Up North Progressive

Trump promised to drain the swamp when he went to Washington. So far, the swamp has been relocated to his cabinet and gradually draining back into their civilian jobs. The most recent kicked to the curb was Attorney General Jeff “Keebler lost an elf” Sessions. Currently, scrutiny over Ryan Zinke’s undocumented meetings on company time and $12k charter flights on oil company jets have caused the public to grumble about the grifting interior secretary.

And now comes Betsy “I buy political influence and you’ll like it or else” DeVos.

Michigan has put up with the DeVos family for decades throwing money at politicians in Lansing to buy whatever they want in the state. Our once national standard of excellence public education system has been ground into the dirt thanks to Betsy DeVos’s one-woman crusade against Michigan’s public schools. From writing checks to buy lifting caps on for-profit charter schools to writing checks to get right to work passed to writing checks to decimate the school system in Detroit, Betsy whips out her checkbook whenever she wants something.

Except when it comes to her round-the-clock U.S. Marshal-supplied personal security. In this case, its the taxpayers footing the bill.

You would think a woman who owns ten yachts, 4 private jets, a helicopter, property all over the world, a husband who’s chairman of the board of a large health network in Michigan, and a summer lake cottage best described as the architectural whore of babylon would be able to pay for all the security she needs out of pocket. Not a chance.

No secretary of education has ever required the level of personal security Betsy DeVos enjoys. The Department of Education in its 40 years has never had anyone like Betsy DeVos in charge either. Betsy today still works to make it much easier for sexual predators to get away with it and harder for students scammed by for-profit colleges to get their money back. Her plan to get national school vouchers is still in the future. So why does Betsy feel so insecure?

What she needs this protection for is unknown, since as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos avoids visiting schools like she avoids having empathy for other human beings. Scott Pruitt’s 4 million in security pales. Ben Carson’s expensive dining set is pocket change. Perhaps it’s concern over suggesting allowing ICE into schools looking for illegal immigrants, or her guns not grizzly bears campaign, or making it harder for rape victims to bring sexual predators to justice.

If Betsy feels she deserves this much money just for security, what else does she think it’s the taxpayers’ job to provide her. If she’s not careful, she might outspend Trump and that could make him jealous.

Betsy has drained the Michigan taxpayers to fund corporate grift in Michigan’s public education system for decades. Now she’s in Washington and enjoying a true level of bilking taxpayers she could never imagine in Michigan.