Get It or Getting It

 

Today, President Biden announced a student loan program that will help ameliorate the student loan debt of individuals earning less than $125,000 or married couples earning a maximum of $250,000 which would shave $10,000 for private student loans and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Pretty good news, but already the Republicans are  crying "unfair." You see when it comes to the Get and the Get Nots, both parties chose their dance partners carefully. Farmers get direct farm payments to the tune of $37 billion dollars a year (in 2020) while lower and middle-class families with student loans will save $30 billion a year over a ten-year period. So depending on who you are, it could seem 100% unfair if you are not farming or paying back college loans.

If you are wondering how much taxpayers spend to support so-called corporate welfare, the conservative Hoover Institute says it is about $100 billion a year. I can hear you say "I'm not a corporation, that's not fair!" How much do we spend on people's welfare programs? For 2021, it was a little over a trillion dollars. Fun fact, there are a lot more people than corporations, literally millions upon millions more. But, did you know that federal welfare is the same percentage (15%) as the amount spent on national defense? This is to say that the military gets as much as your Aunt Fanny. I haven't had a need for MRAP, but on occasion, yes I have needed supplemental food or unemployment insurance.

So, you have to ask who makes it possible for Peter to pay Paul? Democrats and Republicans whom we elect have their favorite "charities". And if you believe you are being gotten more than getting, you probably are. We all are, it is the product of democratic processes and the lobbies that lean it in their direction. We all are in the shape that old-time actor Danny Kaye describes in the movie 'White Christmas': "When what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be worth getting, whatever it is you've got left." Uncynically, we shouldn't worry so much about who is getting as what is being gotten and consider who is giving and who is getting ill-gotten gains. In the meanwhile, let's be happy with what have got.

Arizona: Why 2 Ks?

 Arizona's primaries ended with Katie Hobbs (D), the current Secretary of State of Arizona and Kari Lake (R), a University of Iowa graduate and conservative journalist as their respective party gubernatorial candidates. In what will likely be a battle for the hearts and minds of Arizonians for what is falsely called a stolen election, these two candidates are the "poster children" for their party's viewpoints. 

                       Kari Lake (R)                                                Katie Hobbs (D)

Katie Hobbs, born and raised in Arizona, was elected as Secretary of State in 2019 which makes her the second in line to the sitting Governor (who at the moment is a Republican). As Secretary of State, she was the sane voice when the coordinated effort to "Stop the Steal" was going on. Like Joe Biden, she won her race in 2019 in a squeaker that took some time to call due to absentee and mail-in ballots. Prior to that, Hobbs was the minority leader in the Arizona Senate. Solid credentials to lead a state like Arizona. Her campaign site indicates she will:

- Make government more transparent and cut red tape for small businesses

- Ensure voters rights through election security and improved ballot access

- Make the state more inclusive including protecting civil and health care rights

- Make Arizona more affordable by lowering the costs of families with children among other things

Her opponent, Kari Lake, a former Hawkeye, has never been elected to anything but after stints as a weatherperson, was a Fox news anchor for 22 years in Phoenix, the state's largest city. Like a lot of midwest transplants, her politics have shifted dramatically since being a Kerry and Obama Democrat. She is embracing her connection to Donald Trump and his allies like Mike Lindell. Her policies according to her campaign website said she will:

-Finish President Trump’s Wall 

-Blow Up Cartel Drug Tunnels 

-Shoot Down Cartel Drones AND pledge to deploy troops to STOP Illegals from entering.

If there ever was a contrast of priorities, this pairing is as bi-polar as it gets. A hardworking former social worker with plans to get things done that improve people's day-to-day situations even as her own life has been threatened is challenging a talking head with an agenda that is popular with a significant amount of conservative voters.

In the battle of the two Ks, there is a really good chance that Arizona will end up on the short-sighted end of the stick if moderates stay home. Fortunately, it seems that Katie Hobbs is giving them a great reason to jump in--to support their families, keep jobs and businesses thriving, and most of all, to make sure that hate-mongering seed sowers are defeated at that most democratic of places--the ballot box.