By Marian Wright Edelman
The colors were brighter than any she had seen before. Shapes, letters, and lots and lots of colors adorned the walls. Around the room, children worked together building high rises with colored blocks and “reading” colorful picture books.
“I had never seen so much color,” Angelica Salazar recalls of her first days as a Head Start preschooler in Duarte, California. She remembers her discovery of library books and spending hours curled up on the reading rug. Head Start provided her first formal English instruction. Her parents, who spoke mostly Spanish, enrolled her in the program knowing that their little girl would need to master English to succeed in school.
In an interview for the National Head Start Association, her father relates in Spanish how he never had the opportunity to finish elementary school. Their family was poor, and he and his wife could not afford to pay for preschool. Head Start was a godsend for the entire family, helping Salazar’s immigrant parents become more fully integrated into their community. It allowed her mother to work outside the home for the first time while her children received safe, high-quality care. (See the interview below.)
Salazar is one among over 20 million Americans for whom Head Start has given a positive start in life since 1964. Today, 15.5 million U.S. children live in poverty, and more than 20 percent of children under the age of 5 are poor, including more than 40 percent of black children and more than 33 percent of Latino children. These are the kids Head Start is designed to serve.
More than 60 percent of students and 80 percent of minority students struggle to perform at grade level in fourth grade, eighth grade, and their senior year of high school. Readiness to begin kindergarten — especially for poor and minority children — is more critical than ever. But less than half of those children eligible for Head Start and fewer than 3 percent of those eligible for Early Head Start, a program for infants and toddlers, are enrolled.
Poor infants are already behind their higher-income peers in cognitive development at nine months old. The gap gets even wider for 2-year-olds. By kindergarten, poor children have to beat the odds to catch up — and as the testing shows, many never do. Quality, comprehensive child development programs are crucial for the physical, emotional, and educational health of all children — especially poor and at-risk children.
Early childhood programs significantly increase a child’s chances of avoiding the prison pipeline that Angie now studies as a policy expert, and investments in quality early education can produce a rate of return to society significantly higher than returns on most stock market investments or traditional economic development projects.
Congress is debating whether to slash more than $1 billion from Head Start and to cut several other essential programs for young children. But that’s just the beginning. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposed budget would dismantle Medicaid and other lifelines for poor children. The Wisconsin Republican, meanwhile, is pushing for trillions of dollars in new tax cuts that would benefit the richest Americans and corporations.
Where are our nation’s values? We must stand up for programs that support the cradle-to-college pipeline. We simply can’t afford to leave more poor babies, toddlers, and preschoolers behind.
Marian Wright Edelman is the president of Children’s Defense Fund.
Atilla says
So expecting people to be responsible for the opportunities provided for the children they parent, is now likened to being a predator? I am so saddened to see children born into less than ideal conditions but it is just not the responsibility of every responsible tax paying citizen to provide daycare, pre k, kindergarden, breakfast, lunch and collage tuition.
I have acquaintance with both hard working parents who provide all they can, and some that have made a co-occupation of filling out forms to provide, with the attitude that it is owed to “the children”. And while the children are precious, I am torn between my heart and hip pocket, the pocket I have to pay the bills for my family out of.
NortonSmitty says
Atilla, why have you let the Politicians and their media lapdogs convince you that the only choice has to come from your heart or your pocket? How about we get our troops out of an ungrateful Iraq? There’s Head Start funding for 100 years right there! Go back to the Pre-bush tax rates for the Hedge Fund crowd, another fifty years easy. Cut the subsidies for the Oil, Pharmaceutical, Banking, Insurance, Telecom and Agribusinesses, all the most profitable corporations on the planet, hell we can even start to fix our roads and get Grandma off catfood.
The secret to getting the load off the backs of people like us is to get the greedy rich bastards’ lobbyists out of Washington and Tallahassee and make them pay their fair share.
Atilla says
What does the Iraq situation (Pakistan or Africa), how much tax comes out of my mutual funds, or the taxes the greedy rich guys I work for pay, or how much we spend on subsidies for soybeans, corn syrup and ethanol, have to do with calling people child predators because they do not support spending money on other peoples kids?
Why do we have to say pre Bush or Clinton era, or Reagan. We all need to look inside ourselves before we start ranting about what bothers us.
