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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBooks Instead Of Bombs: Bernie Sanders Proposes Massive Public College Tuition Cut
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/19/books-bombs-bernie-sanders-proposes-massive-public-college-tuition-cut.htmlBooks Instead Of Bombs: Bernie Sanders Proposes Massive Public College Tuition Cut
By: Jason Easley
Thursday, February, 19th, 2015, 1:48 pm
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tonight a plan to take some of the proposed increases in military spending and spend it on a 55% cut in tuition for students at all public colleges and universities.
Sen Sanderss will announce his proposal during a town hall at the University of Iowa:
Many of my colleagues in Washington would look at that number $18 billion a year and tell you that we cant afford to make that kind of investment in our nations young people. To put it simply, they are wrong.
In the budget proposal President Obama released two weeks ago, he requested $561 billion for the Department of Defense $38 billion over budget caps that are currently in place.
If we were to reduce the Presidents proposed increase in military spending by less than half, and instead invest that money in educational opportunities for todays college students, we could cut tuition by 55%. So I challenge all of you ask yourselves, where should our priorities lie?
The Pentagon doesnt need all of the proposed increases in military spending. There is a lot of military spending that is nothing more than red state welfare programs disguised as national security.
The country needs lower college tuition costs more than it needs a few billion dollars thrown at the Pentagon. This is a proposal that makes sense, but Republicans will definitely oppose it by claiming that it is too expensive.
The GOP would rather see a nation of college graduates drowning in debt, and the doors of economic opportunity bolted shut before they would consider doing anything to lower the cost of tuition.
Sen. Sanders has a powerful common sense message to offer. The fact that the issue of the cost of higher education is being discussed is serious progress. The Republican motto of youre on your own isnt going to cut it.
Nearly a decade and a half of a war are enough. It is time to invest in books instead of bombs.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)Hope other candidates are paying attention.
FSogol
(45,526 posts)as national security."
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Thank you Bernie Sanders.
The honesty stings. But it will bring our country back to life if we get that out there.
The backwardness of the red states is supported by our military budget. Time to get those states to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop mooching off those military welfare checks.
So true. I love it.
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)Connecticut has Pratt & Whitney and the rest of United Technologies Corporation and Electric Boat in both Groton, CT and RI.
California has Northrop Grumman (also in Maryland), Lockheed Martin (also in MD), Boeing (also in WA)
Sen. Sanders comes from a state that has very few defense contractors, a cursory search suggested defense contractor brought all of $18 million to VT.
Since many states, blue and red, are in no position to match those funds and since most of the Senate is not going to vote for something that will cost their state jobs, this proposal isn't going to go anywhere.
FSogol
(45,526 posts)candidates can say/propose and what they can actually pass when confronted with the reality of a split government. Plop Sanders into Obama's seat and I doubt he could pass much more than Obama has been able to do. That said, Sanders can help push the dialog to the left and should be commended for what he is saying. I'd love to seem him join our party and participate in the debates.
Military cuts are probably only possible by across the board cuts such as cutting 10-15% from every program excluding soldier salaries/benefits.
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)Give me complete authority and I'm fairly certain I can increase military readiness and save money. Of course both Congress and the senior leadership of the military would hate me.
Bases around the world would be closed and consolidated with other bases. There is a lot that can be made to be used by all 4 branches, such a BDU's, we certainly don't need 4 different patterns of BDU's for all 4 services.
General officers would be limited to no more then 5% above the number of servicemen per general in the USMC.
But none of these things will ever happen. You suggest closing a base in their district or state and the most anti-military member in Congress will scream bloody murder about how THEIR base is somehow essential. And the most liberal Congress person will work hand in hand with the most conservative to keep that base.
FSogol
(45,526 posts)and other unnecessary and redundant defense contracts.
aspirant
(3,533 posts)that President Bernie would appoint the Secretary of Defense whose dept awards these defense contracts?
Ever heard of Halliburton NO-BID contracts
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)besides Congress would remove the funding and re-allocate it.
Most importantly you forget that Sanders is not going to be the next POTUS. He may be popular with you and many here, but he is NOT electable in a general election.
aspirant
(3,533 posts)and when they are awarded some politicians will be cheering ,others screaming. A typical day in congress which President Bernie understands.
HRC is Not-Electable, too much clutter and baggage.
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)... but it would put pressure on Republican governers (sic) in the 2016 election. Mine is proposing massive cuts to our public universities and this would draw a sharp contrast with that plan.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)If you have a child that may go to college or a student who doesn't want to be in debt forever--on this one issue alone--you will work your ass of for Bernie. Because he is RIGHT.
His platform is really shaping up to be a barnburner. I am so afraid the MSM will mock him and the Democratic Star Chamber will stab him in the back. I really hope that people have woken up and are concerned. Perhaps we have lost all hope in this country, but Senator Sanders hasn't.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)He doesn't tense up. He tells the truth as he sees it and doesn't care what people think.
Mockery like shame, works when the target of the mockery or shame believes in some small part of him, or knows in some small part of him that the mockery or shame is justified.
Bernie Sanders has thought about the moral imperative of his views. He is neither ashamed of them nor does he find them to be vulnerable to mockery.
