My stack of must read Stories...

As I try to keep up with the  Republicans unfolding political disaster, here are the stories the I never got a chance to explore. I may add to them in the future, but regardless, important must reads...

While Madison gets ripped for its liberal bias, it also leads the state in jobs, tech and everything else:

Without liberal Dane County, Scott Walker's jobs record would look pathetic. 

Student loan debt is ridiculous, so how are some students making it all work...thank you Republicans for defunding universities:

The myth that public university students who are conservative have to hide in the shadows, fearful speaking their minds busted:

Basic Income idea is taking off, and Republicans are missing it. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have found success doling out a basic income from their casino earnings: 

Republicans cut to Student Tax Break means, "the end of research in the United States."

Republicans are either lying or truly convinced that supply-side economics works etc. But economists continue to point to real-life examples of trickle down not working, even making things a whole lot worse in the future.

Paul Ryan again misdirects Americans by insinuating simplification of the tax code will spur on economic growth. But repealing tax breaks that will destroy groundbreaking research at our universities...the same research that made the U.S. the innovative power we are today...bad idea, again. Audio below:

"Marketplace," hosted by Kai Ryssdal, featured on a 11/09/2017 show the quote "That's the end of research in the United States," said by policy analyst Barmak Nassirian  when he saw the tax bill. 

He was thinking of the graduate students who work as research assistants and take advantage of certain tax breaks to offset the cost of their education, which is one of the deductions Republicans working on the bill are looking to slash.

DeVos removes competition with Single Student Loan Collector, removes mandates to help borrowers in Delinquency or reminders for reenrollment Deadlines.

Apparently, Education Sec. Betsy DeVos doesn't see the importance of history, or she would not commit to repeating this past failure: 

The Education Department said Friday that it will select one company to collect student debt payments on its behalf, rather than the nine contractors that currently handle the federal government’s $1.2 trillion portfolio of education loans.

The new plan is a return to the way student loans used to be collected by ACS Education Services, a role that critics of the company said led to widespread failures in customer service and loan consolidations. 

Robert Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary of education recalls the department being frustrated by the amount of power ACS held as the only servicer. “We felt we had little leverage because the whole system was operated by them, and they knew it would be such a huge endeavor to change that, so they didn’t have to be responsive,” said Shireman. “There was a move to add at least a couple servicers so you’d have competition and the department wouldn’t be stuck in that situation again.”

Just as bad, this “single” collection service can subcontract its work, so it won’t be so “single” after all:

And while there will only be one primary servicer, the department will permit that company to hire subcontractors to lighten the load. 

Going back to the failed system before is irresponsible and reckless, but DeVos is also going to set students up for failure, on purpose:

The new contract will strip out mandates aimed at helping borrowers who fall behind on payments and people enrolled in income-driven plans. The servicer would no longer be required to have specialists on hand to aid people in delinquency, nor would the company have to remind borrowers to reenroll in income-driven repayment weeks before the deadline. Removing those sorts of mandate reduces some of the bureaucracy of servicing but could also prove detrimental to keeping borrowers from defaulting. 

Scott Walker's "College Affordability" plan is a taxpayer Giveaway to Big Banks, while Minnesota pours saved interest back into state economy!!!

Scott Walker's playing his voter base for saps again, and they'll never know what hit them.

Playing up to big money special interests, Walker's "college affordability" initiative makes taxpayers foot the bill, so banks can continue to rake in high interest profits on sky high student loans.

Wisconsinites are now supposed to swoon over saving a possible $165 on student loan interest? If you like that, Walker's got a one dollar savings on your property tax bill he'd like to give you...oh, that's right, he's already tried that insulting voter bribe.

In a transparent sop to their campaign contributors, Republicans want to pluck another $5.2 million in state revenues, which Rep. John Macco (R) describes as "a little bit of extra money," for the purpose of saving banks a cut in their interest rates.