Cheap subsidized food made of cheap flour, corn, soy, and high fructose corn syrup is making us obese, giving us heart disease, diabetes early joint disease (arthritis). so do we pull the funding
The tax code is so complex and crafted that those with the resources like General Electric managed to pay no federal corporate taxes under the current laws.
Oil companies and oil nations are enjoying the high price profits because it is still cheaper than developing wind or solar, more in favor than nuclear….
Point is, we need to fix a lot of things and just because fixing one will free money don’t make spending it on another wrong idea right.
Outsider says
I have a novel solution; don’t have kids you can’t afford. There are no consequences in our society. Everyone knows that if you have a child, the government will pay for it if you can’t or WON’T. Many have made a way of life out of bilking the system. They keep the cash and throw their kids away. This welfare system doesn’t prevent poverty; it perpetuates it. I believe in a safety net for those who are truly trying and have been dealing with some catastrophic event or loss of employment, but I’ve had about enough of generations of irresponsible people bearing children into lives noone would want to live.
palmcoaster says
Atilla no wonder your alias. Norton took the words out of my keyboard. How come you do not complain against the over 2 billion plus a month spent in 3 plus wars defending the interest of “our so called allies” and the war suppliers and based on lies?” Why are you spitting against the wind by denying these rights to these children that otherwise will die or become with total society neglect, delinquents in a non distant future?? Denying help to the less fortunate that are still our country men, women and children? Do you know that most countries out there in the world and not like us big brother USA fund these children and furthermore higher education in government sustained universities for those that pass the entry minimum average point admission test? This children thought from poor less affording families or single mothers or adopted, still can become an engineer, architect, dentist, physician or lawyer? To these graduated foreign students that didn’t have to pay 80,000 plus in loans to become a professional is how our overburden graduates loose competition for jobs. Their countries can afford to fund health and education, as they do not have to fund policing the world, trillions in foreign aid to their “so called allies”, or fund and battle their wars when they pick up a fight! Atilla with ignorance tainted minds like yours, we sure don’t need enemies to further doom America.
w.ryan says
WHEN will we give AID to the U.S.!!! All We keep hearing is that we are far behind many countries when it comes to education. We throw big money away with little regard for the returns in these handouts. We can’t give money away to aid in our future without wanting immediate returns? Compare this with rebuilding other countries we invade and destroy. The rebuilding the US does in other countries is not done for their sake. This is done to infuse and inflate the profit of US Corps. It’s like welfare which is so despised in this country by those elitist folks who think people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps like in the old days. Teach to enable the possibilities. This starts with educating our population. Never mind outsiders advice. I agree with Norton Smitty as well.
By the way…the title is fitting. Our defenseless children are being preyed upon! How about some help!!
NortonSmitty says
Hey, Outsider, What about cutting Medicare and Social Security? Don’t have Grandma’s you can’ afford either?
Atilla says
Palmcoaster, I passed ignorance a few centuries ago. I do not deny the needy, but no one is without opportunity. As for how my alias relates to war, it is and was ugly, and is the last thing a solider wants. In my opinion the current conflicts are over controlling oil and its price that is the choke point for the economy of the world. The way from the conflicts we are in over oil and middle east stability was missed in the 1970’s oil embargo when the president of the day (or any since) did not make it a national mission to find and develop inexpensive reliable replacements to fossil fuels. My point was that you make the issue of wasted money on war so it can be spent on your issues. Just think if the United States controlled the majority of energy technology, we could afford ……
Outsider says
Norton, my grandparents are dead, but my parents are not. They all worked hard all their lives and never took a handout. My grandmother went so far as to work on a garbage truck in the family business. My father worked for 50 years, and my near 70 year old mother still works in the school cafeteria so they can both have good health insurance. The point is, they WORKED all their lives; not so for many of these leaches having more babies with no plan on how to support them.
palmcoaster says
Atilla USA controlling majority of energy technology?…in your dreams or mine. That is controlled by multinational corporations that are allowed at free will to pump our non renewable (oil) resources for export in our very noses and at the same time polluting our environment at their will. We are sold very cheap, to fatten the pockets of the very few at the helm wether red or blue, makes no difference.
