Misplaced inherent guilt complex. College provides the opportunity to learn what you did not know. But it doesn’t make you smart or give you common sense.
Hey - just calling it as I see it. I don’t play BS PC games. Not all women are nuts - my sister, GF, & a few others I know are exceptions- but a sizable majority are. For some reason women - especially single women - crave a “protector” of some sort & that too often comes in the form of big govt socialism/fascism.
I hope to be proven wrong in the years unfolding but I’m not holding my breath.
Yeah, funny how cyclical things are. There was a time when women were all about compassion, tolerance and nurturing. Now Leftist women are for war, wokeism (anti-women) and anarchy. Go figure.
Well that’s historically their nature; they give birth - life - & rear children far better than any male could. That was God’s Intent. Since feminism has reared its ugly head “the culture” has attempted to masculinize women & feminize men, so you have the dichotomy of which you speak of women trying to “out masculinize” men especially when it comes to foreign policy, war, etc. They’ve become a knee-jerk bloodthirsty bunch.
Hey - if I’m taking FLAK it means I’m over the target. Won’t be the first time I’m characterized as a “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal” & won’t be the last so bring it on! ;<)
Always love seeing the women make great leaders bumper sticker. I pull along side at a light and tell them that holding up traffic isn't leadership and kindly quit blocking the road.
Some great leaders have been women, but that's the exception, not the rule. Maggie Thatcher comes to mind. But for every Thatcher, there are a hundred Hillary Clintons or Kathy Hochuls.
The government needs to get out of the student loan business altogether, as it’s a waste of taxpayers money, since a huge number of students who take out loans fail to graduate, and default on their loan payments, or deal them down. The taxpayers have been on the hook for two generations. And the “research” funding is what brought us Duke doing gain of function virus research, and MIT plopping a nuclear reactor in the heart of Cambridge. The endowments at most of these universities are in the billions, funding professors like Liawatha, 1/10,000th an Indian, grabbing a$450k professorship at Harvard, and former President Gay returning to her half a mil tenured post, to keep those young skulls full of mush woke and broke. Let’s instead give money for middle-class kids to train as electricians and plumbers and engineers—this country needs them more than Women Studies PhDs working as tranny bartenders kicking people with MAGA hats out of their bar.
Furthermore: how about we claw back the money (say from the last 15 years)from the money launderers masquerading as educational institutions? Reduce the endowments to proportionate amounts, make the endowments exceeding that amount necessary to fund scholarships or loans taxable and call it even?
I was able to get a loan from the Federal government for college. I paid it back by serving four years in the Navy (three of those years on a destroyer). That was before there was a Department of Education. After my Naval career, I took out a $5,000 loan to get my Master of Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Tuition was ten grand back in 1982 - a pittance compared to this time: tuition is now $51,648 - not covering fees and housing (the cost for food on campus is $8,354 - almost what my tuition cost 43 years ago).
The basic truth is that there are diminishing returns to scale as a greater proportion of students attended college. It had to be dumbed down to accommodate the intellectual limits of the added cohorts. The flood of government money allowed the curriculum to lack any utility in the “real world”.
Almost twenty years ago I saw signs in the halls of a local junior college advertising remedial reading courses. i couldn’t believe people were being admitted that needed remedial reading!
The cat must have called it an early night. The poll was a no-brainer.
I was a stay at home mom and we tightened our belts in order to send our daughter to private school on one income. I wouldn’t mind having some of the money we still had to pay in property taxes to fund public schools back in my own pocket.
I agree. I never vote yes to increase a property tax for the school system.
I never had children (long boring story). Yet for all the years I owned a home -30+years- I have paid property taxes that include a school tax levy. In the late 70’s I went to college on student loans and paid them all back. Tuition and books at the time was about $700-800/year at U of Louisville. I am grateful I got the chance to go to college as it opened some doors in my future. However, I paid for my college. I worked 2-3 part time jobs to pay my rent and expenses and go to college. I was self supporting and on my own. The lesson I learned from that was: If you want something bad enough you will find a way to work and get it (without screwing over or cheating someone else). So in today’s world college education is attainable without huge loans or debt (listen to Dave Ramsey for a few pointers).