Democrats warned us that something like this would happen, but again no one listened. In fact, Politifact helped Walker, by playing dumb in the 2014 election claiming Walker never came right out an said he opposed a big government state refinancing program:

The group acknowledged it has no evidence that Walker opposed a 2013 Democratic proposal to create a state student loan refinancing authority. Walker may not support the idea, but he hasn’t fought it, either -- as the group claimed.  We rate the statement False.

Of course Walker's incredibly short sighted tuition freeze gimmick can't last forever either, but he'll never tell you that:

As reported by US News:“[This is] why such tuition freeze promises don’t last long – they generally don’t work… Opponents say tuition freezes are fine for a short-term fix, but shouldn’t be extended for long periods and don’t really solve the problem with the high cost of college.”

Minnesota's common sense plan even convinced many Republicans to create a state refinancing program. They reasoned that putting saved interest back into their states economy was just smart government:

Nearly 500,000 Minnesotans carrying large amounts of student loan debt could be eligible for a new state-run refinancing program, "SELF Refi," intended to cut interest rates and potentially save a borrower tens of thousands of dollars. The state is fifth in the nation (WI is 3rd) when it comes to the debt students accumulate over their college years, and the average student graduates with about $30,000 in debt. 

"It makes it just so much more difficult for them to do so much more in our economy, whether it is buy a house or start a small business or buy a car." Lt. Governor Tina Smith said. "If we want to have an economy that works for everyone in Minnesota, we cannot allow these high debt loads to put a crunch on our competitiveness."

On the flip side, Walker wants to get government out of the way. Look at the potential student savings in Minnesota, cash Walker is willing to give up:

Under the plan, a student who took out a $40,000 loan at 8 percent could reduce monthly payments by $200 to $300 and total interest costs by $25,000. In another example, a student who carries $70,000 in debt at 9 percent could save $52,000 refinancing.

Fox11 interviewed Walker:

States with refinancing of student loan programs like Minnesota's will no doubt cut into the obscene profits banks were making on interest, but that doesn't mean the banks will stop contributing massive amounts of money to Republican lawmakers everywhere to block or kill these programs eventually. 

Funny thing, a banks political spending to maintain higher interest rates for struggling students - Good; Union political spending supporting struggling students - Bad: Go figure:

Our College Bound kids have one less student loan to choose from, thanks to Dumb Ron Johnson; the Perkins Loan Program.

College students and their parents have just lost a huge student loan option, thanks to Republican senators who don’t like how complicated the whole process is. So too bad about the Perkins loan program.

But that’s been their plan all along; offer nothing to replace what they don't like.

We've seen this with the Affordable Care Act. Republican would kill it in an instant without a replacement or transitional plan. The same is true for student loans. They want to streamline the student loan programs, but they don’t have a way to do that. WPR:

Dead!

This week the U.S. Senate rejected an effort to extend an expired student loan program which helped nearly 16,000 University of Wisconsin students in the last school year. The Federal Perkins Loan Program — designed to make universities to have more "skin in the game" by matching a portion of student loans — expired at the end of September. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin tried unsuccessfully to get colleagues to extend it for a year. She said that the program, administered by the schools, has been self-sustaining since 2004. "They're revolving funds which means as a student pays back his or her Perkins loans, they're loaned out to other students," Baldwin said. "So it's a great program."

That’s right, the loan program was self-sustaining, adding nothing to the countries debt. But Dumb Ron Johnson didn’t like having the government guarantee the $1 trillion program anyway. Done:

Republicans want to streamline the government's various loan programs … the Federal Perkins Loan Program serves nearly 1 in 11 students in the UW System … they administered nearly $29 million to roughly 16,000 students in 2013-14.

Well, not anymore.

But how do conservatives reconcile making it harder to get student loans? This comment followed the story:

Rather than empowering college students to be more and more in debt when they graduate we need to bring the costs of a college education down. We need to get away from the mentality that every student needs a college education. 

No one said "every student," did they? But what about the students who actually need a college education who are left out now due the loss of the Perkins loan program? Another person answered with this:

You are correct, people without degrees are cheaper for employers. Maybe we should eliminate colleges all together.

 Words like "steam-line," and "simplifying" is code for eliminate, not replace. Pretty simple. 

