Monday, January 30, 2006
For once Kansas State University got something right.
During the president’s visit to Manhattan on Jan. 23, a KSU student did something that not everyone in the world was able to do: She questioned her leader.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the question was “Recently, $12.7 billion was cut from education, and I was just wondering, how is that supposed to help our futures?”
The president responded as if he were confused, and it seemed that he couldn’t hear the question. It wasn’t until after the student repeated her question that she got an answer that neither she nor the rest of the audience expected.
The same Times article reported that President Bush responded by saying, “I think what we did was reform the student-loan program. We’re not cutting money out of it. In other words, people aren’t going to be cut off the program. We’re just making sure it works better.”
When I realized that this was the intention of the president, I had to laugh.
I laughed because the new plan does more than just cut the budget for federal student loans; it also increases the interest rates of current loans. How is this is making things better?
Through this budget cut, funds are not only being taken away from student loans but also from single mothers and foster parents, among other people. How can the president live with himself knowing that he is providing a tax break for people who have an annual income of more than $1 million? Does he know that there are many other people out there who have a greater need for that money? If he did, this plan would not exist.
This whole arrangement is not smart at all. It has the sole intention of taking from the needy and giving to the rich. Where is the justice in that? Why take away from the people who have legitimate needs while others who have more than enough receive a break?
George Bush is in his second term and he is doing things that prove to everyone that he has nothing to lose. Only a President with nothing to lose could support such a plan, because he no longer needs the support of the American people. If he did, a plan like this would be nowhere on his radar.
Spector is a Buffalo Grove, Ill. senior in political science
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