I finally have come to look at the school levy on my property taxes as ‘giving back’. I came from a lower middle class family and someone somewhere paid school levies so I could go to 12 years of school. So while it irks me to pay the tax levy I see it as returning the investment someone made in me all those years ago.
Bet you didn't have vacations to places like Fort Lauderdale or New Orleans "Fat Tuesday" (or had no vacations at all) on Spring Break. Spring Break was my time (and probably yours) to catch up on my studies.
Yes. When spring break came it was time to work extra shifts for extra money, sleep a little and study more. I believe it served me well. I have had a blessed life due to my parents teachings and the discipline I learned as a young woman.
I do like the State of TX has frozen the amount that we seniors pay in school property taxes - that has made a huge difference in our property tax bill especially considering that we live in an area with rapidly rising home evaluations
That would be great! I wish us retired folks in Florida could get something similar. Property taxes are high here in “the free state of Florida’. DeSantis is trying to push through getting rid of property taxes altogether. I am not sure how that would work out. I guess I will have to read about it as more details are decided and published for public view.
Well said ! Wife and I are in the same boat, paid property taxes fo 35 + years ( often in multiple counties simultaneously ) , no children , and have no qualms about paying school taxes . Would I like that to go away in retirement ; yes . I will never vote for a tax increase of any kind .
If they gave parents of kids in private schools a tax break for double paying for their kids education, it would destroy public education. There has to be a way to help offset the cost of private schools without doing so. Maybe the states will find a way once they have control of education again.
I have two in-laws who are retired teachers (in Oregon). They are the bluest of blue democrats and both are bat shit crazy in how they see their perception of reality. And believe me it is scary. These two have had summers off for decades and then complain they didn’t get paid. WHAT?
(I asked one why she didn’t have her pay set up for 12 months instead of 9 months. She said she liked getting the bigger check each month for 9 months. ?? She complained summers were a struggle because she didn’t get a check and it was hard to pay her bills so she lived on credit cards in summer. ?? I suggested she set up a monthly budget and put money away for the summer. She said a budget was too confusing and restrictive.??)
One of the last times I saw one of the in-laws she was relating a story of how she had to file a grievance with the union because another teacher had a classroom she believed she should have had as she was ‘senior’. You really can’t make this stuff up.
These two give crazy a new definition. AND if even a small percentage of teachers are as delusional as my two in-laws—-no wonder our kids can’t read and write.
They are both now retired and getting somewhere between 75-80% of their salary as retirement + SS. I shudder to think what they taught the kids under their supervision through the years.
I have a hard time being in their company. I generally smile a lot and drink rum. My husband loves his sisters— but has a tough time with them too.
One reason the blue states are in such poor financial shape is that they gave away the store to their unions in terms of pay and pension benefits. This is why DOGE scares the crap out of all governmental employees. The gravy train of being a Federal government employee is being shut down and once the states figure this out, they can go through the same process with their featherbedding unions.
Thank you. Our visits are brief—usually lunch at a restaurant. I refuse to eat in one of them house—her only cleaning agent is vinegar. You can see my issue. LOL
Not only that, but those teachers' unions are bullies who try to destroy the livelihoods of any local critics who oppose their sleazy schemes. AND I speak from experience. One time, now long ago, the local teachers' union was promoting a "Tax Limitation". When I read the fine print, it really was a huge school tax increase, which did include an upper limit, but then, which one doesn't? So I publicized that finding, and the day after found my business boycotted by the educational communists. True story.
Ok Donnie, I'm going to conduct my own poll. What happened in the 60's and 70's that changed our country? 1. Sexual revolution. 2. Roe vs Wade 3. Kicked Bible study out of grade schools. 4. Formation of the D.O.E. 5. We forgot we are accountable to a Holy God. 5. All of the above.
It has been said that "Money is power." It has also been said that, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." President Trump, having previously become acquainted with enormous amounts of money, then having become "the most powerful man in the world" as President, well knows the corrupting influence of money and power when combined in the hands of venal, self-serving people like Randi Weingartner and her educrat ilk. Removing the money is a necessary step in ultimately removing such people from the levers of power.
But don’t kid yourself, big ed will not go quietly. It could be the issue that most impacts every family and there are a lot of supporters on both sides of the issue. The hot civil war might just start from the embers of burning Teslas, fueled by big money aimed at protecting big ed. This fight is just starting.