Blame Republicans for Tuition Increases and Family Crushing Student Loan Debt. It's that simple.

Bottom line: Republicans hate education and don’t like funding it. The cuts they’ve made to the UW and K-12 were the biggest in the nation, along with their attacks on student lending. 

Just remember, Republicans are the guys that gave us crushing student debt, because they reduced public funding of our state colleges, and that directly increased tuition. More on that and a GAO study is below.

The fact is, Dumb Ron Johnson doesn’t get that. Instead, he’s cherry picked a “study” from the NY Fed, that fits his narrative; government sponsored student loan programs have jacked up tuition. Because tuition increases coincided with the GOP's attack on colleges, many tend to believe the Republican lie. Here’s the study and false premise Johnson offers as proof. WPR:

(Ron Johnson) cited a study released this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that said that for every new dollar received in Direct Subsidized Loans, tuition goes up by 65 cents.

"As well-intentioned as these programs are, by enticing our children to incur, I think collectively $1.2, $1.3 trillion of student loan debt, we have actually made college less accessible, because we’ve made it less affordable," Johnson said. Johnson said the solution is to give students and their parents information on "all the options" after high school … "We need to kind of break out of, you know, this paradigm where we’re saying everybody has to get a four-year degree.”

Oddly, the “study” Johnson points to never compared GOP defunding to the rise in tuition's. It should have, because even in their own analysis of  2 year community colleges, they inadvertently mentioned it. Check it  out:

Four-year institutions charge higher tuition, on average, resulting in higher dependence on external funding. The two-year sector is almost entirely dominated by public two-year colleges, also known as community colleges … tuition is low, averaging just $2,600 in 2012, largely due to the large share of revenue that is funded through government sources (70%).

Oops. Imagine that, public funding reduces tuition. I wonder if that could work at a 4 year college?

Oh, if you thought manufacturing in the U.S. was on the decline, than you’re not thinking like Scott Walker and Ron Johnson. They’re trying their damndest to return manufacturing to the glory days.

Johnson said there are "tens of thousands" of manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin that are not being filled, so high school graduates can opt for one of them.

As I mentioned, the Government Accountability Office took a look at this around January of this year, and surprise, their analysis is just the opposite of Dumb Ron Johnson's. Wrong again, big time:

These days students pay more of the cost of attending public universities than state governments, a shift that is making college less affordable, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.

1. Researchers found that the money public colleges collect in tuition surpassed the money they receive from state funding in 2012. Tuition accounted for 25 percent of school revenue, up from 17 percent in 2003. State funding, meanwhile, plummeted from 32 percent to 23 percent during the same period.

2.  That’s a far cry from the 1970s, when state governments supplied public colleges with nearly 75 percent of their funding, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

3. The number of students enrolled in public colleges rose by 20 percent from the 2002-2003 school year to 2011-2012. Meanwhile, median state funding per student fell 24 percent, from $6,211 in fiscal year 2003 to $4,695 in fiscal year 2012.

It turns out the Republican backed "free market" deregulation and voluntary regulation of Wall Street resulted in increased defunding of education and hikes in tuition. Don't let them say otherwise:  

The GAO said the collapse of the financial markets in 2008 caused … State budgets (to) responded by slashing higher education funding by 23 percent per student. Consider the federal Pell Grant program, which awards money that does not have to be repaid to students whose household incomes are typically $30,000 or less. The maximum Pell award covered 77 percent of the cost of attending a four-year public university in 1980, but that fell to 36 percent by 2011, according to the Education Trust. 

So what is Ron Johnson talking about? I don't think even he knows. But it sure sounds good for all those low information voters.

Of course Scott Walker's attempt to cut UW funding exposed that scheme to conservative alums, who might be to happy now. 

Walker didn't add to Student Financial Assistance Program for Job Retraining, so now it's empty.

Preface to a Problem: You’d have to be an idiot not to see the connection between education and our state's future economic growth. And yet that’s just what Scott Walker missed at a time when a massive influx of displaced workers needed financial aid to get retraining at our technical colleges and universities.    

