David Ammons reports: "Call it the Children's Hour"
Washington's Democratic-controlled Legislature is back at the Capitol for a 15-week session -- and kids are king.It's inconceivable that actual children will benefit if they're saddled with unconscionable debt and public pension liabilities, or if the state simply ramps up unaccountable hand-outs to bureaucrats with only vague promises that the money will somehow improve "education".Aided by a record $1.9 billion projected revenue surplus, lawmakers have declared children as their top priority for new spending as they build a whopping $30 billion state budget.
Since children won't really benefit from any of this, the article must be Ammons' way of commenting that the grown-ups who are running the show in Olympia are behaving like children.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 08, 2007 01:35 PM | Email ThisHow's yer boy George doing on the national debt?
Hint #1: it's up 49% since he inherited an operating surplus.
Hint #2: think big numbers. Trillions, for example.
That said, I'm all for the person who said "it's for the kids" cannot be the phrase that allows anything. I would love to exorcise that one and "world-class education" from any educational discussions. Seattle School district has used the "it's for the kids" excuse too many times to excuse bad decisions. In a recent conversation with an editorial writer at the Times, I was shocked to hear that this person thinks that the $35M that was mismanagement several years ago was disturbing but after all "it was spent on the kids". Huh? Where all that money went to was never explained (I doubt malfeasance but still, where did it go?) and I can't believe the Times would let anyone off the hook with that old line.
Posted by: westello on January 8, 2007 03:08 PM$35mm fubar in private industry would have convictions, shareholder lawsuits & maybe jail; let alone incompetence;
to me it's all indifferent cow-plop until i see RESULTS...still waiting...
it's not national--it's local--what have LOCAL people done? audits? results? accountability? honesty? paring your budget like we do at home every week for our groceries?
all air. no results. like visiting a massage parlor, falling asleep and missing your wallet.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on January 8, 2007 04:45 PM
Irritating because most adults are responsible for their kids...and they don't presume to insist that their neighbors have an obligation.
Irritating because the rhetoric pretends that these children are free floating in a universe of neglect with no help but government--like unclaimed property.
Irritating because the handouts to adults in the name of children do not penalize irresponsibility, but actually reward it.
If "children" are somehow the responsibility of us all, then courts should intervene and make it legal. Parental rights should be terminated and the state should be named as the responsible party with custody and obligation.
Of course, the benefitting adults would scream bloody murder about creating a generation of state adopted orphans, but that is exactly how these arrogant elitists must be thinking to use this kind of rhetoric.
Posted by: anon on January 9, 2007 08:51 AM