Another heartwarming column Don. The only exception I take is with the comment “It is time to euthanize the agency.” Euthanasia is, by definition, painless. This should hurt so much that the state BOEs should scream and collapse. Along with Randi Weingarten.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the totally gratuitous money quote: “But if Democrats were smart, they wouldn’t be Democrats.” I try to remember to read your columns between cups of coffee.
The DOE has been a miserable failure. It has been known for years that the rate of functional literacy in the US was higher in the days of the one-room schools than it is now. The money has gone to bureaucracy rather than the quality of teaching. I lived in Indiana for 32 years. It's a mostly red state; but education there is messed up. A lot of their rural school districts have been consolidated into larger ones. One little oddity is a factor in that: the pension for a district superintendent is based on the physical plant of the district. The more big buildings, the bigger the pension!
Here's a historical note: In Dwight Eisenhower's Farewell Address, he warned of the dangers of the "military-industrial complex" that arose in the wake of WWII; his speech is mainly remembered for that. But he spent just as much time in that speech warning of the effects of federal money on research. He said, "public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address
I have a college degree myself. But for various reasons, I ended up making my living in residential construction--mostly home repair and remodeling, but some work on new houses. Being intelligent was not a disadvantage for me in that field; in fact, a lot of the problems in construction are caused by leaving most of the field to stupid people!
What the heck, Don? "Don’t worry. None of the idiots in the ivory towers are going to jail." What's this? I worked in academia. I want them to go to jail. Hard labor. Breaking rocks. Hauling manure. Picking cotton. I want them to suffer!
How will that fix anything or make the country better? Instead, remove them from positions of authority and put them to work making something of value.
Most of them are useless except for writing grants and sucking on the public teat. You'd be shocked at how little useful work gets done, especially after tenure.
Publish or perish is the common phrase. If you can't generate income from the grants in the form of free overhead cash, you are gone and they'll find a better cash cow. Overhead is free cash to spend where and how they wish outside their budgets.
Well done as usual. Only thing I would change is the headline to "Why Leftists should want to shut down the Department of Education". The only classical liberals today are found in the Republican party.
Yes, there's an obvious connection between "free" government money and the cancerous growth of education at all levels. Or rather, the growth of educational bureaucracies and what used to be known as "feather-bedding".
Great lines, including, 'The Soviets and Red China forced their people into indoctrination camps. American communists improved that by having them go voluntarily and pay for it."
and "... if Democrats were smart, they wouldn’t be Democrats."
Reminds us that: if Marxists understood economics, they wouldn't be Marxists.
Best line of the day is "But if Democrats were smart, they wouldn’t be Democrats."
Why is it the most damage always comes from the "indoctrinated" white women?
Misplaced inherent guilt complex. College provides the opportunity to learn what you did not know. But it doesn’t make you smart or give you common sense.
Or more importantly make social connections that will no doubt help you down the road.
“Indoctrinated White Women” constitute the “AWFUL” brigade: Affluent White Female Unhinged Leftist”.
Passing the 19th Amendment was a huge, Big League mistake.
LOL... you said the no-no.
Hey - just calling it as I see it. I don’t play BS PC games. Not all women are nuts - my sister, GF, & a few others I know are exceptions- but a sizable majority are. For some reason women - especially single women - crave a “protector” of some sort & that too often comes in the form of big govt socialism/fascism.
I hope to be proven wrong in the years unfolding but I’m not holding my breath.
I'm one of your exceptions, but I definitely that AWFLS are responsible for a LOT of the current insanity.
Yeah, funny how cyclical things are. There was a time when women were all about compassion, tolerance and nurturing. Now Leftist women are for war, wokeism (anti-women) and anarchy. Go figure.
Well that’s historically their nature; they give birth - life - & rear children far better than any male could. That was God’s Intent. Since feminism has reared its ugly head “the culture” has attempted to masculinize women & feminize men, so you have the dichotomy of which you speak of women trying to “out masculinize” men especially when it comes to foreign policy, war, etc. They’ve become a knee-jerk bloodthirsty bunch.
Recent history makes it hard to disagree, although strictly VERBOTEN.