Spending Cut Mantra: Walker was so focused on spending cuts that when a program wasn't cut, Democrats and Wisconsinites celebrated. So no one thought to demand an increase to the state's financial aid program:

jsonline: Dan Clancy, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System (said), "Thousands of displaced Wisconsin workers need retraining to succeed in the jobs being created in emerging and rapidly changing industries." Walker recommends preserving the existing level of financial aid funding for technical college students.  That move recognizes technical college graduates "are critical to building a strong future for our state," Clancy said.

Today: The following story is breathtaking and shows how little Walker’s austerity agenda is tethered to reality. It’s pure ideology. Nearly 42,000 Wisconsin students were denied financial help, with a majority of those seeking out our technical colleges:

WPR: The state's nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau; about 3,581 UW students and 37,844 technical college applicants were denied financial assistance during the past year. That's because the $58-million program ran out of money.

Despite warnings from Democratic legislators, Republicans went ahead and cut the state’s economic throat by not providing additional funding to the student assistance program. The media still won't take Democratic warnings seriously until a Republican jumps on board:

State Sen. Jennifer Schilling is the ranking Senate Democrat on the Legislature's committee on universities and technical colleges. She said the Walker administration and state Republicans are to blame. "We have not kept pace," she said. "We've made the choice that that's not been a priority in our state budget."

The statement that follows is nothing short of moronic. And the first order of business; defend Walker:

Sherrie Nelson, the administrative policy advisor at the state's Higher Educational Aids Board, which administers the grants, said funding levels haven't been cut under Gov. Scott Walker's tenure … but she said that demand for financial support has increased.

"There's a lot of people that have lost their jobs so they've had to go back and get some additional training," Nelson said. "So, that's why we've seen the increased enrollments." The Higher Educational Aids Board is planning to ask for a $6-million budget increase for the first year of the next biennial state budget to accommodate those increased applications. 

We're only two biennial budgets behind on this no-brainer. And all of this was on top of the other big cut that produced student protests statewide at local technical colleges:

Journal Times: Democratic State Rep. Cory Mason confirmed that state funding for technical education has been cut 30 percent in the state budget, back to the funding levels in the mid-1980s. Republican State Sen. Van Wanggaard, express(ed) disappointment, “The protesters decided this event should have been about their agenda."

So who was it that didn't have a clue and has mismanaged our state's recovery?

As Republicans Cut Funding for Public Universities, Tuition went through the roof.

One of the biggest lies pushed by Republicans? The government student loan program is making tuition's skyrocket. That's simply not true. As college funding gets cut by the enemies of public education, the Republicans, tuition rises to make up for the losses. 

For fun, here's a recent video clip of Dumb Ron Johnson spinning that old talking point like it made any sense:

WSJ: He also criticized federal spending on higher education, saying it has caused tuition to increase well above the rate of inflation.

“We have poured money into higher education. … All of our good intentions trying to make college more accessible, we’ve made it less accessible because we’ve made it so much more unaffordable,” he said.

Taking the government out of the student loan program would mean higher interest rates and wonderfully large bank profits. Ya think Johnson knew that?

In a Urban Milwaukee article by Bruce Murphy, Millennials are moving into cities partly because they can't afford houses or cars due to high student loan debt. 

Murphy details the reason for the high cost of tuition; Republican defunding of our public universities:

Young people raised in the suburbs seem to find cities far more interesting places to live. But another factor that may make cities more attractive for young people is the rising level of student debt. For decades, state governments have been decreasing support of public universities, forcing them to jack up tuition. Since 1978, as a story in Bloomberg reported, the cost of college tuition has risen 12-fold — by 1,120 percent!

The result has been a soaring increase in student loans and resulting student debt. The average 2014 graduate holding student loans owes $33,000, the Wall Street Journal has reported, up from around $31,000 in 2013 and way up from $10,000 for the 1993 graduating class.

