are being diverted from public education. When everyone figures it out we will hear more complaints. I don't like it.

Edit: I hear a lot of DUers complaining about the insurance mandate so don't know that your "republican frame" is even in the ballpark.

for the most part DU'ers are in favor of HCA and think it is a start ..........


How many democrats are yelling to get rid of 'Obamacare'??

but I'm not happy with Obamacare. It's not a start in the right direction, and my premiums, deductibles, and copays have skyrocketed every year well beyond the steady pace they were rising before.

That said, Republicans are going to complain about tax dollars going almost anywhere but to the MIC and to "faith based" programs.

They won't have a problem with property taxes going to private charters; it's just another version of vouchers they've supported for decades.

That gave the insurance companies a chance to jack rates even higher, even faster, before limits to those raises kicked in. And they did. That's why having insurance doesn't really matter; if the premiums are already bankrupting us, who has anything left for copays and deductibles?

I have high deductibles. My coverage has diminished, and my deductibles gone up, every year.

The right direction for health care is to take the profit out; single-payer, not-for-profit, universal CARE. Not private insurance which does not guarantee care.

Charging people enough to pay a small mortgage for insurance that they then can't afford to use for many things is a scam beyond belief.

Mandating private insurance doesn't guarantee care, and, in my case, it's not an effective talking point.

They sure do complain, when high value and high tax areas' taxes are 'threatened' to be spread around the state(s) so less well-endowed parts of the state might receive a fair distribution of tax money and then provide better educational resources. Many states have spent years and thousands/millions litigating these issues.

*you* don't support them & your child doesn't attend them.

Not to mention that rather than staying in the community, those dollars often leave & go to corporate HQ in another community, state, or even another country.

As charters expand & big corporations take more of the pie through consolidation (which *will* happen, as it happens in *every* deregulated market), larger and larger percents of local taxes will leave communities rather than being recylced into the pockets of local businesses and local people.

This should be enough for right & left to make common cause against charters, because what we're looking at is a modern form of colonialism -- and colonialism IMPOVERISHES localities.

You haven't followed the arguments or accepted that what the (R) are saying is often what they mean. That's the first point. If there were a federal property tax you'd hear it.

Moreover, property taxes are set very locally and they see the results. All kids get essentially, they like to think, the same services in a given district. Even the kids of poor parents.

They don't like income redistribution. If they agree to pay higher taxes for their schools they object to having a portion of it siphoned off for other districts. That creates push back from time to time--why raise taxes if it doesn't help those you want to help? This created well-funded PTOs and some districts have forbidden PTOs from helping their school too much; if the PTO raises too much money, then it's taken and given to a poorer school.

They've been paying taxes for education for so long it's like they're broken to the saddle. In fact, in many places they're willing to pay more for education than they do now.

In many cases they like vouchers. They pay for their kids' education, not just generic "taxes." Then, if you don't send your kid to the public school for some reason, they expect you to pay for public school and private school. Not the extreme disagreement with SpEd: If the local school doesn't offer services that are required, you can make the local school pay for very expensive private services to be provided. This is often considered "progressive," but the same thing, for less money, for "normals" is regressive.