Thursday, April 7, 2011

Yet Another "Ironic" Irony

I'm sure we've all heard of those reports of the conservative politico who rails against undocumented workers and is later found to have hired [knowingly] an undocumented worker. Or how about the conservatives who jump up and down about the vile sins of homosexuality only for us to later learn of secretive homosexual liaisons? Or how about those conservatives who say they stand firm with family values only for us to discover one or more illicit affairs on their resumes?

I recently read an article about the current Lt. Governor of Missouri whose campaign slogan in the last election was "Every Dollar Counts." It turns out that, over the past 5 years or so, he has charged the state for over 300 visits to St. Louis area in which he attended to personal business. I guess those dollars don't count.

Staying with this theme, what is one the biggest complaints of Tea Party folks? Of course, it is that our government spends too much money and the federal budget must be slashed to the bone. Rep. Paul Ryan's recently released budget proposal supposedly seeks to do just that. One of the areas in which he wielded his imaginary budget ax was in the area of student financial aid.

Would it then surprise you to learn that America's largest evangelical Christian school of higher learning -- Liberty University -- received MORE federal funding than The Corporation for Public Broadcasting? It's true! A college that has aligned itself with the Tea Party -- they will host Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich among others at a conference called The Awakening 2011 in April -- is in the black because of a strong infusion of taxpayer dollars.

Ironic, isn't it?

3 comments:

  1. Are you suggesting that we should award Pell grants for students to go only to particular universities? Personally, I wouldn't send my dog to LU for obedience training, but it IS accredited, has a substantial endowment, and is a player in the big online education market.

    I'm sure that by hosting this event, it is just doing what other schools do by hosting "liberal" symposiums.

    Just because you don't like the school and its policies doesn't mean it's not legitimate.

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  2. No, I'm suggesting that an institution that embraces the Tea Party and their call to slash the federal budget (including federal financial aid) to the bone concurrently is one that is solvent due, in large part, to that financial aid that they seem to oppose philosophically. That is similar to the saying "biting the hand that feeds you."

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  3. Fair enough.

    But they have a $530 million endowment...endowments aren't generally the result of federal aid.

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