Adding difficulty is that many graduates aren’t getting the kind of high paying jobs needed to handle this crushing debt. An article on PolicyMic.com points out that between 2005 and 2012, the average student loan debt jumped 35 percent, adjusting for inflation, while the median salary dropped 2.2 percent.

Wisconsin House Republicans vote to Raise Student Loans and Starve Government Services to prove Government sucks.

So Paul Ryan and his Republican pirates have plans to plunder the wallets of their constituents to prove their point that government involvement just makes college loans more expensive. See for yourself below, from Roll Call, as Ryan poison pills the student loan program: 

Accounting for credit programs: The House adopted accounting rules that would raise the stated cost of direct-loan and loan-guarantee programs in the U.S. budget by giving more weight to risk. Democrats said that to define programs such as student loans as more costly would make them a more inviting target for spending cuts.

Voting to make student loans more costly and thus prone to cuts? Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Ribble.

Intentionally price ourselves out of essential services: Letting inflation cut everything out of existence is just irresponsible and lazy. Guys, we can see what you're doing. Sabotage?

Republican spending rules: The House passed a GOP-sponsored bill (HR 1871) to remove inflation from calculations that determine the all-important “baseline” figure in congressional budget deliberations … over Democratic arguments it would automatically lock in unwarranted cuts each year in discretionary spending.

Voting to eventually price government services out of existence: Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Ribble. Even worse? Ryan and the Republicans know what they’re doing:

Veterans, disabled children: The House defeated a Democratic motion to prevent HR 1871 (above) from triggering spending cuts in programs for student loans, food and aviation safety, veterans’ benefits, nursing-home safety and the education of disabled children. A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

Can they do that without committing political suicide? Apparently if you go by recent polling: Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Ribble all voted for this Dickensian path to wealth prosperity.

Ryan's student loan lies and his not so sneaking way to throw the poor off Medicaid.

The conservative echo chamber believes in the following; federal student loans have increased tuition, and block granting Medicaid offers states the flexibility to shape their own programs and saves money.

While many countries provide their citizens with a free college education, we don't: Instead of free, the GOP would like to make life more difficult by making us shop for everything, like a student loans, health care and soon, K-12. Imagine if all these things were provided through a general tax, and we could focus our energies on so many other things.

Republicans have been setting up the student loan program to fall for years: State Republicans continue to cut funding for their public colleges, forcing tuition increases. And on the other side, congressional Republicans blame the tuition increases on the availability of federal funding. Their con is to do away with the governments affordable student loan program and give banks the freedom to make even bigger profits. Sen. Elizabeth Warren would instead lower student loan interest to just above 3%.

Warren’s latest proposal would allow students and former students to refinance old loans at current government-subsidized rates. She proposes paying for the losses to the government by levying bigger taxes on top earners. “It’s billionaires or students. Where do we want to make our investment?” Warren asked a Washington audience recently.

Democratic Rep. Ron Kind quickly responded to Paul Ryan's latest proposal with this reality check:

Students --CUT $145 billion in education funding and $90 billion in Pell grants. Students would also be charged interest on their loans while still in school.

The solution is easy; Republicans need to start funding state colleges again, and get behind the idea of an educated public. Use general revenues to shore up our public schools and colleges-lower tuition's.

Medicaid, it's all "philosophical?" What Scott Walker did to the poor on Badgercare is mild compared to what he could have done if the federal government didn't regulate (strings attached) the use of funding. Paul Ryan wants to get rid of the strings. It's a "philosophical" thing, and a very brave "it doesn't effect me" move that only tramples on the unhealthy.

From Political Capital, Ryan amazed host Al Hunt at how disconnected he was to the reality of the problem:

College debt another bad Republican idea.

I really thought I was making headway with my conservative friend in Milwaukee the other day on health care, when he ditched what we were talking about and said "government shouldn't be involved in health care."

I'm guessing he would say the same thing about student loan debt...and almost everything dragging down our economy. They don't like the obvious answers, the easier more obvious solutions that save money and free people up to do other important things. 

One Wisconsin Now has been pushing student loan reform for awhile, and now has Mary Burke, the Democratic candidate for governor on board. But even their solution is a band aid compared to what other countries have successfully done, as shown in the cartoon to the below.  

