Local Politics
Houston Mayor Bill White has realized his plan is dumb. Sorry, don't really have any other way to spin this.

Mayor Bill White yanked a controversial plan Tuesday that called for the city to use taxpayer funds to pay off some personal debts for first-time homebuyers, following a flood of outrage and criticism from across the city and beyond.

This whole "let's save the homebuyers" is really ticking me off. We chose not to buy a house, because we couldn't afford it. Where's my bailout? We chose not to rack up credit card debt. Where's my money?

BTW - Bill White is less and less popular, every day.

National Politics

Obama's speech - I can't believe he delivered this line without a trace of irony.

The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.

Dependence on foreign oil did not cause our children to inherit a mountain of debt. $787 billion in "stimulus", billions more for housing bailout, billions more for bank bailouts? That is what is causing our children to inherit a mountain of debt.

And who managed to spend over $1 trillion dollars in his first 30 days in office?

That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education – from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.

Obama is going to make sure my child has access to a competitive education from the day of birth? I'll take care of my own 1 day old babies, thanks.

I'm assuming he's talking about making federally funded, union-backed public schooling mandatory for all children for all time. Funny how when politicians talk about "education" they never include the parents.

And the day they begin a career? What if they never have a career? What if they become stay at home moms and dads, or care for aging parents, or simply work jobs here and there while fulfilling their dreams in other ways?

I'll believe that the administration cares about education and not the NEA, when I, as a homeschooler, qualify to write my educational expenses off on my taxes.

The State considers me a valid educator - but I don't get to write off our textbooks. It's all spent out of pocket with after tax dollars and I have to pay sales tax on top of it. Other teachers are allowed a $250 credit to pay for classroom supplies, but not me!

So, let's do a quick rundown of Obama spending/proposed spending. (Does this count as math class? I guess not. My children aren't adding 13 digit numbers yet; we're merely in the billions.)

$787 billion for Recovery/Stimulus dream
$25 billion for foreclosure help ($75 billion total, but $50 billion is from the ARRA.)
$634 billion for healthcare reform, paid in part by raising taxes on those pesky wealthy Americans to almost 40%. (pending)
$50 billion to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax (pending)

$1,496,000,000,000 in on month. That's more than the $1.3 trillion Obama inherited from Bush and doesn't include TARP. I thought he promised to half the deficit, not double it.

(And I'm not even sure I got everything, this is just what I could remember him wanting to spend!)

And... the House just passed ANOTHER $410 billion spending bill.

This is what happens when the same party controls the House, the Senate, and the White House.

Meanwhile, I just can't decide what to spend my $13/week stimulus package on. Sunday lattes at Starbucks? New crayons? Hmmm.

Labels: children, education, politics, Rants and Raves