Congress has much to answer for in multiple areas, but it is still not advisable to let the Executive Branch spend huge amounts of money without legislative authority. There should be open debate on the issue before it is decided. I wonder why this particular group of students is being prioritized over others who have paid off their debts. Would we perhaps get more bang for our buck defraying the cost of junior college or instate tuition at public universities? That might represent an ongoing investment in those keen on pursuing a college education.
This is actually in response to the podcast with Stephanie Slade, which I am just getting caught up on. I found it interesting that she described pro-life libertarianism as being based on libertarian beliefs about the limited role of the state: to protect an individual's life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. She used the "i" word several times, which struck me. It seems to me that the paradox of the fetus is that it is an entity that has human life but is not an individual. And whether you decide to condition personhood, which legally confers some constellation of rights and obligations (e.g., not to have your health endangered or life extinguished; not to threaten the health or life of your host), on the basis of being alive vs. being an individual doesn't seem to me as cut and dried as she presented it, even within the context of her own libertarian beliefs.
Being a bit of a cynic, I have to wonder how many other Southern states still have FEWER book titles in their libraries and classrooms than Texas's now superlatively depleted list.
I was fortunate enough to attend college and grad school back when there were still these things called "Scholarships" for high-performing students, without which I would never have been able to attend. A nation that expects its citizens to fund their own education entirely at their own expense will never produce the best and brightest and will and ensure multi-generational inequality - which seems to be the goal of many of our wealthiest who fear their own dim darlings having to compete with smarter poorer kids. I don't know if executive loan forgiveness is constitutional or not, but I do know a very bright and hard-working young couple expecting their 1st child that anticipate receiving a $20,000 break that will change their lives for the better - and I couldn't be more happy for them.
I saw Wes Moore do an interview, and he is almost a carbon copy of Obama in his delivery. Every gesture, verbal pause & emphasis is identical to Obama.
Assuming a budget of $5T, I guess Trump’s tax cuts of $2T over 10 yrs (4% of budget each year) to the wealthy who did nothing but buy back their stock making THEMSELVES more wealthy is okay. But giving student loan breaks of $400B over 10 years (0.8% of budget each yr) is just too much to accept?! And the student loan $ forgiven will go right back into the government and small/large companies in spending and taxes. Give me a break!
Charlie… What you & your pinned WP article headline neglected to mention about the cost of the student loan forgiveness is that this cost is over 30 years! And almost always forgotten is the fact that low and middle income earners will get the biggest benefit from this. When’s the last time this segment of Americans got any benefits from Congress or an Executive Order?
I’m very tempted to shoot you a meme concerning the pearl clutching about forgiving up to $10M of student debt ($20M for those with Pell Grants), but instead I’ll just quote it:
“If you have a problem with the student debt cancellation, just pretend it’s a big tax cut for corporations & the 1% that you never got, but mysteriously never complained about.”
Charlie, I am so hoping that you are right about Mastriano. A friend of mine drove from Ohio to New York about 10 days ago and in the rural areas it's wall-to-wall Mastriano signs.
On student loan partial debt cancellation, meh. My read is that Biden is throwing progressives a pre-midterm bone, knowing there’s a very, very good chance the plan won’t hold up in court. But the purpose will have been served.
Putin's only real hope here is that depriving western Europe of gas will causes a fracture in the western alliance due to cold and hardship. . If the EU holds, and NATO holds, come spring, Putin's days are about over.
Liberals have a classism problem, and nowhere does it show up more than the student debt relief bill that is going to drop (at least) $400B on less than 40% of the country who went to college and earn as high as $125k/year in personal income. We're essentially injecting inflationary spending into the economy at a time when we're trying to reverse inflation just so that the kids in this country who were gifted enough to attend college and then earn good money afterwards can get a fucking bailout--right after they got done telling us how bailing out the top earners in the country was wrong in 2008 and 2011. The hypocrisy of post-college liberals is so so sweet.
The voters of this nation survive on the economy, not on democracy. When decadent post-college liberals enforce wealth inequality in this country through wealth-mating (oh sorry, "assortative mating" according to the NBER), then the economy gets more difficult to survive in for everyone else who didn't get to wealth-mate at the highest levels of household income. When the economy gets more difficult to survive in because of the wealth inequality wealth-mating fosters at scale and excess assets that the wealthy scoop up to make themselves richer at everyone else's expense, well, then eventually the working class stops giving a fuck about having a fair democracy since the rich stopped giving a fuck about having a fair economy or a fair meritocracy.