He stands on solid ground. We could say his social philosophy is built on a rock foundation, not on one of sand. I think that is why he gets re-elected time and again in that solid state, Vermont. Bernie Sanders thinks before he speaks and believes in what he says. He is probably the most moral person in politics today. We will be lucky if he chooses to run as a Democrat.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)I know that Senator Sanders is a true public servant. He is not in it to enrich himself or anyone else at the cost of the citizens of this country. But I do worry that when the stakes are as high as the presidency, he will be Dean Scream'd or whatever the stoopid media chooses to do. I do hope that people get their information from other sources these days and look at what he has done and what he has said in order to make up their minds about him.
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)If Bernie can get elected, he still needs a Congress to make this the law. We are, as PBO said in ID, subject to lagging behind other nations in education and R&D. He has increased Pell Grants that many once depended upon to go to school debt free and spoken against the interest rates - yet the GOP defunds them at every turn.
This will determine the future of many of us in this country and our ability to work with the rest of the world peacefully. I love every one of Bernie's ideas, they will need broad support to come to pass. At last report, he's considering not running as to not be a spoiler, but good grief, we need his ideas more than ever.
If for no other reason to return to the kind of opportunities I grew up in, despite the discrimination, where it was a given that all would be granted equal education and job opportunity by federal law, even if the corporations had to pulled kicking and screaming to comply. Those who went along willingly were rewarded.
And part of that era was a vibrant public sector that was the refuge of many who were being discriminated against. I feel so bad for the young and poor who are being denied these New Deal programs. The public sector in schools, hospitals and jobs gave us all breathing room. I ask Tea Partiers of when I discuss public school, educational assistance, public works and government services:
'If what we had was good enough for you growing up and gave you chances in life, why not give it to the kids?'
I have even failed to get through the propaganda with older postal workers who have that pension and their service pensions coming onboard, who want it all gone as they got theirs. The younger workers, though, love their postal jobs and the chance for government service.
I think we have to get over this hurdle in Koch washed America, it's been ground in since Nixon and Reagan, etc. I can't live in the past, neither can the kids, but I long for the kind of freedom and 'equal playing field' the public sector gave us in the sixties and seventies before Reagan and the media savaged it all.
JMHO.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)aikoaiko
(34,183 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)After all, I've seen what happens every frickin' time we start launching bombs and missiles and armies at our so-called enemies. Let's try that "reduce college tuition" thing and see what happens. Maybe colleges will raise tuition, and maybe they won't. But if we get those bloody boots on the ground going after ISIS, I know for a fact what's going to happen.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)I want to vote for a visionary, someone who gives us bold goals that we can strive for, not a fear monger who focuses on phantoms s/he'll protect us from so we won't notice while corporations steadily privatize our public spaces and continue picking our pockets.
erronis
(15,328 posts)While we've seen the spending on "defense" programs ("pork for the home states" , we have also seen incredible increases in the costs to students/parents from the "higher" education market. (My apologies for so many finger quotes"" .
I think we could do much better as a country and for the world if we didn't spend our spare dollars on the University Of Xyz but instead spent it on real job training. Apprenticeships for work that really needs to be done around this country.
Of course our high-schools don't educate our children at the level of other top-tier economic nations. That's because we have core/NCLB/AYP and charter (read xian) schools that are backstabbing the public system. But I'm not sure our current $-driven higher-level institutions do any more than extend 12th grade - oh, and suck the money out of the parents/students.
Let's let every high-school graduate or anyone over 17 enroll in a jobs/training/service program. They can learn some skills, help communities, and earn some money. They can switch between professions. They can decide to pursue higher eduction. They can get some life skills and credits.
So, if we are going to get a few 10's of billions of $s from scrapping the F35 and closing a few thousand bases around the world, could we spend at least half of this in repairing this country's infrastructure, training our people, and regaining some sense of dignity?
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)It exposes you to new and exciting ideas, enables you to establish connections between diverse disciplines, provides invaluable context, and teaches the priceless skill of critical thinking.
antigop
(12,778 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)past 25 years. They've been turning out business and finance majors who have little respect for any of that, on the backs of poorly-paid teaching assistants and non-tenured profs, most of whom qualify for food stamps. Not everyone wants, or needs, to go to college. If we want more citizens to learn critical thinking, citizenship, US history, then we need to set up some other system rather than college to deliver that.
erronis
(15,328 posts)There is definitely room for liberal arts and other courses of study that aren't specifically geared to learning a vocation. However I think it is not what all people should be pursuing.
The Academic/Corporate machine tries to convince just about everyone that they need a college degree, even better two. Then you find out that those degrees are essentially worthless - no job experience, no employment.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)And opens up a world of further thought and learning to you. The difference between an education and "training."
And, in a larger sense, the difference between what human beings are capable of, versus dogs.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)Sadly, I agree with him. And it's happening so slowly but steadily that I'm not sure some people even realize it.
http://roarmag.org/2014/01/max-haiven-crises-of-imagination/
You're welcome.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)I had passed over it quickly before because I was in a hurry, and then forgot about it. But something madfloridian just wrote just reminded me of it, and I came to find it again.