What Obama now in power needs to do is bring all our soldiers home and use the two billion plus a month wasted shooting over there, and invest those monies here repairing our decaying infrastructure. At the same time reducing the unemployment and generating payroll and income tax to help our budgets and even hire some of those soldiers also for the work. Remember our Corps of Engineers? will be then plenty of work for them. No more billions in foreign aid…cut that bs….we need to help our own and right here. Tax all corporations and the wealthy at the same rate the middle class is taxed and last but very important tax the imports and bring our jobs back home. We will piss off many, but will benefit most and will go back to be the America we used to be.
w.ryan says
Wasn’t Carter the President that installed solar panels on the White House? That was right before trickle down economics. Hmmm…The restructuring of the wealth and Corporate Welfare and the start to the end of Unions. Atilla… ignorance is bliss.
Atilla says
getting worn out about wars, I would love to bring every one home. maybe we could change the rules and have them secure our boarders or do public works projects. But it just will no fly, the president spoke during his campaign about being out of Iraq and having our troops home and while Iraq numbers are down an Afghanistan and others are keeping the deployed numbers as much or more than before.
If we were to pull back consider what would happen there when we are gone. Nations in anarchy, religious factions would war on each other, the human suffering alone is enough for us to stay, and if the oil is disrupted so will everything you use and eat to survive be disrupted food supplies, heating oil in the winter, electric prices and anything else that comes to the store in a truck. Wish it was that easy.
palmcoaster says
AtillIa to your “If we were to pull back consider what would happen there when we are gone. Nations in anarchy, religious factions would war on each other, the human suffering alone is enough for us to stay, and if the oil is disrupted a to you” …First of all we can no longer afford to cure the human suffering in other nations for religions or whatever reason…as we first have to help our own. Second, regarding oil we have enough here for ourselves and we can buy it ourselves for much cheaper if the oil companies are not the middle man. Venezuela’s Chavez was selling at $5/barrel to China lately and the Chinese turned around selling to us at 20 times the price or more. Who are we the morons of the world paying over $100/barrel to the oil companies using dirty politics so we laden few VIP’s pockets? http://yourhappyplace.yuku.com/topic/47339/Chavez-is-selling-oil-to-China-at-5-Barrel
ignorancecosts says
As one of the posters mentioned Chavez… there’s a great ‘Frontline’ documentary on PBS called ‘The Hugo Chavez Show’ originally run on Nov. 28th, 2008. It was very eye-opening to me, the similarities between methods Chavez uses to control and run ‘his’ country, and the programs being put in place in our country. So many promises being made to the citizens, and then not able to be kept. And the people still vote for him, though they are getting poorer and poorer, and are losing more freedoms daily. They can’t see what is happening, because he has taken control of the media, so there are no ‘detractors’ to his policy’s. Has nothing to do with Head Start, but I concur with most of the posters. It is basically a baby sitting service, that exposes the kids to positive things their parents can’t or won’t make available to them. And it keeps many of them from being exposed to very negative and harmful influences during the time they are away from their homes. I think we need to grant tax deductions to private organizations to set up small group homes, (or something like many churches operate now) take these children in, much like orphanages, so they will at least have a fighting chance of breaking out of the poverty cycle, by making successful role models available to them daily, and having a different lifestyle modeled for them than the streets. Just a thought. It grieves me to no end to see and meet the kids who have been on the streets, even after attending Head Start, since they were 14 or 15. The girls that are just looking for love, even though they have been through Head Start. But when they get home, and are thrust back into dysfunctional family life, and turn to the current media for entertainment and role models, it’s hard to rise above. Especially when the lifestyles they see, admire and emulate, are recipes for failure in every world except for Hollywood. The government can’t do the job of a family or caring community.
Outsider says
Of course Chavez can give oil away; it was the U.S. oil companies that developed the fields and invested in the infrastructure, then Chavez “nationalized” (stole) the fields, hence he has nothing invested and nothing to recoup. I would hardly consider the oil companies “middle men.” They are the ones who invest, develop, and extract the oil. They also employ hundreds of thousands of Americans. Some people who seem to be slow learners continue to attack healthy American employers as evil, while some of the more astute Americans have made the connection between healthy businesses and good jobs.
Attila says
And all of this on oil, war and the US, because I disagree with the title accusing people that want to cut funding for children predators!
I believe that we must start somewhere and put an end to funding people who want to have children and pay their life cost from pregnancy to collage graduation. Their should be family planning (birth control) I prefer adoption over abortion and condoms before either. We can not continue to fund the no work welfare. It will take two decades or more to end it so we should start soon.
as for the oil and coal in our own land, good luck drilling/ digging for it or refining it
NortonSmitty says
If we have to start somewhere, Attilla why start our sacrifice with the poorest children among us? Trust me if they would have had a fucking choice, they would have rather be born Tori Spelling instead of some crackheads papoose. Hate to say it but there seems to be more than a tinge of racism to your argument about squatting out babies for gov’t cheese, although I’m sure your gonna’ go ballistic denying it.