New Hope for Solutions to $1.2 Trillion Student Loan Debt Crisis in Wisconsin? Gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke has included some of the common sense solutions from the Higher Ed, Lower Debt Act in her newly released "Invest for Success" jobs plan. Specifically Burke calls for creating a mechanism to allow Wisconsin borrowers to refinance their student loans to take advantage of lower interest rates, just like you can with a home mortgage or other consumer loan. And Burke would allow borrowers to deduct student loan debt payments on their state taxes, just like you can with home mortgage loan interest.

Original research by One Wisconsin Institute found that borrowers with an undergraduate degree in Wisconsin were making average payments of nearly $350 per month for almost 19 years. The impact of this debt is dramatic and negative for the entire state economy. And freeing a generation of well-trained, well-educated Wisconsinites from the chains of crushing debt will spur the entrepreneurism and small business creation needed to break out of our economic doldrums.

Republicans Reach into the Pockets of Parents of College Kids to Pay Off Big Banks.

Republicans want banks to make money on the backs of college students, our future entrepreneurs, the supporters of our future economy. 

That would strap them with debt affecting consumer spending, their spending, and drag economic growth. But that’s somebody else’s problem I guess.

Why are Republicans and President Obama are getting a pass on doubling, even tripling student loan rates? Aren't conservative parents just as angry as liberal parents when it comes to something that’ll hit them big time in the pocketbook?

Republicans are hell bent on gouging students, all the while they're making claims in Wisconsin that they’re concerned about crushing student debt. How can they get away with that?

Democrats are bragging about this wonderful hard fought concession that proves these guys are hopeless.

HuffingtonPost: The deal would offer students lower interest rates through the 2015 academic year, but then rates were expected to climb … but Democrats won a protection for students that rates would never climb higher than 8.25 percent for undergraduate students. Graduate students would not pay rates higher than 9.5 percent and parents' rates would top out at 10.5 percent.

That’s just plain outrageous. In fact, the Democrats gave up a huge campaign issue:

Leaders from both parties, however, recognized the potential to be blamed for the added costs in the 2014 elections if nothing were done.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren would give students the same rate as banks, “Instead of helping our students, the government is making a profit on student loans,” Warren said of the profit figures during a conference filled with young people. “The federal government will make $51 billion in profits off student loans. That is wrong. It is morally wrong. That is obscene.”

“The government should not be making profits off the backs of our students," she said. "Period.”

The higher the debt load and monthly payments, the less money workers have to use as down payments for new homes, cars or to sock away for retirement.  

Warren is pushing her one year solution; students would borrow at the same rate that big banks do, around 0.75 percent. 

Republicans leave town letting Student Loan Rates to Double. Democratic Rep. Ron Kind and Sen. Elizabeth Warren try to prevent GOP plan to profit of Students.

They're gone. The 4h of July holiday started a week in advance for our freeloading do nothing Republican politicians. 

They're scaring families across America with their free market stunt to rake in interest profits for banks by tying the percentage to the market. Hey, somebody should make something off our future business owners and employees.

I should also note that our own state Republicans froze tuition in the state due to recent UW surpluses in an attempt to portraying themselves as the great protectors of family budgets, when if fact it was just another way to cut funding to the UW. If they're honestly concerned, why allow the doubling of interest rates? This really is all just a troubling game to them.

Rep. Ron Kind has been on this for some time, releasing this call to action today:

Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) called on House majority leaders to cancel the upcoming holiday recess and take action to prevent the doubling of student loan interest rates. If Congress does not act this week, interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford student loans will jump from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1st.

“It’s no wonder that Americans across the country have such a low opinion of Congress, if some members can’t even agree that affordable education is good for the economy and good for the future prosperity of our country. Congress should not leave town for recess and allow more students to fall into a financial bind,” continued Kind. 

“Even worse, the Republican plan to address this issue would have made our students pay even higher interest rates, putting them deeper in debt. I voted against that plan because it’s just not fair to use our students’ money to pay down our national debt.”

