It hardly seems possible that in just two short years we'll be returning to the polls once again. Less than 6 months ago, the 2010 midterm elections saw a shift from Democrat to Republican control in many state legislatures and even the United States House of Representatives. The US Senate maintained its Democratic majority by a slim four members.
Most will agree that our slow economic recovery and Americans' general dissatisfaction with our current leaders has led to the widespread Republican support of late. I suppose I should be happy that this sense of unrest seems to have galvanized people to become involved in the governmental process, but I'm really more concerned about how short our memories seem to have become. Just a few short years ago our economy imploded, with repercussions felt not just across America, but across the entire world and leading to a collapse that was frequently compared to the Great Depression.
The discussion of Wall Street vs. Main Street has remained on our lips these past 3 or 4 years, but much of the rhetoric seems to have shifted from lamenting lax regulations and inadequate oversight to protesting excessive spending and far-reaching policies. It's all part of what I feel to be the reason for the tension that's been simmering all this time and is now threatening to boil over--we need someone to blame, and we need it now.
Obama won the presidency on his platform for change, in a nation stunned by the collapse of its economy. He promised regulations to prevent the banks from repeating their past mistakes, and salary caps for those executives that led their businesses to finanacial ruin. He supported legislation to bail out those floundering institutions, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, little more than two years later, the same voters who decried the irresponsible business practices that led to our economic meltdown are complaining about the deficit, a large part of which is due to the trillions of dollars in bailout and stimulus money designed to keep our economy afloat. Now, those same voices are raised in protest of stricter regulations designed to prevent exactly the same kind of collapse we saw just a few short years ago. Citizens blame Obame for our current economic woes, not seeming to remember that the crisis began BEFORE he was elected. How could we forget so quickly?
The pendulum swung the other way last November, and many Republicans who ran on platforms of job growth and government reduction won the majority, in large part due to the support of the Tea Party. With the backing of the anti-tax group, Republicans have taken office and proceeded to abandon their campaign promises in favor of attacking the middle-class, working families of America. Public employee unions have spent the last several weeks protesting the Wisconsin legislature's push to strip them of almost all of their collective bargaining rights, and thousands more are gearing up in Ohio and Indiana. Those politicians who vowed to "take back America" are keeping their word, all right--but they're not handing it back to the people. Instead, they're handing it over to the businesses and corporations whose deep pockets put them in office in the first place. Sure, let's cut or eliminate corporate income taxes. You know what that will lead to? Record profits for those businesses and record salaries and bonuses for those at the top. What it won't (necessarily) lead to is job creation.
Private sector businesses exist for one purpose--to make money. Like other Americans, businesses have had to "tighten their belts" and make do with less, and our unemployment rate testifies that the workers are the first to go. Those who have kept their jobs are working themselves harder and harder, frantic at the thought that they might be the next ones in the unemployment line. As a result, one man or woman may be producing as much as two or three workers in past years, often at the risk of his or her physical and mental wellbeing. Do you really think that companies that are enjoying record profits, which these tax cuts will only increase, are going to create new jobs when their productivity isn't suffering? More jobs equals lower profits and lower bonuses for those executives like Rick Scott (who sold the state's private planes because he has his own). Cutting or eliminating corporate taxes is nothing more than a gamble with the hope that those in charge will use the money wisely. I won't be holding my breath.
While we're on the subject of financial irresponsibility, let's talk about some of the other items that have been up for debate recently, like, oh, I don't know...Florida's brilliant teacher merit pay legislation. We narrowly escaped a similar crisis last year by the grace of Charlie Crist's veto, but this year our Governor has promised to sign the bill into law regardless of its popularity. Because he's exercising the will of the people, right? The public demands accountability for its teachers, who are, as one Polk County resident so eloquently put it, "on the dole," so we'll give them accountability. We'll hold those teachers accountable and prove that most, if not all of them are lazy and worthless and little more than part-time, glorified babysitters!
Oh, one small thing. We have NO IDEA how much it's going to cost, or where the money's going to come from. You don't have a problem with that, do you?
That's right. It costs money--a LOT of money--to create, maintain, administer, and process results from standardized tests. The new legislation places that onus on the individual school district, which means that the district will be responsible for purchasing existing tests or commissioning the creation of new ones. In a state that offers literally hundreds of individual courses, how is that going to happen without costing money, as Rick Scott claims? He's not concerned with how it works, apparently, since he's cutting $3.3 billion from education and has stated that schools will have to "figure out how to do better with less." In fact, Scott feels that those cuts, first to education and now to child welfare services across the state, are not only appropriate but necessary for him to make good on his campaign promise of creating some 700,000 jobs in the state.
Now I didn't vote for the man. But apparently some people did, and I'm willing to bet that some--not all, but some--would have cast their ballot a little differently if they'd seen the flip side to the job creation coin tossed around by Scott during his campaign. If they'd known that the 2.6 million children in Florida's schools and the half-million children served by the Department of Children and Families would be the ones to bear over half the financial burden of Scott's master plan, would they have voted differently?
Many people have as limited an understanding of the function of DCF as they do of public schools. Ask a random person about DCF and they'll probably give you an answer that has something to do with taking endangered children from their parents and placing them with other families. And yes, that is part of the equation, but what about all of the other services offered by DCF? They offer services to protect and care for adults who are disabled or otherwise unable to care for themselves; foster care and adoption services; support and shelter for victims of domestic violence; assistance programs for struggling families; resources for homeless children and families; substance abuse counseling; mental health services. And, lest you think that DCF is only for poor people or unfit parents, they also oversee the licensing of every childcare provider in the state, which number over 7,000. So if you have a child in childcare (like I do), DCF is your best friend. I know that I am only able to go to work and be a productive member of society because I trust the person taking care of my child.
I'm pretty surprised, to be honest, at the way the governor and his Republican counterparts in the state legislature (and other elected officials around the country) have so aggressively rocked the boat this early in the game. I wouldn't have thought they'd be so eager to throw away their newly won power, but it seems I was wrong. Then again, we always seem to develop memory loss when it comes time to cast our vote--perhaps that's what they're counting on.
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