We're watching this country burn down economically and politically because the richest and most blessed Americans are the greediest pieces of shit, and they're going to drive democracy into the ground by building widespread resentment against the world those richest and most blessed Americans built. They just couldn't slow themselves the fuck down and think about the fact that their wealth is power, and that with greater power comes greater responsibility to *society*--not just never-ending "best life" decadence for you and your family. We reap what we sow here folks. We're reaping it as we speak. We may lose democracy in this country as a result of the richest Americans gorging themselves on wealth and not giving a fuck what happens to everyone else.
I’m old enough to remember when the neocons were all in on executive power. Spend trillions of dollars to invade another country because we don’t like the guy in charge? CHECK!
Spend a fraction of that amount to release millions of Americans from indentured servitude to a predatory student loan system? TYRANNY!
This is my now almost weekly reminder that the one tide that is historically proven to lift all boats is education (not trickle-down economics, despite the GOP’s long-suffering devotion to that turd of a theory). The student loans people took out to get a college education were invested in local communities (restaurants, clothing stores, mechanic shops, etc.)… and the spillover effects of having more dentists, and doctors and even (gasp!) philosophy majors in a community are also well documented.
But, HEAVEN FORBID we try to do anything about the crushing debt these folks took on to give those benefits to their communities! SOCIALISM!!! Why, if we let these folks off the hook it might even incentivize more people to get educated! An educated populace? National disaster! I mean, just look at the dystopian wastelands of Canada, Sweden, Norway and every other country that provides a free university education to citizens. What would happen to us if we emulated their happier citizens and better healthcare systems?! Better the vagaries of the free market and for-profit lending in education, I say!
Gimme a break… Charlie, we agree on a lot, but you’re dead wrong on student loans. (And this is coming from a guy who gets no direct benefit out of the program.)
Since I was about 9 when the whole "Contact With America" thing happened, I decided to look it up the other day. They had actual laws listed they were going to pass. About economic stuff. When was the last time the Republican party came forward with a law that didn't involve tax cuts or culture war BS during a campaign?
Congress has much to answer for in multiple areas, but it is still not advisable to let the Executive Branch spend huge amounts of money without legislative authority. There should be open debate on the issue before it is decided. I wonder why this particular group of students is being prioritized over others who have paid off their debts. Would we perhaps get more bang for our buck defraying the cost of junior college or instate tuition at public universities? That might represent an ongoing investment in those keen on pursuing a college education.
This is actually in response to the podcast with Stephanie Slade, which I am just getting caught up on. I found it interesting that she described pro-life libertarianism as being based on libertarian beliefs about the limited role of the state: to protect an individual's life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. She used the "i" word several times, which struck me. It seems to me that the paradox of the fetus is that it is an entity that has human life but is not an individual. And whether you decide to condition personhood, which legally confers some constellation of rights and obligations (e.g., not to have your health endangered or life extinguished; not to threaten the health or life of your host), on the basis of being alive vs. being an individual doesn't seem to me as cut and dried as she presented it, even within the context of her own libertarian beliefs.
Being a bit of a cynic, I have to wonder how many other Southern states still have FEWER book titles in their libraries and classrooms than Texas's now superlatively depleted list.
I was fortunate enough to attend college and grad school back when there were still these things called "Scholarships" for high-performing students, without which I would never have been able to attend. A nation that expects its citizens to fund their own education entirely at their own expense will never produce the best and brightest and will and ensure multi-generational inequality - which seems to be the goal of many of our wealthiest who fear their own dim darlings having to compete with smarter poorer kids. I don't know if executive loan forgiveness is constitutional or not, but I do know a very bright and hard-working young couple expecting their 1st child that anticipate receiving a $20,000 break that will change their lives for the better - and I couldn't be more happy for them.
I saw Wes Moore do an interview, and he is almost a carbon copy of Obama in his delivery. Every gesture, verbal pause & emphasis is identical to Obama.
Assuming a budget of $5T, I guess Trump’s tax cuts of $2T over 10 yrs (4% of budget each year) to the wealthy who did nothing but buy back their stock making THEMSELVES more wealthy is okay. But giving student loan breaks of $400B over 10 years (0.8% of budget each yr) is just too much to accept?! And the student loan $ forgiven will go right back into the government and small/large companies in spending and taxes. Give me a break!
