This is the result of
Reagan's war on education.
It's quite an ugly sight.
February 28, 1985
President Reagan is waging a ''war on education'' with budget proposals to cut financial aid which threaten both middle-income and poor college students with severe hardship, a House committee was told today.
''Ronald Reagan's proposals for higher education represent, in effect, a declaration of war on American colleges and universities, especially independent ones, and on students from both low- and middle-income families,'' said John Brademas, president of New York University, a former Democratic Congressman from Indiana.
''By withdrawing help from students who need it most, we will move toward the creation of a two-tier system of higher education in our country, with independent universities for the rich and state or municipal colleges for everyone else,'' Mr. Brademas said.
Mr. Reagan has proposed to deny guaranteed student loans to all students from families with adjusted gross incomes above $32,500; eliminate grants, work-study jobs and other aid for those with incomes above $25,000, and limit to $4,000 a year the maximum federal help any student can draw.
Krugman
writes:
July 30, 2009
At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program — but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.”
It’s a funny story — but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It’s not just that many Americans don’t understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don’t understand the way American health care works right now. They don’t understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn’t be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.
And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all.
.....
Most obviously, the government directly provides insurance via Medicare and other programs. Before Medicare was established, more than 40 percent of elderly Americans lacked any kind of health insurance. Today, Medicare — which is, by the way, one of those “single payer” systems conservatives love to demonize — covers everyone 65 and older. And surveys show that Medicare recipients are much more satisfied with their coverage than Americans with private insurance.
.....
Right-wing opponents of reform would have you believe that President Obama is a wild-eyed socialist, attacking the free market. But unregulated markets don’t work for health care — never have, never will. To the extent we have a working health care system at all right now it’s only because the government covers the elderly, while a combination of regulation and tax subsidies makes it possible for many, but not all, nonelderly Americans to get decent private coverage.
Now Mr. Obama basically proposes using additional regulation and subsidies to make decent insurance available to all of us. That’s not radical; it’s as American as, well, Medicare.
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." George W. Bush, St. Charles, Missouri, November 2, 2000
They wear their ignorance proudly.
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