooo true!
Jackie
December 15th, 2010
5:33 pm
@josef nix
Many of those that only believe a tax cut is the solution to all problems do not know or do not care to know what education does for society.
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
5:38 pm
Jackie
I made mention of Spartanburg/Greenville and what happened there…something almost its opposite happened in Dalton…the carpet company was faced with having to consider relocation because its workforce pool was not educated to their standards…but they went and asked the schools “what do YOU need” and working together they put together a plan that is well worth looking at…and its working…
popeye
December 15th, 2010
5:39 pm
Hey Jackie
Glad to see you hear tonight.
First Team all the way!
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
5:40 pm
JOSEF,
You are such a sweetheart with your head in the clouds. I do hope Unmentionable is tending the finances in the family. I would hate to see you flat broke from generosity and selling pencils to buy a bite to eat.
I do not believe giving away money that is not there is a humanitarian project. Placing a burden on generations is not an asset even with everybody in the higher echelons of good education.
I have nothing against public or private schools. I even expect government to provide public schools.along with the military, firefighters, police and even basic medical care for the impoverished. (Grady). but I expect them to be managed in an efficient financial way. They are basics but even basics go when there is nothing to pay for them. (Southerners in past history knew that too well.)
As to the human spark, efficiency does not kill it. In fact, I think it is more enlighened to see that debt for future generations is not a move from the heart. Nor do I see that taking from the rich by taxation is a heartfetl move either. Ah so…let me remove the picture of Scrooge from the mantelpiece..
PS: Is Mary Elizabeth your sister???
Jefferson
December 15th, 2010
5:44 pm
I don’t know if Deal is very good at money, look at the shape he’s in. 1917 ain’t far away.
jm
December 15th, 2010
5:44 pm
Well this is funny. In the context of the earlier discussions of evolution, gravity, etc.
In 1994, Anderson received an email out of the blue from Michael Martin Nieto, a cosmologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe, NM. Nieto had lately become interested in alternatives to Newton’s inverse square law for gravity, including a new theory called MOND (modified Newtonian dynamics), and so he contacted Anderson to find out how sure NASA was about the strength of gravity based on their observations of the motions of spacecraft. Anderson replied that, as a matter of fact, gravity didn’t seem to be working right for the Pioneers.
http://www.popsci.com/pioneeranomaly
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
5:46 pm
DUSTY
Actually, I tend the finances…
And, yes, Mary Elizabeth is my sister…
And I would not argue in the least that it’s not a problem of husbandry, but giving the profligates a free hand to rape and pillage at will simply leaves us trapped in Reconstruction…
Skipp Serrano
December 15th, 2010
5:48 pm
Here’s a novel idea to help fill the gap between revenues and expenditures in the new budget. Since it was the legilators reckless spending that has caused the problem ; let them now belly-up to the table and go without pay and allowances for the new session. And, let Crooked Deal pass on that money to the school boards so that we can have some quality education in Georgia.
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
5:56 pm
Oh dear, KamChak is telling hot air stories. I figured he knew a lot about it, him huffing & puffing so much.
JDW…Reagan’s been dead a long time, honey. Don’t you worry your head about him. and…
Have you noticed that the USA has not had any major terrorists attacks since 9/11? Somebody did somjething about that. Now’s the time to say “Bush did it!”
WHAT??? Foreign companies came here and THEN told the schools what they needed? Smart companies. Come to the USA if you want good workers. (But sometimes they only want cheap.)
Jackie
December 15th, 2010
6:01 pm
@popeye
SALUTE!!
First Team!
How is the Pacific Northwest?
Normal
December 15th, 2010
6:03 pm
DADT Repeal just passed in the House!
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
6:05 pm
Normal
“DADT Repeal just passed in the House!”
So?
Got that one at St. Elsewhere…
Jackie
December 15th, 2010
6:06 pm
Foreign companies came to the USA because of the quality of the education, work force and stability of the country.
As for taking from the rich, the infrastructure had to be in place for them to make their millions. Wonder how many of us paid our taxes to build that needed infastructure?
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
6:06 pm
Josef,YOU tend the finances? How much do you charge for your pencils?
Mary Elizabeth is my sister too but I don’t think she will claim us. Well, I’m too mean for one thing.
Awww rape & pillage!! Are you writing a new book for TV? It happens there every night. I like “It’s a Good Life ” better. It is getting a little gray around the edges but still has “the spark”!!..
Off to feed the hungey…my own at the moment……..
Dusty
December 15th, 2010
6:09 pm
HUNGRY!!
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
6:10 pm
Jackie…
It wasn’t just taxes to build that infrastructure…but, sshhh, we don’t talk about restitution around here…
Jackie
December 15th, 2010
6:10 pm
DADT will now go the that legislative hell-hole that stops all meaningful legislation called the US Senate. Can you imagine some of the lies that will be spouted?
Jackie
December 15th, 2010
6:12 pm
@josef nix
The central theme of the low-information voters always seem to be tax centric. Putting “tax cuts” into any sentence confuses them.
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
6:13 pm
DUSTY
A tip…pencils…when the power goes off, they’ll be worth a fortune!
(Normal…and you and I can become Bookleggers, eh? Dug out Canticle again…hmmmm….)
josef nix
December 15th, 2010
6:14 pm
Jackie
Aw, now why would we be worried about the hell hole that stops all meaningful… when we’ve got such fierce advocacy…
Jackie
December 15th, 2010
6:18 pm
@josef nix
If it were not so sad, it would be something to laugh it.