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Presidential Candidate Klobuchar at Townhall: No, Sorry, We Can’t Afford Free College For Everyone
Hotair ^
| 02/19/2019
| Allahpundit
Posted on 02/19/2019 9:07:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Via the Free Beacon, lots of oohing and ahhing among the chatterati over this answer from last night’s CNN event. It’s “on brand,” if nothing else. Klobuchar’s betting that (a) the leftist vote will split half a dozen ways, (b) Biden either will choose not to run or get sunk by leftist grievances against him when he gets in, leaving the center to her, and (c) her regional appeal will help her to a surprisingly strong finish in Iowa, elevating her into the top tier. This question and answer were a perfect opportunity for her to establish her centrist identity on a big stage. It does seem bold at a moment when Democrats are being pulled towards socialism to opine aloud, as a presidential candidate, that perhaps a country that’s $22 trillion in debt can’t pay for every last bit of free sh*t that its most left-wing citizens propose.
This tweet sums up the conventional wisdom, but be sure to click through and read the replies to it. Not everyone is as enamored of the idea that there might be a conceptual limit to the federal credit card as the center-left media/establishment political class is.
If I had to bet on whether this answer hurts her more than it helps or vice versa, I know which way I’d bet. Which is not to say she’s wrong, either substantively or tactically: Running to the center is the only chance she has at the nomination realistically. She’s not going to suddenly out-progressive Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren and she had the good sense not to try to mount a weird, gimmicky campaign like Kirsten Gillibrand’s feminist candidacy. (A smart friend wondered last night how much stronger Gillibrand might have been if she had tried competing for the wide-open centrist lane by, say, reverting to some mild hawkishness about the border instead of continuing to play pretend leftist.) But she’s making a straight-up wager here that there are more centrists in the Democratic primary — if only centrists of convenience, who value “electability” over ideological purity — than there are dogmatic liberals. It’s not a crazy wager. But I’m skeptical.
And I’m especially skeptical with respect to this issue. A Reuters poll last year asked people what they thought of Sanders’s plan to provide free college to all students from families that make $125,000 or less a year, with the money to come from a tax on speculative trading. Nearly 80 percent of Democrats supported it. Klobuchar’s trying to walk a line, not just on this topic but on matters like Medicare for all and the Green New Deal, in which she’s enthusiastic about the broader goal to please the left but skeptical about feasibility (at least in the near-term) to please the center. The left’s been coping with that attitude from Democratic nominees for a long time, most recently and famously with ObamaCare and insurance reform. If they can’t stop a bland centrist like Klobuchar from the nomination next year, when all of the ideological momentum is in their favor, they might as well quit.
The look on the kid’s face when Klobuchar tells him no is fun, though.
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TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Delaware; US: Indiana; US: Massachusetts; US: Minnesota; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: 2020; amyklobuchar; berniesanders; clowncar; college; delaware; elizabethwarren; fauxahontas; indiana; joebiden; joeclowncarbiden; klobuchar; massachusetts; mikepence; minnesota; petebuttigieg; slingingbull; southbend; tuition; vermont
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To: SeekAndFind
Well, that’s all for her then.
To: SeekAndFind
[[[Sanderss plan to provide free college to all students from families that make $125,000 or less a year, with the money to come from a tax on speculative trading. ]]]
Until it isn’t enough.
To: SeekAndFind
She must not have seen the well planned and sophisticated plan that AOC discussed previously:
Just pay for it.
4
posted on
02/19/2019 9:10:33 AM PST
by
rjsimmon
(The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
To: SeekAndFind
The democrat party is where you find all the people who expect the government to take money from the “rich” (hard working people with a brain) and give it to the “poor” (dumb lazy slobs who want free things).
Since Klobuchar doesn’t go along with that, she will not be the nominee.
5
posted on
02/19/2019 9:12:09 AM PST
by
I want the USA back
(Lying Media: willing and eager allies of the hate-America left.)
To: SeekAndFind
An observation which I haven’t heard anyone mention:
When we speak of “free college” specifically at public or state colleges and universities, these institutions are run by state and local officials, not the federal government.
Since the federal government does not run these institutions, how can presidential candidates promise the federal.government will provide “free” state college tuition???
To: SeekAndFind
Traction for Amy in the general election. For the primaries, not so much.
To: Buckeye McFrog
They won’t want this Negative Nelly raining on their debates.
8
posted on
02/19/2019 9:15:00 AM PST
by
1Old Pro
To: SeekAndFind
I don’t believe that she’s a “moderate,” I venture to guess that she’s perfectly happy with infanticide. She’s also a wide open borders Rat. She is far left on important issues.
