The Lariat’s recent editorial (“Invest in economy with free two-year community college,” Jan. 28) is centered around an attempt to peddle Obama’s community college plan as an economic stimulus.

This plan to fund two years of community college for anyone who wants it will in fact hurt the economy, because it will hurt every taxpaying American. The president plans to support this new $60 billion social entitlement program with a massive $320 billion tax hike over the next 10 years, according to Americans for Tax Reform. To call this program one that provides “two years of community college free,” as the Lariat does, is a misnomer. It is nothing more than the redistribution of wealth, accomplished through taxation and government handouts.

Community college, like any other good, costs money. When the government pays money for something, that money comes from taxpayers – and in this case, it comes in the form of a giant tax increase.

So by “free community college,” the Lariat means “taxpayer-funded,” and thus not “free.” As Inigo Montoya once said, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

— Dallas senior Connor Mighell
University Scholars