Hey - if I’m taking FLAK it means I’m over the target. Won’t be the first time I’m characterized as a “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal” & won’t be the last so bring it on! ;<)
Always love seeing the women make great leaders bumper sticker. I pull along side at a light and tell them that holding up traffic isn't leadership and kindly quit blocking the road.
Some great leaders have been women, but that's the exception, not the rule. Maggie Thatcher comes to mind. But for every Thatcher, there are a hundred Hillary Clintons or Kathy Hochuls.
It’s a mental health issue.
The government needs to get out of the student loan business altogether, as it’s a waste of taxpayers money, since a huge number of students who take out loans fail to graduate, and default on their loan payments, or deal them down. The taxpayers have been on the hook for two generations. And the “research” funding is what brought us Duke doing gain of function virus research, and MIT plopping a nuclear reactor in the heart of Cambridge. The endowments at most of these universities are in the billions, funding professors like Liawatha, 1/10,000th an Indian, grabbing a$450k professorship at Harvard, and former President Gay returning to her half a mil tenured post, to keep those young skulls full of mush woke and broke. Let’s instead give money for middle-class kids to train as electricians and plumbers and engineers—this country needs them more than Women Studies PhDs working as tranny bartenders kicking people with MAGA hats out of their bar.
Furthermore: how about we claw back the money (say from the last 15 years)from the money launderers masquerading as educational institutions? Reduce the endowments to proportionate amounts, make the endowments exceeding that amount necessary to fund scholarships or loans taxable and call it even?
Most workable idea I've seen is to tax endowments over a certain threshold. Higher taxes to offset (God willing) reduced federal spending. Win win.
I was able to get a loan from the Federal government for college. I paid it back by serving four years in the Navy (three of those years on a destroyer). That was before there was a Department of Education. After my Naval career, I took out a $5,000 loan to get my Master of Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Tuition was ten grand back in 1982 - a pittance compared to this time: tuition is now $51,648 - not covering fees and housing (the cost for food on campus is $8,354 - almost what my tuition cost 43 years ago).
...and that $8,354 for food comes to about $160.65 per week. When I was in college, Spam was too expensive.
Call Trump. You have a place in his administration. Great comment.
Heaven forbid though if the govt money corrupted trade schools the same as it did ‘academia’. Govt money corrodes most things it touches.
The basic truth is that there are diminishing returns to scale as a greater proportion of students attended college. It had to be dumbed down to accommodate the intellectual limits of the added cohorts. The flood of government money allowed the curriculum to lack any utility in the “real world”.
Almost twenty years ago I saw signs in the halls of a local junior college advertising remedial reading courses. i couldn’t believe people were being admitted that needed remedial reading!
👏
If I was smart, like Democrat, I wouldn’t have paid back my student loan, but that would have been stupid. Does that make sense.
The cat must have called it an early night. The poll was a no-brainer.
I was a stay at home mom and we tightened our belts in order to send our daughter to private school on one income. I wouldn’t mind having some of the money we still had to pay in property taxes to fund public schools back in my own pocket.
I agree. I never vote yes to increase a property tax for the school system.
I never had children (long boring story). Yet for all the years I owned a home -30+years- I have paid property taxes that include a school tax levy. In the late 70’s I went to college on student loans and paid them all back. Tuition and books at the time was about $700-800/year at U of Louisville. I am grateful I got the chance to go to college as it opened some doors in my future. However, I paid for my college. I worked 2-3 part time jobs to pay my rent and expenses and go to college. I was self supporting and on my own. The lesson I learned from that was: If you want something bad enough you will find a way to work and get it (without screwing over or cheating someone else). So in today’s world college education is attainable without huge loans or debt (listen to Dave Ramsey for a few pointers).
I finally have come to look at the school levy on my property taxes as ‘giving back’. I came from a lower middle class family and someone somewhere paid school levies so I could go to 12 years of school. So while it irks me to pay the tax levy I see it as returning the investment someone made in me all those years ago.
Just my two cents
Bet you didn't have vacations to places like Fort Lauderdale or New Orleans "Fat Tuesday" (or had no vacations at all) on Spring Break. Spring Break was my time (and probably yours) to catch up on my studies.
Yes. When spring break came it was time to work extra shifts for extra money, sleep a little and study more. I believe it served me well. I have had a blessed life due to my parents teachings and the discipline I learned as a young woman.