What (I believe) will ultimately be her downfall is her notorious BAD TEMPER. She does not have the temperament to be POTUS, and it will be easy to make that case.
Former staff members have gone on record about her regular verbal and physical abuse, how they were clearly working in a “hostile environment” (which means she’s breaking federal law, “hostile environment” is a legal term). Last year she also had the highest rate of staff turnover compared to anyone else in the Senate.
She is an overly-emotional nasty b*tch, and she is COMPLETED UNSUITED to be Commander in Chief. “I have high expectations” is a total BS excuse for abusing her staff.
9
posted on
02/19/2019 9:22:24 AM PST
by
RooRoobird20
("Democrats haven't been this angry since Republicans freed the slaves”)
To: RooRoobird20
Yaeah, she’s your standard don’t rock the boat Dem. She will just stand aside and watch while AOC and other radicals commies enact their agendas.
To: Buckeye McFrog
Funny thing. When the execrable Jennifer Granholm became Dem. governor of Michigan (terrible day) she immediately announced her much repeated campaign promise of free college tuition to all academically qualified students in Michigan would not be submitted by her as governor.
One of my student assistants in the university library read the front page story, looked up at me and said: “Well right there she lied. She broke her campaign promise. How could she do that?”
I kept my face from showing the suppressed laughter welling up inside and replaced it with sympathy that the young people are so naïve and politically ignorant.
“That’s too bad. I think she saw the state didn’t have that much money.” The girl was on the verge of tears.
11
posted on
02/19/2019 9:29:41 AM PST
by
frank ballenger
(End vote fraud,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we're finishid.)
To: Buckeye McFrog
“Well, thats all for her then.”
Good for her. I don’t want her to pander. I want to hear her actual positions so I can ascertain whether she is worthy of being beating badly by Trump in 2020.
12
posted on
02/19/2019 9:33:57 AM PST
by
EQAndyBuzz
(TRUMP YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!!!)
To: SeekAndFind
Oops, you better drop out now. The snowflakes don't want to hear that.
An honest Democrat? Who knew...?
13
posted on
02/19/2019 9:43:53 AM PST
by
Deplorable American1776
(Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is, too. :-))
To: SeekAndFind
A small hint of sanity, but to get the nomination she will have to pander to the leftist loons.
14
posted on
02/19/2019 9:45:31 AM PST
by
The Great RJ
("Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
To: SeekAndFind
Actually we can, but it would require a different delivery method. It could be done by creating an AA in general studies that is delivered via the Internet. To be successful, it would require:
1) acceptance by all colleges and is credited for the full 60 hrs for transfer
2) acceptance by the US Government
3) is test based - like CLEP testing
4) material is delivered via Internet
Take 20 general classes in a narrow range of topics, pass the associated 20 tests and receive your AA. You could expand this to include other “non-perform” type degrees as well. 20 tests at $90 per test = $1,800 per Associates PLUS the cost of generating and updating the tests.
Cost could be recovered via taxes for all who apply to the program, get taxed at $100 per year until the degree is achieved, and then $400 per year for four years after the degree is achieved. I know that is not “free” and more like a loan, but the program would be paid and would be a net zero impact to the overall budget. Way cheaper for the first two years than traditional college.
To: SeekAndFind
Nor we can afford Medicare for all, free daycare for all and a government job for everyone. Will she admit that, too?
16
posted on
02/19/2019 10:00:00 AM PST
by
Kazan
To: SeekAndFind
17
posted on
02/19/2019 10:05:45 AM PST
by
Grampa Dave
(Stop Medieval Diseases With A Medieval Wall: Illegal migration is leading to a wave of outbreaks!!!!)
To: SeekAndFind
,,,
Sanderss plan to provide free college to all ...
More B.S. in 2020!
18
posted on
02/19/2019 10:09:29 AM PST
by
relee
(Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away)
To: RooRoobird20
McCain had a notorious bad temper and it didn’t stop him. And of course there was Hillary...
To: SeekAndFind
Even if we could afford it, it would be a bad idea.
What we do need is some competency teaching basic math, language and science in high school (most junior colleges and too many traditional colleges waste enormous amounts of resources on remediation in those areas), and then we need kids who have no interest in college to get a chance to learn a viable trade.
Mike Rowe has made that point for years - and he’s right on the money. There’s nothing wrong with going to college for many people, but for lots of kids it’s just a waste of time and money.
But the colleges will be happy to absorb all the tuitions the feds are willing to subsidize.
20
posted on
02/19/2019 10:20:31 AM PST
by
Stosh
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