Mostly evil but not stupid

Email | June 23, 2012 | Van Jones' flunkies

[Bryanw92]

Bryan, check out this list of ways Senate Republicans have proposed to pay for keeping student loan rates at 3.4%, and see if you can spot the pattern:

- Gut a preventative health care program - Limit how many years students are eligible for loans, making college far more expensive for part-time students - Force middle-class federal workers to pay more for their retirement - Scale back the number of folks using Medicaid1

You see it? A generation is drowning in debt for having the audacity to get an education, and these people are only willing to help if they can punch the middle class and poor in the mouth while they're at it.

SIGN: "To the Senate GOP: We're on to you. Pass a fair deal that helps everyone."

The argument over whether interest rates should stay at a low 3.4% is basically over. We won. Heck, even Mr. 1% himself, Mitt Romney, wants rates to stay low,2 and that guy's basically doing whatever the far right says he should at this point.

But it's possible to win the argument and lose the fight. Lower rates means the government earns less in interest. That costs money. And that's where the battle is now -- how to pay for this.

Yesterday, President Obama spoke to a group of students at the White House and called once again for Congress to act. Democrats have proposed a bunch of perfectly reasonable ideas, including just closing giant tax loopholes for a handful of rich business owners.3 Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, balk at any proposal that asks big banks, the super-rich, or even just regular old millionaires, to pay a damn cent more.

These guys are mostly evil, but not completely stupid. If we show that voters know what they're up to, they'll strike a fair deal. And if we can win in the Senate, there's a good chance the House will follow.

If at least 50,000 folks add their name, we'll send the signatures to GOP Leader Mitch McConnell's office. Sign now.

This shouldn't be hard. We're not asking for loan forgiveness or cheaper tuition (right now). We just don't want them to make things worse. That should be doable -- even by Washington's standards...

8 days to go, Colin and the rest of the Rebuild the Dream team

Sources: 1) "White House Skeptical of GOP Student Loan Proposals," Washington Post - June 5, 2012 2) "Romney Backs Extending Lowered Student Loan Rates," CNN - April 23, 2012 3) "Senator Reid Makes New Offer on Student Loans," Reuters - June 7, 2012

[RLM]

Is it not ironic that again a politician, in this case the POTUS, can only see a solution where citizens borrow more money. Far be it from the POTUS to look at the broader picture and ask why tuition rates have increased twice as fast as the rate of inflation over the past three decades. Is it possible the government itself has created another bubble by guaranteeing college loans, making them available to virtually anyone for any kind of degree? So the colleges being smart business people simply increase the tuition costs since they know the government will provide loans to the students, regardless of the value of the degree.
But the narrow minded POTUS makes an issue of a 1 or 2 point change in the interest when the more salient issue is the inflated cost of tuition. And he asks no questions as to the value of the non-science degrees in the job market.

[Bryanw92]

>>Is it not ironic that again a politician, in this case the POTUS, can only see a solution where citizens borrow more money.

There’s nothing ironic about it. It’s all according to plan. You make sure that children graduate from high school with no education. Then, you herd them into college and force them into debt that will ruin their lives during early adulthood, limiting their family, job, and location choices. By the time they are middle age, they are beaten and just trying to survive. Then, they can age and be grateful for an early death at the hands of a benevolent government death panel.

You take all that hopelessness and then take away their connection to God and you have the Marxist “utopia” that 9 out of 10 dictators prefer!

[JCBreckenridge]

I did four years at about 5k a year, ended with zero debt.

Took me 8 years going to school and working, but it got done.

[ravenwolf]

In the first place the Government has no business loaning any one money to go to college.

Any man or woman that can work and put them selves through college are trust worthy and they are numerous, but the ones who gets help from the Government to go to school will most likely end up in Government and keep on robbing the tax payers.

Get Government out of every thing that was meant to be FREE interprize.