Bless you, my dear...
Spring break was always the opportunity to stockpile some cash from working full time ; never had a spring break vacation .
I do like the State of TX has frozen the amount that we seniors pay in school property taxes - that has made a huge difference in our property tax bill especially considering that we live in an area with rapidly rising home evaluations
That would be great! I wish us retired folks in Florida could get something similar. Property taxes are high here in “the free state of Florida’. DeSantis is trying to push through getting rid of property taxes altogether. I am not sure how that would work out. I guess I will have to read about it as more details are decided and published for public view.
I believe the start date is age 65. Texas also doesn't collect property taxes from 100 percent disabled vets.
Well said ! Wife and I are in the same boat, paid property taxes fo 35 + years ( often in multiple counties simultaneously ) , no children , and have no qualms about paying school taxes . Would I like that to go away in retirement ; yes . I will never vote for a tax increase of any kind .
If they gave parents of kids in private schools a tax break for double paying for their kids education, it would destroy public education. There has to be a way to help offset the cost of private schools without doing so. Maybe the states will find a way once they have control of education again.
...which is why the teachers' unions in just about every state fight tooth-and-nail against school choice for parents and their children...
Teachers unions suck!
I have two in-laws who are retired teachers (in Oregon). They are the bluest of blue democrats and both are bat shit crazy in how they see their perception of reality. And believe me it is scary. These two have had summers off for decades and then complain they didn’t get paid. WHAT?
(I asked one why she didn’t have her pay set up for 12 months instead of 9 months. She said she liked getting the bigger check each month for 9 months. ?? She complained summers were a struggle because she didn’t get a check and it was hard to pay her bills so she lived on credit cards in summer. ?? I suggested she set up a monthly budget and put money away for the summer. She said a budget was too confusing and restrictive.??)
One of the last times I saw one of the in-laws she was relating a story of how she had to file a grievance with the union because another teacher had a classroom she believed she should have had as she was ‘senior’. You really can’t make this stuff up.
These two give crazy a new definition. AND if even a small percentage of teachers are as delusional as my two in-laws—-no wonder our kids can’t read and write.
They are both now retired and getting somewhere between 75-80% of their salary as retirement + SS. I shudder to think what they taught the kids under their supervision through the years.
I have a hard time being in their company. I generally smile a lot and drink rum. My husband loves his sisters— but has a tough time with them too.
One reason the blue states are in such poor financial shape is that they gave away the store to their unions in terms of pay and pension benefits. This is why DOGE scares the crap out of all governmental employees. The gravy train of being a Federal government employee is being shut down and once the states figure this out, they can go through the same process with their featherbedding unions.
My condolences to you for having to deal with your bat-sh!t in-laws...
Thank you. Our visits are brief—usually lunch at a restaurant. I refuse to eat in one of them house—her only cleaning agent is vinegar. You can see my issue. LOL
Yarp!
Not only that, but those teachers' unions are bullies who try to destroy the livelihoods of any local critics who oppose their sleazy schemes. AND I speak from experience. One time, now long ago, the local teachers' union was promoting a "Tax Limitation". When I read the fine print, it really was a huge school tax increase, which did include an upper limit, but then, which one doesn't? So I publicized that finding, and the day after found my business boycotted by the educational communists. True story.
Ok Donnie, I'm going to conduct my own poll. What happened in the 60's and 70's that changed our country? 1. Sexual revolution. 2. Roe vs Wade 3. Kicked Bible study out of grade schools. 4. Formation of the D.O.E. 5. We forgot we are accountable to a Holy God. 5. All of the above.
All of the above. Of course.
Big government decided it could take the place of religion. By the looks of things, they were pretty successful at it.
Also—War on Poverty. And maybe, assassinations of Democrat leaders (2 Kennedys and MLK) who might have kept the party sane.
You forget teachers' unions. Even if just mentioning those makes them very indignant. Human rights, you know.
It has been said that "Money is power." It has also been said that, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." President Trump, having previously become acquainted with enormous amounts of money, then having become "the most powerful man in the world" as President, well knows the corrupting influence of money and power when combined in the hands of venal, self-serving people like Randi Weingartner and her educrat ilk. Removing the money is a necessary step in ultimately removing such people from the levers of power.