Yes, what's being done to us is systematic and sinister, and extends far beyond financial matters. This looks like a promising read.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)Max Haiven has been a guest on the excellent radio program, Against the Grain, a number of times. I try not to miss a single episode of that show. That's where I first heard of him.
http://www.againstthegrain.org/program/944/mon-60914-financializations-reach
But enough lolly gagging: Let's get back to work raising tons of money so we can elect a candidate who'll lead the effort to get money out of politics.
Nay
(12,051 posts)taken out of it) before we'd want to sink any of our cash into it. Also, most jobs, despite the propaganda, don't need college educations; they need a good HS education and 2 yrs of comm college for job training.
To make that worthwhile, we also need to stop the hemorrhaging of jobs overseas. We're gonna need them here.
antigop
(12,778 posts)bigwillq
(72,790 posts)RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)If we were we scrapping our current system and starting from scratch, Washington could make public college tuition free with the money it sets aside its scattershot attempts to make college affordable today.
Of course, we're not going to start from scratch (and I'm not even sure we should want to make state schools totally free). But I like to make this point every so often because I think it underscores what a confused mess higher education finance is in this country. On the whole, Americans seem to want affordable colleges that are accessible to all. But rather than simply using our resources to maintain a cheap public system (and remember, public schools educate 75 percent of undergrads), we spill them into a fairly wasteful and expensive private sector. At one point, a Senate investigation found that the for-profit sector alone was chowing down on 25 percent of all federal aid dollars.
Source: The Atlantic
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)kills forever. And if children die, they shouldn't have been associated with the terrorist suspects.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)public funding of elections to get corporate corruption out of government, reining in the MIC, taking real rather than PR steps to reverse economic inequality, and dismantling the unconstitutional surveillance and police state.
In other words, he supports reclaiming our democracy from corporate corruption in both parties.
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)Because those educated kids were out protesting the Vietnam War. Can't have a university system that is excellent when it cranks out kids that THINK and protest what the government is doing.
I graduated from a small liberal arts college that was truly a classical liberal arts college.
I earned a B.A. in a natural science (biology) because at the time, the school did not offer a B.S.
I went on a job interview, and the guy asked me why I didn't get a B.S. He was implying that I was stupid or something, for getting a B.A. instead of a B.S. I told him that the school I went to did NOT offer a B.S. and he didn't listen to me. He kept thinking I was stupid.
Sexism. We all know that a five foot two white girl can't be smart. She is only a secretary, and better not have a seriously excellent education. I have a seriously excellent education. Three degrees including a doctorate, and 12 years of college.
I know this because more than one man in a job or interview situation has insulted me.
mrdmk
(2,943 posts)The person(s) doing the interview are looking for reasons not to hire you verse reasons to hire a prospective employee.
As for having a BA instead of a BS and being female, if true, that person is an ass and does not need to be in that position.
It is a very negative experience. Just sad.
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)Last edited Fri Feb 20, 2015, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)
As in the boss saying "I'm SURE you don't know that".
Regarding name dropping.
Shut him down twice and then he stopped.
=======
I'll add the story here. I was working across from Mission Control at NASA at the main contractor's office on NASA Road 1. Maybe it was Lockheed Martin. They have changed names since then. I was a 19 year old secretary who was a junior in college.
Anyway, my boss was determined to prove that I didn't know shit about physics, for some reason. Because secretaries are supposed to be female and stupid, I guess. I have no idea what his problem was. This was in the mid-1970s. I guess he didn't know I went to college, or assumed that I was not a physics major. I was not a physics major. I was a biology major.
So he comes up to me, looms over me, and says, "Richard Feynman. I'm SURE you don't know who he is."
Me: "He wrote the Feynman Lectures on Physics."
He tries again: "Carl Sagan, I'm SURE you don't know who he is."
Me: "He teaches astrophysics at Cornell."
After that he stopped. I didn't tell him that I knew very little about physics, but I had smart boyfriends who majored in physics and math and that's how I knew that Feynman had written the holy scriptures of physics. I didn't know anything about them but they came in 3 volumes and had a red cover. And I had probably read "The Dragons of Eden" and seen Dr. Sagan on the Tonight Show.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)But at least blues states would benefit, as long as they weren't stupid enough to elect repub governors.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)aspirant
(3,533 posts)Campaigning in Iowa, getting his message out without announcing his candidacy keeps the wolves at bay.
The minute he says I'm in, all the HRC screamers will spring into action and will try to cloud and distort his message. Right now he's in the eye of the storm and people are clearly listening.
Let all the HRC"ers slowly try to convince people how wonderful it would be if Hillary didn't have any annoying challengers. Then she could exit the primaries as a true PURIST PONY
Vattel
(9,289 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Some of that money should fund basic scientific research and NASA.
Give some of the college grads something to do...
aspirant
(3,533 posts)Retraining must be for the betterment of mankind, not for the greed of a few
America needs to be the thinkers, the creators of tomorrow, the travelers to new dimensions and worlds. We need minds at all levels united in forward thought enjoying life in their labors of love.