Is Pinocchio Bill Clinton's Father? © 1998 Joe Murray The questionable nature of Bill Clinton's origins, family and own personal behavior makes one wonder whether Bill Clinton's father could have been Pinocchio. I am sure you remember Pinocchio as the little puppet who came to life and had a penchant for lying, made famous on the big screen by Walt Disney. The penchant for lying is an undisputable similarity between Pinocchio and Bill. Bill's nose doesn't grow; although, it quite often turns red for some reason. (Allergies, cocaine or lying?) Other signs show up when Bill starts lying that makes one wonder whether his body physically gives him away when he lies. The surest sign is when Bill starts biting his lower lip and feeling our pain. We, then, get impassioned appeals on how he is going to save the children and how much he cares about us. The truth is that when he starts this emotional drivel, he is defending some big government pork barrel program for one of the several domestic special interest groups primarily responsible for bankrolling his ascendancy to power. It is also in line with the illegal contributions that Clinton received from the communist Chinese Government in 1996. You could almost see the puppet strings manipulating Bill Clinton this last week when he cynically promised to veto the historic educational saving account bill passed by both houses of Congress in a bipartisan effort that saw liberal Democratic senators, such as Robert Torricelli, Joseph Lieberman and Robert Byrd, vote for the bill. This bill encourages savings for education, gives relief to rising education expenses, and gives more freedom to parents to have a role in choosing the best educational opportunities for their children. The provisions of the Coverdell/Torricelli education savings accounts allow parents to invest up to $2,000 a year into a savings account to use for any educational expense. For example, buying a home computer, transportation, tutoring and tuition at any school they choose would be allowable uses of the money. The money is after tax dollars, but the interest earned would be tax-free. As the National Education Association pulled on Clinton's strings, out came lie number one to "justify" the promised veto. "Educational savings accounts will deplete public Education Resources." The facts are that this bill doesn't reduce the federal funds currently given to public schools by one cent. The money used is after tax dollars, so the government will already be receiving its "share." Secondly, Clinton spouts out another lie by claiming that educational savings accounts will benefit only the very wealthy. However, this bill has the same income limits as a bill enthusiastically signed by Bill Clinton last year that created educational savings accounts to be used for college. The only difference was that the education union puppet masters don't control the competitive free market college system that is the best in the world because of it. If President Clinton has any integrity and goodness in him, he will reject the Machiavellian lust for power and self-serving greed of the teacher's unions that distort and lie to protect their monopolistic power and sign into law the bill creating educational savings account. The evidence is mounting daily of the benefits of reforms that create competition, innovation and freedom for students and their parents. The defense of the current system daily becomes less accurate, more demagogic and irrational. Despite the Nazi-like propaganda efforts to defend the status quo, the school choice movement is slowly moving forward and proving its validity whenever we try it. For example, in Milwaukee and Cleveland, voucher programs for inner-city, impoverished students has been a glowing success. Parents and students are very happy with the results that show steady academic progress. The longer the students attend the alternative private schools, the better their academic achievement. As to the claims that it will destroy the public school system by gutting the money spent there, the facts clearly refute these charges. In both Milwaukee and Cleveland, the amount of money per capita going to students in the public schools increased. In Milwaukee, about 7.1 million dollars went to the Milwaukee voucher program in the 1996-1997 school year. Sixteen hundred and fifty students participated, and payments were $4,400 per student. Nevertheless, these students were still considered part of the school district for revenue purposes and spending was $7,500 per student. The public school districts got to keep the extra $3,100 not spent on the students, leaving the system with vouchers; so the district actually got to spend an additional $5,115,000 on the students remaining in the system that they wouldn't have had otherwise. Thus, the claims of the teacher's unions are false. It is even more encouraging in Texas where the Arkansas-based CEO America is showing the great spirit of private sector volunteerism that many, including Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and George Bush, have been calling for time after time. CEO America has pledged fifty million dollars over the next ten years to offer every student the complete educational costs to go to the school of their choice for every student eligible for the federal school lunch program in a poor, largely Hispanic district. These poor parents and their children will finally have the same opportunity to send their children to a better private school, just like Bill and Hillary did with Chelsea. School choice is the wave of the future -- not because it is a conservative or liberal issue, but because it is the right thing to do for the future of our children and America. It is time for the teacher's unions and their bought and paid-for political puppets from Bill Clinton to the local school boards in Nebraska to look into their souls and do what is right for the country. If they continue with their selfish greed and lust for power, they will be sorry when they pay the consequences, as the public realizes the benefits of school choice and the destruction caused by their obstructionist policies. |
