Rick Perlstein in Before the Storm cites the ferociously conservative center, Orange County, and how its residents decried government help of shiftless people. As a matter of setting the record straight, he lists a few things that the government did offer and that those residents took advantage of while denying the ‘gummit’ aided them in any way:
Home ownership subsidized, esp for veterans (pre-war downpayment = 50%, post-war = 10%)
Three decades of 4% interest, all tax deductible
Irrigation projects to this arid region – funded by taxes from 49 other states
Anti-government types working in firms built entirely from government contracts
Getting their engineering degrees in California’s tuition-free universities
The next time someone anti-government blowhard tells you how he earned his degree by working his way through college, ask him if it was a state school and, if so, then remind him that his tuition was a fraction of what it cost to educate him – all paid by the taxpayer and funneled through the no-good gummit.
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
