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Feb. 26th, 2003 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leftyjewSo I just read this speech that NJ (my home state) Governor Jim McGreevey gave about the State of the State and his budget for this coming year. It's disgusting!
First, the outrage: Rutgers, the State University of NJ will take a 14% cut in its budget (and my brother tells me they are thinking of a 34% cut next year!) which means that scholarships decrease, tuition increases, and good professors are canned. On top of that, NJ, if this budget is approved, will cut ALL funding to the following causes and groups:
Health grants and programs
Science and Technology grants
Operating subsidy to the Sports and Exposition Authority
Entirely all Arts Council grants, the Cultural Trust, the Historical Commission, and the Historic Site Management Program
According to Gov. McGreevey, "In total, we have eliminated over one hundred and nine programs of varying sizes." That's it. Completely eliminated!
Two things bother me about this on a deeper level. First, why are they choosing to make such huge cuts? Because McGreevey declared that in order to maitain a "pro-consumer economy," "We are not raising the corporate business tax. We are not raising the sales tax. And we are not raising the income tax." Let's think what a pro-consumer econmy means. Consumers means that they are buyign things. Who are they buying things from? Business. Who sets the prices of things? Well, you could say both sides, but most businesses are oligopolies or monopolies, so the business gets to set prices. This means a so-called "pro-consumer economy" is a pro-business economy with a friendlier name. Why not raise taxes? In a recession with the stte government in deficit, raising taxes acn be highly effective. I appreciate the 10% cut that the Governor's office took, but this move will cause thousands of people to lose their jobs and tens of thousands to take a pay cut. What could be so bad about increasing taxes?
Okay, next problem is that NJ is not the only state in a budget crunch. According to the Governor's speech, NYS has cut education, KY and AR have releasedd inmates, KS and MA have eliminated state aid to counties and municipalities, and worst of all, CO, NM, and LA have cut out a day of school each week! What is behind these deficits? In part, the economy is coming down all over. However, President Bush declared a 20% increase of the federal budget in his State of the Union. Where is all this money going? Although it was promised to the states to help with the required Homeland Security measurements, that funding was cut. Also, the federal government is giving money to certain states for some programs (eg, medical help to seniors was given to Florida and Wisconsin but not NJ) and in general has not followed through on its promises.
So where is the money going? It's going to fund an unpopular war in order to give control of the oil fields of another country to American oil companies. The Hussein regime was put in power by the United States government and given weapons by the same government. Suddenly, in 1991, they became our enemy, and after 12 years, we decide that their a threat? How are Iraqi missiles any more a threat now than 5 years ago? Why didn't they attack us then? Is it because now Americans see all Arabs as evil? Hussein and Bin Ladin have close ties, they say. Then it comes out that with friends like Bin Ladin, Hussein sure doesnt need enemies. Not that Saddam's a nice guy, but there are much worse dictators that America still supports in power (no, not Bush, I mean many Latin American dictators and several in Africa). North Korea actually wants to make trouble. Why is Saddam the issue?
But more importantly, why now? With the country in debt, the federal government should not be forced to cut funding to the states in order to fund a war. We should be concentrating on building our domestic economy so we don't have kids in Louisiana lose 20% of their school year. And that's that.
First, the outrage: Rutgers, the State University of NJ will take a 14% cut in its budget (and my brother tells me they are thinking of a 34% cut next year!) which means that scholarships decrease, tuition increases, and good professors are canned. On top of that, NJ, if this budget is approved, will cut ALL funding to the following causes and groups:
According to Gov. McGreevey, "In total, we have eliminated over one hundred and nine programs of varying sizes." That's it. Completely eliminated!
Two things bother me about this on a deeper level. First, why are they choosing to make such huge cuts? Because McGreevey declared that in order to maitain a "pro-consumer economy," "We are not raising the corporate business tax. We are not raising the sales tax. And we are not raising the income tax." Let's think what a pro-consumer econmy means. Consumers means that they are buyign things. Who are they buying things from? Business. Who sets the prices of things? Well, you could say both sides, but most businesses are oligopolies or monopolies, so the business gets to set prices. This means a so-called "pro-consumer economy" is a pro-business economy with a friendlier name. Why not raise taxes? In a recession with the stte government in deficit, raising taxes acn be highly effective. I appreciate the 10% cut that the Governor's office took, but this move will cause thousands of people to lose their jobs and tens of thousands to take a pay cut. What could be so bad about increasing taxes?
Okay, next problem is that NJ is not the only state in a budget crunch. According to the Governor's speech, NYS has cut education, KY and AR have releasedd inmates, KS and MA have eliminated state aid to counties and municipalities, and worst of all, CO, NM, and LA have cut out a day of school each week! What is behind these deficits? In part, the economy is coming down all over. However, President Bush declared a 20% increase of the federal budget in his State of the Union. Where is all this money going? Although it was promised to the states to help with the required Homeland Security measurements, that funding was cut. Also, the federal government is giving money to certain states for some programs (eg, medical help to seniors was given to Florida and Wisconsin but not NJ) and in general has not followed through on its promises.
So where is the money going? It's going to fund an unpopular war in order to give control of the oil fields of another country to American oil companies. The Hussein regime was put in power by the United States government and given weapons by the same government. Suddenly, in 1991, they became our enemy, and after 12 years, we decide that their a threat? How are Iraqi missiles any more a threat now than 5 years ago? Why didn't they attack us then? Is it because now Americans see all Arabs as evil? Hussein and Bin Ladin have close ties, they say. Then it comes out that with friends like Bin Ladin, Hussein sure doesnt need enemies. Not that Saddam's a nice guy, but there are much worse dictators that America still supports in power (no, not Bush, I mean many Latin American dictators and several in Africa). North Korea actually wants to make trouble. Why is Saddam the issue?
But more importantly, why now? With the country in debt, the federal government should not be forced to cut funding to the states in order to fund a war. We should be concentrating on building our domestic economy so we don't have kids in Louisiana lose 20% of their school year. And that's that.
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Xiao Buxi
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