But don’t kid yourself, big ed will not go quietly. It could be the issue that most impacts every family and there are a lot of supporters on both sides of the issue. The hot civil war might just start from the embers of burning Teslas, fueled by big money aimed at protecting big ed. This fight is just starting.
“This fight is just starting.”
Your last line is 100% on point.
Just b/c Trump won the election, we must keep very much in mind that THE WAR IS FAR FROM OVER!!
We must keep FIGHTING on EVERY ELECTION, local, state and federal!
‘Hamas terrorists hide behind children. So do the educrats.’ What a line!
Stolen!
“Trump has grabbed colleges by their pocketbooks” 😉 good one, Don. 🤭
Another heartwarming column Don. The only exception I take is with the comment “It is time to euthanize the agency.” Euthanasia is, by definition, painless. This should hurt so much that the state BOEs should scream and collapse. Along with Randi Weingarten.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the totally gratuitous money quote: “But if Democrats were smart, they wouldn’t be Democrats.” I try to remember to read your columns between cups of coffee.
If the federal money wasn’t floating around like butterflies covered in honey a lot of these expenses wouldn’t be so high.
Professor salaries, administrative costs, and tuition would all be a lot lower.
When only 25% of the federal monies received go into the classroom you know this is just one group getting over on the rest of us.
The DOE has been a miserable failure. It has been known for years that the rate of functional literacy in the US was higher in the days of the one-room schools than it is now. The money has gone to bureaucracy rather than the quality of teaching. I lived in Indiana for 32 years. It's a mostly red state; but education there is messed up. A lot of their rural school districts have been consolidated into larger ones. One little oddity is a factor in that: the pension for a district superintendent is based on the physical plant of the district. The more big buildings, the bigger the pension!
Here's a historical note: In Dwight Eisenhower's Farewell Address, he warned of the dangers of the "military-industrial complex" that arose in the wake of WWII; his speech is mainly remembered for that. But he spent just as much time in that speech warning of the effects of federal money on research. He said, "public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address
I have a college degree myself. But for various reasons, I ended up making my living in residential construction--mostly home repair and remodeling, but some work on new houses. Being intelligent was not a disadvantage for me in that field; in fact, a lot of the problems in construction are caused by leaving most of the field to stupid people!
I have always wondered why more people at the time did not echo Ike’s position on too much government.
What the heck, Don? "Don’t worry. None of the idiots in the ivory towers are going to jail." What's this? I worked in academia. I want them to go to jail. Hard labor. Breaking rocks. Hauling manure. Picking cotton. I want them to suffer!
Oh, for the days of my youth when teachers had to take part-time jobs during summer vacation...
How will that fix anything or make the country better? Instead, remove them from positions of authority and put them to work making something of value.
Most of them are useless except for writing grants and sucking on the public teat. You'd be shocked at how little useful work gets done, especially after tenure.
Publish or perish is the common phrase. If you can't generate income from the grants in the form of free overhead cash, you are gone and they'll find a better cash cow. Overhead is free cash to spend where and how they wish outside their budgets.
Well done as usual. Only thing I would change is the headline to "Why Leftists should want to shut down the Department of Education". The only classical liberals today are found in the Republican party.
The libertarian branch.
Trump needs to tackle the student loan problem NOW.
The schools natural response will be to rasie tuition, because they can.
As long as the loan pipeline is open.
Yes, there's an obvious connection between "free" government money and the cancerous growth of education at all levels. Or rather, the growth of educational bureaucracies and what used to be known as "feather-bedding".
DISMANTLE DOE???
Stop the torrents of “free” money for higher education??? But - but - but - it’s FOR THE CHILDREN!
Well, so is candy. And we all know what happens on a steady diet of that.
Somehow in all of this I hear the voice of Ronald Reagan in Berlin, just as timely: “President Trump, TEAR DOWN THAT BUREAUCRACY!”
"They did not lose any moral authority." They sold it like postitutes.
Great lines, including, 'The Soviets and Red China forced their people into indoctrination camps. American communists improved that by having them go voluntarily and pay for it."
and "... if Democrats were smart, they wouldn’t be Democrats."
Reminds us that: if Marxists understood economics, they wouldn't be Marxists.