This week’s Reminder printed a letter from Senator Eric Lesser headlined “Bringing Down Student Debt.”

As “Scroogy” as I may sound to be saying this on Christmas Eve, all Lesser’s “solutions” for student debt have something in common – more spending. In his letter, he describes how:
• He overrode $5.2 million in funding cuts to UMass. But this obviously will cost taxpayers $5.2 million.
• He voted to give UMass the ability to directly keep in-state tuition dollars paid by students. But this will cost the state all those same dollars they could have used elsewhere, like our roads and bridges.
• He supports a bill that would create an income tax deduction (up to $5,000 per year) for contributions made to qualified college savings and 529 plans. But this will cost the state up to 5.15 percent of $5,000 for every person who utilizes the deduction.
• He supports a bill that provides full tuition, after financial aid and gift aid, for all residents who attend community college in Massachusetts. But the “free” tuition will come from the money Lesser must extract from the working class.

It is so darned easy to be a liberal solon in Massachusetts – even in your first term. You just promise, and tax, and spend, and the Massachusetts sheeple who elected you think you are Santa Claus.

R. Patrick Henry
East Longmeadow