Regardless, as long a we have had civilized societies, it’s been an ironclad communal value that the Family/Tribe/Village/Community/Whatever show their compassion by making sure the helpless children who are cast into their poorness are shown whatever mercy and charity the betters can spare. I mean since they didn’t have one goddamn thing to do with the hand they were dealt, we can help them as best we can and feel righteous for doing the right thing.
Or you could go all Rand and Republican and say because they are so busy with that shitting their pants and crying for food thing the whiney little bastards do constantly instead of having the sense to read Atlas Shrugged and see how a REAL human deals with life’s problems, why should we give them a crumb of our hard earned gains? Fuck ’em.
Me, I feel both ways. If I read about a poor girl who’s going blind because she can’t afford the $3500 a month medicine cause her Dad’s out of work, I want to help. I read about a woman trading most of her food stamps for Gin and leaving her kids starve, I want to kill.
But Attilla, I gurandamntee you there is one million more times our tax dollars wasted on boondoggle Defense contracts, Corporate subsidies and Tax cuts for billionaires than on all the Gin in the world.
Let’s start there instead, shall we?
Oh, and the difficulty we impose on the oil and coal companies? Like this? http://mountainjustice.org/facts/steps.php
concerned says
But, Attila, if I might just jump in – there is a gaping hole in your logic. You say you prefer condoms, etc. to abortion, but the same child predators who are willing to ax the Head Start program are already voting to cut funding for Planned Parenthood (as well as senior programs & help to the disabled, etc.). The money for poor folks to get cheaper condoms comes from Planned Parenthood. So w/ PP off the table as a resource to women and their soon-to-be children (or ‘not children’ because prevention was made available to them at a price they could afford) what do you propose we do? Not call them child predators when they’re taking our tax dollars out of the mouths of babes and force feeding it instead into the maws of the corportocracy? And doing all this is not preying upon the children? If our economy is not for the benefit of our citizens, what is it’s objective?
palmcoaster says
What I said is just to buy Venezuelan oil at $5/barrel like China does not to bow to Chavez.
Because the oil barons throw us the bones of “some jobs” we let them; 1 steal our non renewable resources to export it at ten times the price, 2 pollute our environment, 3 gouge us at the pump and 4 . we give them away our hard earned tax dollars in subsidies, exemptions. We could have the same jobs created or even more by better monitoring and ruling the oil companies, or if “no cooperation, nationalizing ” these multinationals and avoid 1, 2, 3 and 4. Look our “bright” economy of today sure we have nothing to envy to Venezuela…we are slowly getting down to their financial level. Otherwise ask the over 40 million jobless and medical uninsured in our USA. Maybe you are in the one percent elite Atilla? If the government can’t protect some of our American families what the heck is wasting our tax dollars protecting entire countries out there, wasting monies bombing and rebuilding them for special interest?
Give me a break.! …with thinking like of Outsider, Atilla and Ignorance is that we will never come out of this financial hole.
Rocky Mac says
I’m new on here, but feel I need to give my opinion about Head Start. I did not read all the postings, but regardless, Head Start is not a “welfare” program as we understand WIC or food stamps to be. It is a program to give the children of those below a stated income level (below poverty) an opportunity not otherwise available to them. I was fortunate to be able to send my girls to a private pre-kindergarten program. And they had a “head start” over other children without such programs. If we all want equality for all then we need such programs as Head Start. It only attempts to level the playing field so that more children will remain in school through high school, graduate and hopefully move out of their cycle of poverty and become contributing members of society. I would rather see my tax dollars go to such a program, then to our war chest, tax breaks for upper level incomes, etc. The trickle down theory does not work, so why not try the “trickle up” theory? My opinion is based on my years working with the “At Risk” population, child welfare and child protection agencies. I have become very disheartened by the recent legislation being proposed by Congress. If we can’t take care “of the least of us,” what will this country be like for the next generation? Just my thoughts.
