To the editor:

The first thing so-called moderate Senate Republicans chose to eliminate from Obama’s stimulus bill was about $80 billion for education (school construction, higher education, Head Start, child nutrition). They chose to redirect this money into their own pet pork projects.

Tuition has skyrocketed over the last eight years, and with high unemployment, many are going back to school now. Our schools are crumbling, and this is where Republicans have chosen to take a stand?

These Republicans do not get it. The whole point of fiscal conservatism is to save money so that the government has enough money to spend and absorb losses during tough economic times, which prevents other institutions (schools, churches, families, etc.) from collapsing, which otherwise would cause decades of damage past the period of recession.

Obama should give up on getting 60 votes in the Senate and realize that the current Republican Party is completely bankrupt of ideas. If the Republicans want to choose cutting education as their principled issue to fall on their swords over, let them do so with a filibuster. The voters will drive those Republicans out and replace them with Democrats or new Republicans who have some ideas and a connection to reality.

Robert Weaver,
Lawrence