I just saw this in the New Hampshire Union Leader, a newspaper in Manchester, NH.
If you want freedom, you have to assume personal responsibility for yourself, Paul said. If you make bad decisions, it’s your own fault.
Statements like that are why Ron Paul scares the crap out of the political establishment. They spend all their time helping their constituents avoid responsibility for their actions, while sticking the rest of us with the consequences. Federal flood insurance is a great example. The establishment way encourages people to build in flood zones. To quote a Hyundai commercial — “Duh”.
That quote may sound self-evident on its surface, but let’s dig a little deeper into what could happen. For example, Ron Paul wants to “…advance tax credits through the Family Education Freedom Act, which reduces taxes to make it easier for parents to home school…” and “[guarantee] parity for home school diplomas and [advance] equal scholarship consideration for students entering college from a home school environment.” In other words, he will spend taxpayer money to allow under qualified individuals to educate their children, but he will also make sure that these children are given equal opportunities for scholarships. Sounds like affirmative action to me. So, you can homeschool your children, even if you have no qualifications, but your children will not have to suffer when they leave your living room with an inadequate education. Where’s the personal responsibility there? And no need to worry about anyone checking up on you, because he will “…veto any legislation that creates national standards or national testing for home school parents or student.” Sorry, but if Ron Paul were to be elected through some sort of mass lunacy, I would have to seriously consider moving out of the country, at least until he gets impeached. (All quotes taken from http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/home-schooling/)
Of course I disagree with Jeff. First, the “personal responsibility quote was probably not about home schooling, but moving on …
Allowing tax credits is not “spending taxpayer money.” That fits with the sort-of liberal notion that the money we earn isn’t ours. In Jeff’s world all our money belongs to the government and we’re lucky they let us keep any of it.
Jeff also assumes that the public school environment is better than the home school environment. Maybe we shouldn’t let parents raise their kids at all. We’ll just take them from the womb and put them in a government day care the moment they’re born. Surely government employees will take better care of them than their idiot parents.
So Jeff, which country is your preferred choice if RP wins? Will Alex Baldwin and Kim Basinger be there?
Just razzing you. Thanks for the comment. –Warren