* NEWSBITING AN NRO ESSAY BY FREDERICK M. HESS, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION-POLICY STUDIES
AT THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE.
* FILE UNDER: "YOU CAN NEVER REPEAT TOO OFTEN THAT
JOHN BOEHNER AND MOST ELECTED REPUBLICANS ARE SCUMBAGS JUST LIKE THE DEMOCRATS."
Inspired by President Obama’s cheap election-year
politicking, Congress has launched into a frenzied, bipartisan panderfest over the Stafford loan program.
Late last week, an emotional House Speaker John Boehner
led House Republicans to vote for an Obama-proposed giveaway Boehner had
denounced just a few days previously.
For those who don’t eagerly track the ins and outs of
federally subsidized student loans, here’s the deal: Five years ago, in a piece
of cheap political theater, Democrats in Congress wrote an additional sweetener
for federally subsidized Stafford loans into the College Cost Reduction and
Access Act. Beyond offering college loans at a guaranteed rate of 6.8%,
Congress temporarily dropped the undergraduate rate as low as 3.4%. The fixed
rate was demanded by student-loan advocates who disliked the fact that interest
rates fluctuate and wanted the feds to offer certainty (and understood that the
rates would have to be high enough that they wouldn’t drain the U.S. Treasury).
* OH... AND HERE'S ONE FOR MY GOOD FRIEND JOHN HICKS:
The Bush administration, which never worried about
spending a couple billion more, cheerfully went along for the ride.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Now, the temporary 3.4% is set to naturally expire, with
undergraduate Stafford loans reverting to the standard 6.8% rate.
The impact?
Not so much.
U.S. PIRG, the big “student advocacy” lobbying outfit,
calculates that the change would cost the average new borrower $2,800 over a
ten-year repayment term. That’s about $25 a month.
Former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin has pegged the
impact at $7 a month.
* YEAH. I TEND TO BELIEVE HOLTZ-EAKIN OVER
"PERG."
(*SMIRK*)
Meanwhile, the projected hit to the federal debt is
projected at $30 billion over five years.
(*MORE SARCASTIC APPLAUSE*)
* GO BOEHNER! GO RINOs! PAN-DER! PAN-DER! PAN-DER!
(COM'ON, FOLKS... CHANT IT WITH ME!)
The Stafford program is a middle-class entitlement.
* AND UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS... AND UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS...
We’re not talking about Pell grants for poor students.
We’re talking about whether students can get an even bigger subsidy on
already-subsidized loans. And, while everyone on Capitol Hill is busy offering
an offset to “pay” for the extension, it’s useful to remember that we’re
borrowing a trillion bucks this year. That means that none of this is paid for.
* THANK YOU...! THANK YOU... THANK YOU... THANK YOU...!!!
All of those potential cuts are already needed just to
start trimming the existing debt.
* YES...!!! YES...! YES...! YES...!!!
* I WANT BOEHNER DEAD. I DO. POINT BLANK. I WISH THE SON
OF A BITCH WOULD SIMPLY KEEL OVER AND DIE. SAME WITH CANTOR!
How is Washington dealing with asking new college
borrowers to forgo their extra subsidy of 30 to 80 cents a day?
Not impressively.
The same President Obama who once pledged that we were
done “kicking the can” on tough decisions is pandering for the youth vote (on
the Jimmy Fallon show, no less) by insisting it’s a national imperative to
extend the largesse.
In a discouraging development, the same Mitt Romney who
insists we have to slash spending and put the brakes on Obama’s
“government-centered society” quickly caved and joined Obama’s call to extend the
break.
* FOLKS... I'VE SAID IT ALL ALONG... MITT ROMNEY IS A
PHONY PIECE OF... "YOU KNOW WHAT."
[T]he president has blatantly misrepresented who will
benefit and how much the reset matters.
He’s been joined by members of Congress who know better
(or damn well should).
* ANYONE SURPRISED...? ANYONE AT ALL...???
Obama has suggested there will be big savings for recent
grads struggling in today’s job market, and that his pandering is actually a
response to a temporary, immediate crisis.
(*SMIRK*)
* CUTE.
In truth, the extended subsidy applies only to loans
initiated in 2012–13 — in other words, for students who won’t be graduating for
years and years.
Congress, which is good at agreeing on ways to give away
freebies to the American public, is now fully on board.
Boehner’s office has declared that “Republicans and
Democrats on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol have long
agreed this is a problem that must be addressed.”
Boehner has said, “What Washington shouldn’t be doing is
exploiting the challenges that young Americans face for political gain.”
* AGAIN, FOLKS... A DEAD JOHN BOEHNER... NOW THAT WOULD
BE A SIGN OF GOD'S LOVE OF AMERICA!
On Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats all claim to
realize that the feds can’t keep spending a trillion a year more than we
collect, but are in a frenzied competition to score points off this bit of
shameless pandering.
* VIOLENCE... I FEAR IN THE END... (*PAUSE*)... ONLY BY
KILLING THE SONS OF BITCHES WILL WE RID OURSELVES OF THEM.
* NO... I'M NOT THREATENING ANYONE; I'M SIMPLY THROWING
OUT A PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEF.
Boehner’s release, which followed Romney’s decision to
match Obama pander for pander, was funny because it required an embarrassing
pivot by the House Republicans. Just two days earlier, the speaker’s office had
admirably argued, “President Obama has said many times, ‘We can’t just keep
subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money.’ Unfortunately, that’s
all the president’s plan does.”
Doubtless, this will be only the first of many times that
House Republicans abandon principle to accommodate the Romney campaign.
Just imagine if this weren’t the most conservative House
in memory.
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