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Steelhead
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 163
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Re: tangent from Measure 30
L.S. WHile I have a feeling our two political views do not coincide, I will give you a run down as to some general reasons I think the money is wasted, and what needs to be done about it. One of the biggest wastes of money, is the fact that people come from out of country, and recieve benefits that you and I pay for. Period. Someone has the ability to come here illegally, have a child, and then live here because the child is a citizen. They don't have to work, they get welfare, as well as free heathcare and money for the child.The more kids, the more money. This is all paid for by you and I. And eliminating what this costs would solve the school problem. But there are too many bleeding hearts out there that say we cannot just allow these people to starve. Well, what they do is their choice. They have the ability to either work, or not. If they come to this country and don't work, they either don't eat or leave. Plain and simple. As far as their kids that are U.S.citizens, I am more than happy to fund foster care for U.S. citizens if their parents are not willing to take care of them. This also goes for low life citizens that use kids as a meal ticket. They recieve housing and welfare to get back on their feet. If they are not making an attempt to get back on their feet, they lose welfare, and their kids. And this may sound harsh, but kids have a better chance being taken away from people like this, rather than growing up with people that live this way. Because with people like this, the money they receive for their kids, does not go to the kids. Another program that needs to be done away with is free education to people that are not U.S. citizens. And im not talking only about people that come here illegally, people come here legally and can receive a state funded education. Why? Why will we cut our funding for the school of American children, to fund the education of someone who is not an American? And believe me, there are people who are not from this country that come here to recieve a free education,and leave. There are also people who come here and work, to send their money out of country and then leave. And no one can tell me this is made up, because I currently know someone who is living here, working, sending his money to Mexico to start a business there, and is receiving a free education, and free health care on our dollar.We are paying for him to further his education, so he can start a business somewhere else, which is absolutely no benefit to you and I. So, if we stopped catering to people who are not U.S. citizens, and start focusing on our country, our citizens, and citizens who do not exploit the system, we would have solved all of our budget problems right there. But the bleeding hearts say oh we have to give them free healthcare, and free education. Well, no we dont. If someone refuses to get a job, or refuses to try and better their life, then made the decision to starve. I say if anyone wants to come to America and make a better life for themselves by working hard, and actually making a life for themselves, then they are more than welcome to do so. But if someone comes here, and lives off of our tax dollars, send them home. Or atleast don't give them our hard earned money. I also say that if a citizen decides they want to live off the system rather then working, then they will be cut off. Welfare is to help someone get back on their feet so they can once again be a contributing member to society, and to the economy, not so they dont have to work or contribute. I am all for welfare, however it needs to be heavily regulated, and restricted. And by doing this welfare would get better because we would be able to offer more money to the people that need it, rather then spending all this money on people who abuse the system.If we stopped paying for people who use the system and never contribute anything, we would have money for seniors, we would have money for disabled people. If we stopped allowing people to abuse us, and our system, then we would be able to have health care, and assistance in place that works, for people who actualy need and deserve it. Rather than a system that does not work and primarily caters to those that abuse it. The next issue that is on the top of my list is the waste of money going on inside the schools themselves. If teachers are so highly trained that they need more money, then we need to make sure we are hiring people qualified to educate our kids, and trained well enough to identify people who are not well enough educated. Teachers, and state testing should be more than enough to ensure that kids are properly educated. But no, we decide that on top of state testing, we need CIM. For those of you that don't know what CIM is, it means certificate of initial mastery. This is a program that was discarded by another state because it did not work(I dont recall which one) and was picked up by Oregon. And to illustrate how much of a drain this is on our money, I will inform you just how money is spent on CIM. First off, with the advent of CIM, every school has to hire someone to be responsible for CIM. That means, every individual school must pay the salary, and benefits of another person to run CIM testing. The state has to pay people to write the tests for CIM, and must pay people to grade the tests for CIM. CIM requires that billions of pieces of paper must be purchased, tests printed, and used for this testing. So, this program alone wastes millions of dollars a year that should be going to schools. Not to mention, that time is taken away from teachers teaching class, to prepare and test for CIM. Well, we have state testing, and we have grades for a reason. If these teachers are so qualified, and so highly trained that they deserve all this money, and all these benefits, then they should be qualified enough to grade on a level that would determin if a student is fit to pass or not. Period. The reform of welfare, and the elimination of CIM alone would more then solve our budget problems. And these are just two major, money wasting problems that the state of Oregon has. There are numerous other ventures that we throw our money away at. And I refuse to support paying more money. The problem is a direct result of programs that need to be either change, or eliminated. I understand we need better funding for schools. And I definately know we need better funding for state services, such as police and fire. And the fact is, if we eliminated the waste, and did a better job at running this state, we would have more than enough money to run the schools well, run the jails well, run state assistance well, and not have to tax citizens to death. That is why I will not support a tax increase until we have addressed and solved the issue of wasted money and lame programs that are a drain on the budget. If we did this, we would have a welfare system that worked, and over funded school system, and we would be able to offer assistence and security to those of us that need it and deserve it. If my view offends anyone, I am sorry. I am simply stating the fact, and my view on the way this state is run. If you disagree then fine. I respect the fact that everyone has their own opinion.
Now, since my taxes, license, tag, and federal duck stamp have all been paid for. I am going to enjoy the money that has been wisely spend on the ODFW, and spend this weekend shooting ducks.
[ 01-16-2004, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: ORoutdoorsman ]
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