Attila says
If this thread does not illustrate the complex nature of the problems we face in energy and social policy not much will. I have been called a racist told I an ignorant just for discussing what is going on. Yeah, it is strange that the same people that want to cut funding for the poor and the children also do not want to help them with ANY means of family planning or adoption. If you reread I said it would take 2 decades to change the way it is I certainly do not think we should push any ones child out into the cold, I do think that the child should know that their children should not come into the same environment and lack of opportunity they are in. The cycle of dependance on public assistance needs to be broken. I personally know parents and small children who were born by parents on purpose with the expectation that society will pay the cost of their family, I also know a widowed (now single) mother of two that was doing fine before dad was killed in a accident.
BW says
Atilla,
This idea that there is a generic response of “not my tax dollars” for each and every social issue in this country is beyond worn out at this point and completely absurd as it was from the first time it was brought up. This is especially true as you and those like you bring the notion up as argument of early childhood education but are advocates of spending large amounts of tax dollars on military to kill others or continue to pay social security and medicare benefits to the elderly. If one takes the stance as you do with the “not my tax dollars” on social issues, then one MUST be an advocate for the ending of social security benefits and medicare for the elderly. Or should we assume you and those like you making this over-played assertion, that the young are of less worth in our country than the elderly?
In terms of Head Start, my son actually attended elsewhere. My daughter did not as I adopted my former wife’s children and she was of the age to begin kindergarten at the time of our marriage. As young parents making about $30,000/year with a house (my apologies in advance that we felt it necessary to provide living accommodations for our children in lieu of $700/month formal daycare), head start was an opportunity to provide experience to my son to an educational environment prior to kindergarten. My daughter struggled her first year eventhough we spent a great deal of time in the common area of ‘abc’s and 123’s’ only to find out that kindergarteners are expected to know whole lot more than that. In fact after several meetings with teachers and a principal I stated that it was my opinion that my daughter’s struggles were not “learning challenges” but rather they were “financial challenges”. He agreed. Likewise, I told him it appeared to me that school had somehow changed from an “education” to an “evaluation” of which he also agreed. So we should therefore assume that success in education and an education at all, should be left solely for the financially secure in your vision. My children have grown to be young adults now and are graduating, and I thank the experience of head start for my son and the volunteer time and experience I had with the program. Both of us benefited.
Education holds great demand on children today. Access to formal early education is not within the reach of many, but our educational system seems to demand it. So we should leave those children with the financial challenges of their parents to fail in this system at an extremely crucial time in their lives as a society? We should assume that lose children will not be productive members of society anyway in your opinion. Interestingly enough, those parents are employed and pay taxes and have social security taxes taken from their checks. In fact while they are struggling to provide for their children, pay their taxes they are responsible for, they are also having 6% of their income taken from them to pay for those receiving social security and medicare. So, by your opinion and all of those like you, it is ok to take their tax dollars to spend on someone else who is elderly but their tax dollars should not go for something that would benefit their own children?
When are these “tax dollar” people going to actually wake up? You are being used as pawns by a political party that lost an election. It is that plain and simple. None of financial issues are “out of the blue” because someone won an election almost 4 years ago. In fact, many of those that are yelling to cut and “take back” are the same ones who helped create the problems. But you stand firmly behind more absurd schemes and lies while claiming others to be ignorant and throw around the label “liberal” simply when one disagrees. There is only one thing that needs to happen in Washington and it has nothing at all to do with one party or the other . . . it has everything to do with compromise. Until compromise happens, nothing will improve and nothing will be resolved. That is what you and all like you should be shouting for.
Attila says
I have kept checking this thread like a sore tooth. It is refreshing to see people concerned for the education and welfare. I to see a great need to KEEP a safety net at the bottom of our society, it is the right thing to do and yes we should all contribute. I know and have to accept that their will be some waste and fraud, it is a cost of providing, like theft to a retail store. I disagree that we should just keep spending more money on these programs. We, meaning our elected officials and government staff, should weed out the waste and find new more cost effective ways to provide for the needs, and evaluate what is really needed. In short government agencies should be charged to do more with less just like most of us do in our own homes and business (or our employers). Keep an eye on the unrest in Greece and do not think that that could never happen here….
BW says
“We, meaning our elected officials and government staff, should weed out the waste and find new more cost effective ways to provide for the needs, and evaluate what is really needed. In short government agencies should be charged to do more with less just like most of us do in our own homes and business (or our employers).”
