Sickeningly Liberal

Feb. 7, 2012 at 7:34pm with 15 notes

Reblogged from fortunenglory

Gov. Tom Corbett does not care about you… unless you’re rich.

Tom Corbett, governor of Pennsylvania, announced today that he will once again be pushing forward his agenda aimed at hindering the lower and middle class citizens of his state.

It is class warfare.

That’s not an extreme statement used by the left to ignite fear as dutiful and blindly loyal Republicans claim. Corbett’s “refusal” to raise taxes is bullshit.

Because cutting state funding to higher education assistance - particularly when tuition and fees are on the rise due to Corbett’s proposed 20-30% cuts to PA’s colleges and universities - is a form of raising taxes and it’s on those who can least afford it: the lower and middle class. Decreasing deficit by cutting funding is taxation under a different name. It’s pretty simple.

The rich have no problem paying a few thousand extra bucks in tuition and fees. Guess who does? People who are going to college and living paycheck to paycheck. Young people who were like me, who paid for college 100% out of their own pocket. No parental assistance. Not a penny. Every single dollar mattered to me as I busted my ass year-round as a waiter for four years just to get by (and I still had to take out loans that I’ll be paying off for the next decade, I still had to rack up my credit card debt to $10,000). While other kids were off taking shots in Cancun over spring break or backpacking throughout Europe, I was serving Chilean Sea Bass all night after a grueling day of classes, during every single spring break, during every single summer - which was fine, it built plenty of character and whatnot and I had the best damn time that I could have had considering, but it wasn’t easy for any of us (and it doesn’t make me noble or better, it was just the reality and there were a lot of us - we were the majority at Edinboro University). You know who else this hurts? Lower and middle class families who, even though they may not have the financial stability, decide to make sacrifices to help their child out with their college payments. Even a $1,000 extra in tuition and fees is a significant blow to that family. Goodbye new car - better consolidate to one. Who else does this affect? People who have graduated from college and are living from paycheck to paycheck because the only job they can get, even with their 4-year degree that they paid way too much for, is a job serving at Olive Garden. Which barely pays the basic bills that provide a food and a roof, let alone the increased college loans.

Corbett calls the offering of college assistance “entitlement.”

Entitlement.

This is the year after he already cut $860 million in funding to public schools in Pennsylvania. This is a year after he already cut funding to the State System of Higher Education, Penn State University, University of Pittsburgh and Temple University by 20%. This is the year after he began his bullshit call for decreasing a deficit without raising taxes.

Entitlement.

Fuck you, Tom Corbett, you disgusting excuse for a human being. And fuck every single person who voted this fear-mongering, lower and middle class tax raising, corporation supporting, entitled asshole into office. This is not a simple difference in fiscal ideologies. This is criminal. There are no excuses.