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During the debt ceiling battle the Republicans have shown once again how much better they are than Democrats at the rhetorical aspect of politics. When Republicans talk about government debt, they never fail to claim that reckless spending is costing jobs, whereas the Democrats' proposals for "job-killing tax hikes" on "families" and "job creators" will just make matters worse. Democrats weakly counter that cutting spending during a recession will slow down the recovery, but their words lack the force that comes from endlessly repeating phrases like "job-killing tax hikes", "failed economic stimulus", and so on. I recommend that from now on, no Democrat ever mentions spending cuts without attaching the modifier "job-killing".
To bring the matter home: this spring President Obama, caving into pressure from Republicans for spending cuts, slashed funding for community action programs. These federal budget cuts and similar cuts at the state level have forced the South Central Community Action Program, which provides social services in Adams County, to terminate some important programs. Most crucially, Wee Care, my kids' day care center which also serves a lot of low income people in Gettysburg, is closing at the end of the summer. They need something like $100,000 a year to operate, and they're no longer going to get it from the state and federal government. So they close - and with their closing, a dozen or so hard-working, patriotic Americans who have devoted their lives to educating our children, will lose their jobs. Jobs killed by our politicians' obsession with cutting spending and unwillingness to raise taxes even a little bit to preserve essential programs. To quote Charlton Heston: "Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!"
This episode is really a microcosm of what's happening all over this country. The recession is grinding the life out of low income communities while the well-healed protect themselves from the pain. Over the next few years I suspect that the class divide in this country is going to be more and more obvious, and eventually too toxic to ignore. Let's put this in perspective: Gettysburg College is gearing up for another fund-raising campaign with a goal of raising something over $100 million dollars. I wish us luck. That kind of money will allow us to continue to (start to?) pay competitive salaries for faculty, offer new programs for our students, and overall sustain the quality of our college. But an endowment of just $2 million or so - the kind of generous donation Gettysburg gets every year or so - would save the SCCAP programs permanently and, I'd argue, do much more good at the margin than anything Gettysburg College is going to do with this money. Will anyone step up? Will anyone even think of asking? No, I'm afraid Gettysburg College and society's upper crust in general will continue to get along just fine while the bedrock beneath us crumbles away.
To bring the matter home: this spring President Obama, caving into pressure from Republicans for spending cuts, slashed funding for community action programs. These federal budget cuts and similar cuts at the state level have forced the South Central Community Action Program, which provides social services in Adams County, to terminate some important programs. Most crucially, Wee Care, my kids' day care center which also serves a lot of low income people in Gettysburg, is closing at the end of the summer. They need something like $100,000 a year to operate, and they're no longer going to get it from the state and federal government. So they close - and with their closing, a dozen or so hard-working, patriotic Americans who have devoted their lives to educating our children, will lose their jobs. Jobs killed by our politicians' obsession with cutting spending and unwillingness to raise taxes even a little bit to preserve essential programs. To quote Charlton Heston: "Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!"
This episode is really a microcosm of what's happening all over this country. The recession is grinding the life out of low income communities while the well-healed protect themselves from the pain. Over the next few years I suspect that the class divide in this country is going to be more and more obvious, and eventually too toxic to ignore. Let's put this in perspective: Gettysburg College is gearing up for another fund-raising campaign with a goal of raising something over $100 million dollars. I wish us luck. That kind of money will allow us to continue to (start to?) pay competitive salaries for faculty, offer new programs for our students, and overall sustain the quality of our college. But an endowment of just $2 million or so - the kind of generous donation Gettysburg gets every year or so - would save the SCCAP programs permanently and, I'd argue, do much more good at the margin than anything Gettysburg College is going to do with this money. Will anyone step up? Will anyone even think of asking? No, I'm afraid Gettysburg College and society's upper crust in general will continue to get along just fine while the bedrock beneath us crumbles away.