Charlie… What you & your pinned WP article headline neglected to mention about the cost of the student loan forgiveness is that this cost is over 30 years! And almost always forgotten is the fact that low and middle income earners will get the biggest benefit from this. When’s the last time this segment of Americans got any benefits from Congress or an Executive Order?
I’m very tempted to shoot you a meme concerning the pearl clutching about forgiving up to $10M of student debt ($20M for those with Pell Grants), but instead I’ll just quote it:
“If you have a problem with the student debt cancellation, just pretend it’s a big tax cut for corporations & the 1% that you never got, but mysteriously never complained about.”
Charlie, I am so hoping that you are right about Mastriano. A friend of mine drove from Ohio to New York about 10 days ago and in the rural areas it's wall-to-wall Mastriano signs.
On student loan partial debt cancellation, meh. My read is that Biden is throwing progressives a pre-midterm bone, knowing there’s a very, very good chance the plan won’t hold up in court. But the purpose will have been served.
The Court already gave the power of the purse to Trump for his wall.
Putin's only real hope here is that depriving western Europe of gas will causes a fracture in the western alliance due to cold and hardship. . If the EU holds, and NATO holds, come spring, Putin's days are about over.
Well, the asteroid *was* in no danger of hitting Earth, but something seems to have altered its trajectory... .
I would advise Ms. Pugacheva to avoid all open windows. And probably best to stick to ground floors of buildings.
Liberals have a classism problem, and nowhere does it show up more than the student debt relief bill that is going to drop (at least) $400B on less than 40% of the country who went to college and earn as high as $125k/year in personal income. We're essentially injecting inflationary spending into the economy at a time when we're trying to reverse inflation just so that the kids in this country who were gifted enough to attend college and then earn good money afterwards can get a fucking bailout--right after they got done telling us how bailing out the top earners in the country was wrong in 2008 and 2011. The hypocrisy of post-college liberals is so so sweet.
The voters of this nation survive on the economy, not on democracy. When decadent post-college liberals enforce wealth inequality in this country through wealth-mating (oh sorry, "assortative mating" according to the NBER), then the economy gets more difficult to survive in for everyone else who didn't get to wealth-mate at the highest levels of household income. When the economy gets more difficult to survive in because of the wealth inequality wealth-mating fosters at scale and excess assets that the wealthy scoop up to make themselves richer at everyone else's expense, well, then eventually the working class stops giving a fuck about having a fair democracy since the rich stopped giving a fuck about having a fair economy or a fair meritocracy.
We're watching this country burn down economically and politically because the richest and most blessed Americans are the greediest pieces of shit, and they're going to drive democracy into the ground by building widespread resentment against the world those richest and most blessed Americans built. They just couldn't slow themselves the fuck down and think about the fact that their wealth is power, and that with greater power comes greater responsibility to *society*--not just never-ending "best life" decadence for you and your family. We reap what we sow here folks. We're reaping it as we speak. We may lose democracy in this country as a result of the richest Americans gorging themselves on wealth and not giving a fuck what happens to everyone else.
I’m old enough to remember when the neocons were all in on executive power. Spend trillions of dollars to invade another country because we don’t like the guy in charge? CHECK!
Spend a fraction of that amount to release millions of Americans from indentured servitude to a predatory student loan system? TYRANNY!
This is my now almost weekly reminder that the one tide that is historically proven to lift all boats is education (not trickle-down economics, despite the GOP’s long-suffering devotion to that turd of a theory). The student loans people took out to get a college education were invested in local communities (restaurants, clothing stores, mechanic shops, etc.)… and the spillover effects of having more dentists, and doctors and even (gasp!) philosophy majors in a community are also well documented.
But, HEAVEN FORBID we try to do anything about the crushing debt these folks took on to give those benefits to their communities! SOCIALISM!!! Why, if we let these folks off the hook it might even incentivize more people to get educated! An educated populace? National disaster! I mean, just look at the dystopian wastelands of Canada, Sweden, Norway and every other country that provides a free university education to citizens. What would happen to us if we emulated their happier citizens and better healthcare systems?! Better the vagaries of the free market and for-profit lending in education, I say!
Gimme a break… Charlie, we agree on a lot, but you’re dead wrong on student loans. (And this is coming from a guy who gets no direct benefit out of the program.)
Since I was about 9 when the whole "Contact With America" thing happened, I decided to look it up the other day. They had actual laws listed they were going to pass. About economic stuff. When was the last time the Republican party came forward with a law that didn't involve tax cuts or culture war BS during a campaign?