Earlier this month, Rep. Kind signed a discharge petition—a procedural motion that frees up a bill that has been blocked in a Congressional committee—to force an up or down vote on the Student Loan Relief Act, a bill that would extend the 3.4% interest rate on Stafford loans until July 1, 2015.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren had the best idea, that never got any traction:

Huffington Post: Legislation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to reform the federal college loan program has garnered more support than any other proposal, with six more college presidents now endorsing her plan to dramatically lower interest rates for students.

Warren's bill, the first she's authored as a senator, would tie the interest rate on federal Stafford loans to the rate banks receive from the Federal Reserve, lowering student loan rates from as high as 6.8 percent to 0.75 percent, and saving students thousands of dollars. A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Poling showed widespread support for lowering federal student loan rates, with 60 percent of respondents saying they back Warren's idea, including 56 percent of Republicans. Despite this popularity, Warren's bill has not come up for a vote in Congress.

Republicans all but guarantee Student Loan rates will go up, wiping out their discretionary spending and depress future economies.

If Republicans succeed in tying the student loan interest rates to the financial markets, parents and students alike will have only their conservative politicians to blame. Oddly, if history tells us anything, Republicans will get of scot free. Here's what it means in dollars:

jsonline: The failure comes with just three weeks before interest rates increase on those loans back to 2008 levels. For students who max out their student loans, the rate shift means a $1,000 increase each year.

Republican Hypocrites!! Concern over massive Student loan Debt in State, a mismatch for Rate Hike by Congressional Republicans.

Thank you Scott Walker, for freezing student tuition at the UW, and draining the surplus fund for new buildings and academics. That'll teach em. Soon they'll be begging once again for any kind of handout, or at least no funding cuts. Student debt is out of control, making life difficult once they're out in the job market and on the line for monthly payments. Thank god Walker has come to their rescue. From Channel3000:



But on a national level, Republicans don't seem to give a rats-ass about how much students end up pay for their student loans, if they're adding to big bank profits. Rachel Maddow points out how Republicans are unsuited for policy right now: 

EdWeek: Unless lawmakers act by July 1, interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans, available to those demonstrating financial need, will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. The same scenarioplayed out last summer, and students were able to persuade Congress to keep rates low—but just for one year.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren offers Student Loans at .75%

Sen. Elizabeth Warren just started the push to offer a low .75% student loan interest rate as an investment in our economic future. How crazy is that? 

Meant to be a one year fix, Warren may have come up with a permanent fix to the problem of crushing student loans that end up stifling our economy.  Here are two email press releases I received this morning:

Joan McCarter, Daily Kos: Sen. Elizabeth Warren has introduced her first bill, and

naturally it's a stroke of genius. Called the "Bank on Student Loan Fairness Act," the bill would give students the same low rates on loans which the nation's biggest banks currently receive. Students are the ones that are going to be responsible for rebuilding this country, and they shouldn't be saddled with crippling debt before they even get a chance to start doing that. Here's what Warren said about her bill when she introduced it on the Senate floor.

"Some people say that we can’t afford to help our kids through school by keeping student loan interest rates low. But right now, as I speak, the federal government offers far lower interest rates on loans, every single day–they just don’t do it for everyone. Right now, a big bank can get a loan through the Federal Reserve discount window at a rate of about 0.75%. But this summer a student who is trying to get a loan to go to college will pay almost 7%. In other words, the federal government is going to charge students interest rates that are nine times higher than the rates for the biggest banks–the same banks that destroyed millions of jobs and nearly broke this economy. That isn’t right."

Arshad Hasan, Executive Director-Democracy for America: Congress is set to double the cost of student loans from 3.4% to 6.8% --while offering huge corporate banks the low rate of 0.75%.You read that right. Congress punishing young men and women looking to start their careers and families, while offering the biggest banks a 900% discount. Here's what Sen. Elizabeth Warren had to say about that:

"As a country, every time we advance money to the big banks at low interest rates, we invest in those banks. We should be making at least that same kind of investment in our students."

