they think we are a weaker country because we give money to people who don t work. we call it unemployment insurance. they call it a government handout and wonder why the unemployed don t just start their own businesses. there but for the grace of god go i, we say to ourselves. and so we contribute to programs like medicare and social security. there but for the grace of god go i. i learned that phrase as a child, but i ve never before heard it as the rational for medicare and social security. i imagine medicare and social security are logical extensions of the concept enunciated in that phrase. there but for the grace of god go i. but we live in a country where probably half of the people who use that phrase mean, god am i lucky that didn t happen to me? and most of thoseรง people belie it didn t happen to them because they made smarter choices than the unemployed or they worked harder than the people who don t
the people haven t changed. so i ask you, america. why have we changed? why do we view public education so different today than ten years ago or 20 years ago or when my mother was a teacher? are we changing as a country? we must be. we must be changing as a country. our priority list has shifted. we now bicker over paying teachers $50,000 a year. we now villify teachers when we say that they have health care. oh, by the way, they re part-time. they get three months off. we don t report the fact that many of them have to invest in their own career to keep their accreditation, to get more degrees, to advance themselves. there is no government loan for that. there s no government handout.
their own career to keep their accreditation, to get more degrees, to advance themselves. there is no government loan for that. there s no government handout. wall street got that. our teachers don t. they have to dig into their pocket and do it. i am very, very heart warmed tonight because i found exactly what i knew i was going to find here at maury high school. whereas the generation my mother taught in has long gone, there are still teachers who care. there is still an institution named maury high school that produces graduates year after year at a very high rate. there are still programs that help kids make decisions. you know, when i was going to school here the vietnam war was raging. there were protests here just outside the wall at maury high
now you sound like we ve read some of your comments and you sound like you re still for earmarks. can you clarify that for us? uh-huh. i believe very, very strongly that that as an elected official and as the constitution clearly provides that power of the purse remains with the legislative body. i feel that it is our job as legislators to make sure that people back in washington, d.c., the agencies, the administration know and fully understand what what the needs, what the issues are in my state. so i m not going to abandon the effort that i need to make to make sure that alaska s interests are represented. one of the most famous earmarks of all time, the so-called bridge to nowhere from alaska, people in this country are sick of the government handouts and giveaways. well, and i think when you when you put it in that context, when you say it s a government handout or give away
sarkozy, you can see we re losing everything they fought for. that s unacceptable. great britain, france, austerity. could it happen here? we re back with the panel. charles? is that what the second world war was about? i thought it was about something else. this is a perfect example of what happens when you get the bloated, social democratic state that you had. two effects. the first is economic. it s unsustainable as we see around europe. you get the result we saw in england where the government has to have absolutely radical cuts. the largest cuts in government handout essentially in 70 years. very, very major. nothing is spared, including the military. but at least it s a realistic approach. if you look at what happens in france, you see the second effect. of generation after generation of a nanny state which provides all of one s needs. it s essentially a spiritual collapse. government, a country in which