A Tax-and-Spend Conservative?

by David Safier

(TASL) About a month ago, I wrote a Tax-And-Spend Liberal News Service Manifesto, explaining why I support raising taxes on those who can afford it so we have enough money to spend on education and other government run public services.

Today I found a surprising new comment at the bottom of the post by someone who refers to him/herself as Screamin Conservative. (I have to refer to this person in a gender-neutral way, because I couldn’t find “Screamin” in my What to Name the Baby book.) The surprising thing is, s/he agrees that we need more money in education, and the best way to do that is to generate more funds, which I take to mean, we need more taxes.

Be still, my heart!

The gist of the comment is, education is vital to the continuation of our position as a leader in the world. We have benefited in the past from immigrants who have brought their European educations to this country to help us make some of our most important strides forward. Albert Einstein is the prime example, of course, but there have been many more. But now, people from around the world are taking advantage of our higher education and taking their knowledge back home with them.

The only way we will compete, Screamin asserts, is by putting more money into education. My favorite sentence is in the final paragraph: “I will take a tax and spend liberal over a “spend and overdraw republican” anyday.”

Hey, Screamin conservative, ol’ buddy, you’re not putting me on, are you? I mean, though I don’t agree with everything in your comment, we’re basically on the same side of this issue. You’re not really a “Screamin Liberal” hiding behind a false front, right? Because if people who believe a world class education takes money can find each other and work together, regardless of their places on the political spectrum, there is hope we can create a stronger public education system.