She's right -- and she just introduced her first bill to the Senate to fix this absurdity.

State Republicans whine Students left with Massive Loan Debt, yet Congress wants to raise rates to reflect market. I'm seeing a pattern.

Here we go again. While Republicans on a state level whine and complain about tuition hikes that leave students with massive student loan debt, Republicans in Congress are pushing for “market loan rates,” instead of the current low student rate of 3.4 percent.

Can they get away with that?  

The Hill: With just over nine weeks to go before rates hike, Congress seems nowhere close to finding a solution to stop student loan rates doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1.

Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) told The Hill that … any solution to come at the last minute … the United States Student Association (USSA) is pushing for a bill introduced in March by California Democrat Karen Bass that would make the current rate of 3.4 percent permanent. Its prospects in the Republican-controlled House are remote.

President Obama called for a market-based rate proposal in his new budget. House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) (said) “My Republican colleagues and I have long believed returning to a market-based system for determining interest rates just makes sense and will provide more stability for borrowers. 

What provides “more stability for borrowers” than a permanent 3.4 percent interest rate? The market, really?

Taxpayer Money Pours into For-Profit Colleges!!! Love that old Free Market?

I'm catching on. Taking our hard earned taxpayer dollars so we can fill the pockets of for profit private sector businesses and CEO salaries, is okay if it supports free market principals. Especially in the education.

Republicans are big on privatizing public schools because they say competition in the free market will raise the quality of education, and get government out of the way. Government is known for stifling innovation. If you believe that you're a sucker or horrifically unqualified to influence public policy.

In what could be a precursor to privatizing K-12, see how private sector colleges are soaking taxpayers because...well, they can. If the following is okay with you, where taxpayer money is used to supercharge the free market, then I think I'm starting to understand conservatism. Paying public employees a decent wage is bad, paying a private sector CEO or corporation is good.  

NY Times: Wrapping up a two-year investigation of for-profit colleges, Senator Tom Harkin will issue a final report on Monday — a voluminous, hard-hitting indictment of almost every aspect of the industry. “In this report, you will find overwhelming documentation of exorbitant tuition, aggressive recruiting practices, abysmal student outcomes, taxpayer dollars spent on marketing and pocketed as profit, and regulatory evasion and manipulation. These practices are not the exception they are systemic throughout the industry, with very few individual exceptions.” According to the report, which was posted online in advance:

-Taxpayers spent $32 billion in the most recent year on companies that operate for-profit colleges, but the majority of students they enroll leave without a degree, half of those within four months.

-Among the 30 companies, an average of 22.4 percent of revenue went to marketing and recruiting, 19.4 percent to profits and 17.7 percent to instruction.

-Their chief executive officers were paid an average of $7.3 million, although Robert S. Silberman, the chief executive of Strayer Education, made $41 million in 2009, including stock options.

-The bulk of the for-profit colleges’ revenue, more than 80 percent in most cases, comes from taxpayers.

-On average associate-degree and certificate programs at for-profit colleges cost about four times as much as those at community colleges and public universities. An internal memo from the finance director of a Kaplan nursing program in Sacramento, for example, recommended an 8 percent increase in fees, saying that “with the new pricing, we can lose two students and still make the same profit.” Similarly, the chief financial officer at National American University wrote in an e-mail to executives that the university had not met its profit expectation for the summer quarter, so “as a result” it would need a midyear tuition increase. Republicans called the study “a hostile partisan effort.” 

For Republican voters, that’s good enough for them. But is a little more regulation and oversight needed to protect taxpayer money?

Democrats generally arguing that greater regulation is needed to prevent huge publicly traded colleges from plundering the Treasury for student financial aid while leaving students with crippling debt and credentials that are worthless in the job market. Many Republicans see such colleges as a healthy free-market alternative to overcrowded community colleges, offering useful vocational training and education to working adults who will not attend more traditional institutions. 

Again let’s be clear, spending, and basically plundering taxpayer coffers, is okay in the name of freedom and capitalism. It is not okay for taxpayers to support themselves as public employees.