Free college?

In his State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a strong liberal agenda he plans to push during his final two years in office despite Republicans having won decisively in the midterms last year.
One piece of this agenda, a plan to pay for students’ community college, directly affects our generation. Under the president’s proposed plan, two years of a student’s community college would be paid for if the student maintained a GPA of 2.5 and attend the school at least half the time.
First off, there’s a glaring error in how the President describes his plan. He calls it a plan to make community college “free,” but nothing in America is free. Everything in America is paid for, in various ways, by everyone from brave soldiers to single moms working three jobs to feed their families.
Someone is paying for the rights we have and the benefits we receive.
And this community college plan is no different. It will be funded by tax increases on working Americans: this is a classic example of a tax-and-spend liberal policy.
Hard-working Americans should not have to pay more of the money they earned in taxes to the federal government to fund a plan that they may not even support.
President Obama cited the fact that Illinois and Tennessee have implemented this program at the state level, and had success, as a good reason for the federal government to follow suit. His reasoning epitomizes why federalism has died under his admininstration.
Federalism allows states to thrive due to minimal mandates from the federal government.
States can afford to fund the programs that they themselves pass, but the federal government, which is $17 trillion in debt, cannot afford to pay for such expensive national plans like this free community college plan. If people like this plan, they should contact their state representatives and push for its implementation at the state level.
This plan will also serve to increase the sense of entitlement that our generation has. Already, younger Americans think they deserve handouts in many areas, and giving them more will destroy their motivation.
Students will have less motivation to work hard in high school, knowing that they will receive some free college education regardless. Grades, community service and character would all drop for those students who would prefer to have four years of “fun” rather than work hard.
Young people need to learn to work hard and earn what they receive rather than expect charity.
Of course, calling something ‘free’ grabs citizens’ attention, but the people need to call the president’s bluff. People should earn what they work for and only accept government handouts if they absolutely need them.
The role of the federal government is not to take our money, spend it on unnecessary entitlement programs and say they are making our lives easier.
It is to protect our rights and maintain national security.
Our generation is not the future of America. It is the present. It is our duty to prevent the government from enacting laws that would hurt hardworking Americans.
It is time we stopped expecting more from our government. It is time we started expecting more from ourselves.