I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I’ll be blogging on that later. Firstly, I want to get something down that’s been on my mind ever since last week…
I drove to my parent’s house on Friday, December 23rd after buying some last-minute presents for my two nieces (who loved them by the way). On the way home I turned on NPR since my iPod was without its radio broadcaster (I’ve since purchased a tape-adapter gadget for my truck).
NPR was talking about current events and mentioned how Congress is cutting 40 Billion Dollars out of the budget. The hardest hit program is going to be student loans.
If you didn’t read the CNN.com story I linked above, go read it now. I’ll wait.
Back already huh?
It’s pretty damn outrageous, and it’s gonna be law soon.
Essentially, the Republican party is continuing it’s war against the poor and middle-class of America. If you recall a few years back (say 2003 or so), when America was suffering one of it’s worst unemployment rates of recent history, our president in his wisdom (and his “State of the Union” address) encouraged Americans who were losing their jobs to seek out new education as a means to combat their situation (I think he used some phrasing like “in order to be more competitive in the world market” or something like that). Now however, the very party that the president is leading is hamstringing those Americans who would be pursuing higher education in order to attempt to pull themselves out of the muck of their place in life.
Two points mentioned in this New York Times article (and on NPR) were how Pell Grants will be available to those who have a specific major such as engineering (sorry artists!) or “a foreign language deemed critical to national security” (sorry English majors!) and that “virtually all the cuts in student aid would be borne by banks and other lenders” which translates into higher interest student loans.
I’m glad this bill wasn’t in place when I was looking to go to college, as I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
Freakin’ Republicans crapping on the lower class. How long will we put up with this? When will a reckoning take place? Who will rise up and defend the 80% of Americans that are being mislead and harmed by those elected officials?
ooOOoo! *finger whispers* What did you end up getting for Rheyse and Kenna? (Did the nightlights fall through?)
The night-lights did indeed fall through. The materials were just too difficult to find (for a price I was willing to pay).
I ended up buying one very cute outfit apiece, and Rheyse received a Cabbage Patch Kids pony toy while Kenna received a huge stuffed dog toy.
Both were quite well received, each in her own way. Kenna’s eyes bugged out and she hugged the dog tightly, while Rheyse didn’t hardly look at the toy she got until I was out of earshot (or so she thought).