Is anyone listening to the realities of our nation’s fiscal health? Please tell me there is someone out there with a grasp on reality. After reading an editorial comment made by Washington Post columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel, I am wondering if there is a total disconnect in our nation’s capital.
She is advocating, get this, free college for every U.S. citizen. Come to think of it, she may be advocating free college for illegals as well. Apparently, vanden Heuvel hasn’t been listening to news reports that student loans amount to $1 trillion at present and that the nation’s total indebtedness is approaching $16 trillion (that’s an estimated $50,267.22 for each citizen).
Perhaps vanden Heuvel was in touch with Michael Ramirez, a political cartoonist for Creators News Service, that satirizes a college student sitting on a couch with her parents and informing them that she expects them to “Pay for my birth control. Pay for my electric car. Pay for my health care. Weatherize my house. Loan me money for college. Repay my college loans. Pay for my unemployment. Pay for my solar panels. Pay for my job training. Pay for my mortgage. Pay for my entitlements, food stamps....” Get the picture?
Has vanden Heuvel lost her mind? Or have we bought into the entitlement society so we pick up on her mind-set and see her point of view as reasonable? If so, perhaps we are on the same path that Greece is on, one of total financial meltdown.
Her idea is not new. California, before its current fiscal mess, had provided free post-secondary education for its residents. How did that turn out? Well, take a look at the mess Gov. Jerry Brown is trying to solve.
As a nation, we must be willing to face the harsh reality that we cannot afford the entitlements that began with Social Security and have mushroomed into a total nanny state. We must accept the fact that our nation, along with socialist Europe cannot afford to spend every dime we have and continue to borrow from the future. It’s not healthy for individuals, families or us as citizens of this great nation. We need to tell our elected officials to stop spending until we can afford the programs we can afford. If we have to tighten our belts, then do what is necessary to bring our spending within the means generated by taxes and not one penny more. If we fail to demand such discipline from our elected officials, expect U.S. to follow the same path as Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and eventually, France and Germany.
—Keith Hansen
Comments (3)
Add commentKeith, maybe it is just me
but I don't beleive that Social Security is an entitlement, but more along the line of insurance. Entitlements are something you get basically for free, and last time I looked at my paycheck, I am paying for my SS!
Van Den Heuval
Interesting that another viewpoint, totally ignored, is that a nation's wealth is not only things like resources, but its' people. Educated people are more "valuable" than ignorant folks.
Unless, as is currently fashionable, ignorance is championed as the proper choice for the proletariet. All wealth and power....including education, the key to gaining and maintaining wealth and power...shall be concentrated in the hands of the few. Given that human nature is what it is, the Founding Fathers seem to have envisioned a society where wealth and power would be shared as widely as possible; with a distributed and diffuse power structure the opportunity for abuse also becomes diffuse.
Does the editor actually advocate for his (and our) destruction, or is Hansen "crazy like a fox" knowing that his (apparent?) viewpoint will generate controversy (and advertizing dollars)?
Oh, and BTW, Pdnet, you're paying for the retirement of those who are now collecting. They paid for those who have likely "gone clear" by now. Because I will be working until 68 (I think) I will likely pay for yours for a time, but then my kids will have to take over. I want to make certain they and their peers are educated and productive.
Ah Yes,
founders of the flagship of the left.