This statement is a great example of the corner everyone who makes it backs themselves into because it beckons the response of “Where do you cut?” That is the same question that can never be answered. You can not realistically compare a household budget to a government of an entire country of 300 million people. It is unrealistic. Because so many have been mislead to think this is an appropriate line of thinking we get ridiculous ideas. In addition the concept of “doing more with less” is an absurd line of thought in the business world. It is not a management philosophy of managing smart, but rather was coined as a knee-jerk response to managers pressured to cut expenses and improve the bottom-line. It’s pretty much the same as yelling at a kid for not hitting .300 without ever teaching him to hit the ball in the first place.
It is not Greece that should realistically be looked at but farther back in history to another society and a similar elitist type of political movement that spurred up in a nation. That is where you will find the the real dangers that exist in our society with the extreme right-wing radicals we see today. I’ll leave you to figure that one out.
An educated society is a responsible society. Will one still see crime and fraud at some levels? Absolutely. People will be people. But to blanket everyone that is poor or unemployed for long periods of time as lazy and/or drug users whether it be literally or implied is ignorant and arrogant. Likewise, making statement that one should use birth control and avoid having children until they are financially secure is equally ignorant and arrogant. People lose jobs due to corporate greed and poor executive decisions each and every day. Simply taking “any job” wherein the individual is at a wage way below poverty level leaves them with no choice but to seek assistance to provide for their children and families. Should we look down upon those in that situation and block their children from access to opportunity simply because their financial status changed? Wasn’t it the GOP and right-wingers who coined the “no child left behind”? I guess that only applies to those within certain income brackets.
Atilla says
BW, I love it you could not post without accusing me of being ignorant and arrogant. I can only say that if you had read my post without a knee jerk reaction you would know that I understand that parents loose jobs and spouses, and you would know I am also in touch with the welfare dependents who have and are intentionally depending on “the system” to provide the needs. You are right that our government apparatus is had to compare in complexity, but the principals of a household budget still boil down to you cannot continue to spend more than you bring in. We must bring spending in, and government will need to be smarter with what they have, or the pain will be worse. We do not need to look back so far in history to see how great and far flung empires have collapsed. Greece does fine as a current example of a government being forced to austerity, and the civil unrest, violence.
BW says
Atilla,
Our country BEGAN with about $53 million in debt. In fact the entire debate concerning the establishment of the Federal Reserve as devised by Alexander Hamilton was about establishing a credit rating within the world by bringing all of the state’s debt together in one place after the Revolutionary War. No, a country does not operate as a household nor can the finances of an entire country be compared to a household budget realistically in any way shape or form. Granted, we have financial issues. Why? Simple, the inability for big-headed people with over-grown egos unwilling to cooperate and compromise in Washington. The GOP “party of no” has backed them into a corner because they have helped slow progress towards solutions rather than participate. Likewise, the Financial Modernization Act of 1999 (Aka the GLB Act) constructed by 3 Republicans allowed for the “too big to fail” scenario we just saw. So my question is that since when is it logical to look to the ones who created the problems to be the solution and actually take the one’s supporting this junk as credible? The real history is out there and actually very easily found today rather than listen to just what some people would like others to hear and think.
Atilla says
BW,
we have money issues from the fed down to the cities an I must express my fears that at some point we will be in the same frying pan as Greece, I see the pensions of state and city workers, teachers, fire and police being in jeopardy, will we pay the retired folks or the ones working today. I see health care being, rationed and a different outlook on the end of life, or look to China and limit children. I see our schools not turning out educated students despite billions spent, and only the cry for more. I see NIMBY (not in my back yard) and pig headed folks from all sides blocking every form of energy we can develop. I see the U.S. being looked to to provide global police and rescue services, and we are paying their bills on our credit card. I sure don’t have the answers, but I am sure that higher taxes, and fees are going to be necessary and that costs will have to be held down at the same time. Respectfully
BW says
Here’s one for you Atilla and the all the “we’re brokers” . . . Social Security and medicare tax revenue is 40% of the GDP while the expense is 42%. Likewise, national debt has always exploded during war time and isn’t as high today as a percentage of GDP as it was during WWII. We’ve been involved in some pretty heavy military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last several years. And how are you with cutting that Social Security and Medicare stuff? Oh, I forgot . . . politicians can’t do that because seniors can vote and kids can’t.
So what’s the solution . . . take massive amounts of money from education. One thing I totally agree with . . . education apparently hasn’t worked. Because if we consider the “educated” who come up with these ridiculous ideas and the one’s cheering them on . . . . we probably should scrap the whole system.