Obama's Federal Student Loan Reform

Earlier this week, in front of hundreds of students at the University of Colorado, President Obama unveiled a plan to reform federal student loan repayment.   In this plan: repayments would be limited to 10% of an individual’s discretionary salary, consolidation of multiple loans would be permitted and, after 20 years, all loans would be forgiven [1].  As a result of this plan, millions of ex-students could benefit by paying hundreds of dollars less every month and thousands of dollars less overall, and with more than 60% of students with bachelor’s degrees having borrowed to pay for tuition (with numbers increasing every semester), this plan isn’t coming a moment too soon [2]. 

However, even with this accelerated program coming to fruition, there are still some major issues remaining.  The most notable issue being the fact that this plan only applies to federal loans and not private loans; yet, it is private loans that are infamous for their outrageously high interest rates, high cost of monthly payment and, overall inflexibility in payment options.  With more than 17 billion dollars of private money having been loaned out in 2008; the cost to the student borrowers who will now have to pay this off, is going to be phenomenal [2].  This would be difficult enough without being in a time when there are fewer and fewer well paying jobs availble. 

Another issue is the fact that Obama’s plan really only treats the symptoms, rather than the underlying issue.  The cost of an education in America is quickly becoming impossibly expensive and is only getting worse as funds that go to grants and scholarships are starting to get cut.   Thus, giving young adults one of two choices: 1- trying their luck in finding a decent job that doesn’t require higher education or 2- going to college and being heavenly in debt for most of their adult lives; neither of which is ideal.  Yet, as a student loan borrower myself, one must celebrate in the little victories.  This plan is definitely on the right track towards helping many of us drowning in the debt of our adolescence.  Even though this plan is not the ship we were hoping would take us ashore, a lifesaver is still appreciated when thrown in. 

Romney's Middle Class Tax Cut Forgets About the Middle Class

 Americans have plenty to worry about now and days.  There is a lack of good jobs as the unemployment rate remains disturbingly high, banks seem to be spinning out of control, health care although somewhat remedied is still less than perfect and, less and less money is being used on federal programs when more and more people need it the most.  Yet, with all these things to worry about Pat Garofalo’s blog post on Friday on the thinkprogress.com site reminded me that it could and, probably will get worse.  Mitt Romeny, one of the front-runners of the Republican presidential candidacy, has proposed a tax plan that he boasts would focuses tax breaks on the middle class “the people who need a break” by reducing the capital gain tax.  Yet, as Garofalo points out, almost a third or 73% of what is considered “the middle class” of America would not benefit from this tax plan.  In fact, a family making about 50,000 dollars a year would only get about $200 dollars in tax breaks versus about $1000 in tax brakes the same family gets from the payroll tax cut Obama brought about in 2011.

            I think Romney’s tax plan is a perfect example of the problem I have with most of the ideas Congress has recently come up with: this plan costs a lot of money and doesn’t seem to make any unique or significant changes that we (the American middle class) so desperately need.  Not only is the plan mediocre, it also doesn’t do what it says it will do.   Romney’s major selling point for this tax plan is that it will help the middle class out but I hardly think a measly $200 every year can be justified as giving us “a break”.  So, my next question to Romney and his staff is, do they actually believe that this tax plan would have as dramatic an impact on the majority of American lives as they suggested it would or, do they just not know that the true impact of this plan is almost obsolete? Which is worse?  To me, this feels like just another one of those ideas Congressmen come out with only to show they have not been twiddling their thumbs all year.  Romeny wanted to show that he had been working, that he had been thinking about the problems he will need to remedy if he does indeed get elected as President yet, I feel like what the plan actually did, at least for my part, is the exact opposite.  To me this is evidence that Romney has no idea how to help get America out of this rut let alone that he's capable of running our nation.  Sorry, Romney, but for me, it's a pass. 

For John Galt's sake

In recent days, I’ve been tuning into NPR with the sole purpose of hearing any news of the Occupy Wall Street protests.  As my main sources of news lean to the left: the BBC, NPR and, the New York Times I feel they have given a pretty good detailing of recent events.  Yet, reading Paul Krugman’s Op-ed entitled “Panic of the Plutocrats” it would seem had I used a different source of news, I might get a very different story.  Krugman, the Ford International Professor of Economics and the 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, reports that much of the Republican Party is denouncing these protests, accusing the protesters of being “Anti-American” and “pitting Americans against Americans”.  Yet, as Krugman points out to his mainly liberal fan base, he has seen this sort of thing before.  He uses the attacks against Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts Senator candidate) by the G.O.P who likened her to a parasite when she made a speech about raising taxes on the wealthy as an example.  Krugman sees that anytime anyone or any group swings a spot light on to the way private institutions are treated in America, they are heckled and labeled “Anti-American”.  Even our own President is not safe from the wrath these conservative groups bestow.  Krugman likens this as a sort of defense mechanism that these institutions use as a ploy to keep people from closely examining the unfair favoritism the government places on private institutions over it’s own citizens. 

Krugman also points out that it is these very critics who likened themselves to Ayn Rand’s ideological character, John Galt from “Atlas Shrugged”.  Yet, John Galt would have never trumped over the poor using devious schemes to get rich nor would he go looking for every tax loophole the government had to offer in order to pay less than most middle class families do.    As I remember, John Galt was one of the lowliest workers of the railroad; he was blue collar to the core and believed above all else that hard work would prevail.  He despised the top dogs in their comfortable chairs in meeting rooms who thought only of ways to get their pocket books thicker.  John Galt was part of the 99% the Wall Street protesters are fighting for. 

At the end of the book, Galt leaves his work knowing that without him and the others, the constructs of society will crumble with his only hope being that once it does, they can go back and start anew.  Yet, we are not living in a book, we can’t afford to wait for society to fail, the protesters know this and are starting to speak up.  I hope many more of us do and I hope even more take a note from Paul Krugman and understand the fear these people are trying to bestow on us is just a trick that has all too often succeeded in suppressing us.   Hopefully this time, things will be different.

Texans are minority on In-State Tuition Immigration issues

The New York Times piece reports that even though most Texans side with current Presidential nominee and Texas Republican Governor, Rick Perry, in support of the law that allows undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition, we might be the odd man out as most other Republican groups adamantly oppose the law. 

Immigration is one of the few issues where I’m decidedly “undecided”.  I understand the idea of not wanting educated adults to leave and compete with America but, being an adult recently thrown into the workforce, I feel that there are plenty of us to go around. This article speaks to me on two levels: I’ve lived on the border and sympathize with people who would do almost anything to come here, yet I am also a person worried about job opportunity and know there are thousands of adults graduating from college every year.  Though I'm still unsure of my view, it's too hard to just ignore an issue that effects me so directly.  No matter my stance, however, this article proves immigration issues are alive and well and will not easily be put on the back burner.