Sunday October 7, 2012, 12:31 pm


“You know, in today’s economy, higher education can’t be a luxury. It’s an economic necessity. Everybody should be able to afford it.” – President Obama in a speech to UNLC in June.

Well, the president got his wish.

Congress passed legislation to keep interest rates low on student loans back in June of this year. By doing so, college degrees are essentially regressing into earning a second high school degree—you need one just to keep up with the rest of the country and for just a hope of finding a job. Artificially holding interest rates at low levels on student loans dramatically increases the demand to attend college. Basic economics shows when demand increases, so do prices.

During the Obama Administration alone, College Board has reported a 25 percent overall increase in college tuition. Students are encouraged to live fiscally irresponsibly by taking out massive loans to attend schools who keep raising prices. The Department of Education released for the first time an official three-year student loan default rate report. With this larger time span, it’s obvious that students have had a much harder time paying off their student loans. Two years after graduation the student loan default rate is 9.1 percent—up from 8.8 percent in the previous report. The more shocking figure is at the three-year mark, when the default rate increases to 13.4 percent.

The ratio of students that attended for-profit institutions that are defaulting on their student loans after three years is 1:5. Private schools are only slightly better off with rates at 7.5 percent after two years and 11 percent after three years. Nearly 250 schools had loan default rates of over 30 percent, and handful of which were over 40 percent.

Is this surprising? Absolutely not.

The student loan industry mirrors the mortgage industry on a smaller scale. In 2008, America experienced a financial meltdown fueled by the mortgage bubble. The government encouraged banks and government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to issue mortgages at extremely low rates to almost anyone—whether or not they could afford it.

The result? The bubble created by the artificially low interest rates finally burst and people could no longer afford their once-amazing real estate packages. Defaults on loans skyrocketed and foreclosures on houses were extremely common.

Students are now seeing a similar trend in the student loan industry.

With artificial demand increases in the student loan industry causing the cost of college to significantly increase, students are pressured to attend college to keep up with the rest of the country. Many students enter college without knowing what path they wish to take. Only 31 percent of students graduate in four years. For the remaining 69 percent, this only means racking up more debt.

And for what?

Youth unemployment under the Obama Administration has stubbornly held around 17 percent. Young Americans are forced to compete in an economy with a national unemployment rate that has held above 8 percent for 43 straight months. They are competing for jobs with people of more experience and higher education degrees.

The outlook is anything but promising in the near future. 53 percent of college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. More than one in three of these students have moved back home with mom and dad.

President Obama should be ashamed of his policies’ effects on young Americans. I have one piece of advice for my generation: register to vote and use that power to fire President Obama.

Monday October 8, 2012, 11:12 am
Thank you for laying this out. I think some of the problem of the left is that they do not recognize the possibility of unintended consequences to what might otherwise be laudable programs.

Monday October 8, 2012, 11:51 pm
Many students enter college without knowing what path they wish to take. Only 31 percent of students graduate in four years. For the remaining 69 percent, this only means racking up more debt.

How utterly pathetic!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 12:22 pm
Obama-Biden 2012!!!!

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 12:28 pm
So you post an article by a rightwing nut job as if it has any credibility total bull and you are just a surrogate for Diane o and the other loonies that follow your path to destroying America shame on you

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 12:29 pm
This is a right leaning editorial. This is not fact.

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 1:42 pm
This is right wing propaganda, do you really think people with common sense buy this crap ?
Obama-Biden for a solid future !!!

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 1:58 pm
Do you guys realize that there are countries that give interest-free student loans to students? Countries that have no or very little tuition? Countries that--as a result--boast better educated students since those students can focus on studying instead of holding down a job while going to school.

I think it is time for us to send these right-wing nutters onto a deserted island where they can hurt only themselves but not us.

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 2:51 pm
We aren't a socialist country. Want free education? Want a degree but you don't want to pay for it? Fine. Move to another country. But, while you are there, notice that your income is being taxed at 50% for "free" healthcare for everyone and "free" education for everyone. Want to pay for someone else's education? Fine. Move. Enjoy your net income in a one bedroom apartment.

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 2:56 pm
Liberals blow me away with their "ideas" of what the government should GIVE to everyone. It comes at a price to the taxpayers. I love it when liberals talk about "free" healthcare. France is poised to raise taxes on those earning $1 million to 75%. Imagine that! These people are providing jobs so France wants to penalize them. Then what happens? They leave the country and take their companies and jobs where they can afford to do business.

Portugal is now not only raising taxes on their citizens but in a large way. They think it will help their economy. They are not smart. Raising taxes on everyone to pay for all the pensions...healthcare...education so that everyone can have an even playing field.

It simply doesn't work that way.

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 3:54 pm
Obama and the rest of our government in general is captive to the banks. Student loans are very similar to mortgage loans in which students and mortgagee's are tricked into loans and then the banks with the complicity of our elected representatives basically tie the final noose with laws, for example not being able to get rid of your student loan through bankruptcy, that practically make you an indentured slave by charging obscene usury interest rates

We have a two tiered system of favoritism. When the corporate elite banksters get in trouble, they allowed bailouts, bankruptcy, and write offs. The federal reserve charge them no interest for these bailouts. The banks then take this same money that we bailed them out with and lend it back to the government and to us at interest rates in the double digits. This is why our government is 15 trillion dollars in debt and each American family is also carrying some kind of debt.

We need to demand that this debt be cancelled and forgiven because the debt represent money the Federal reserve fraudulently printed and give to the banks. Then the Federal reserve gives hush money to our politicians so they can distort the truth and the issue. This is why Romney is worth a $100 million dollars, Clinton is worth $!00. million dollars, and Barack Obama is on his way to his $100 million.

The ridiculous wedge issues of left/right, liberal/conservative, Male/female, abortion.anti-abortion, black/white
etc,. is used by the rulers so some idiot can parrot them to further mislead us from the main economic issues.,

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 5:01 pm
Interesting that those same folks that are blaming the president for this are the very people who actually refused to lower those rates and give proper breaks to those students.......THE GOP RUN CONGRESS, not the president.

Don't piss and moan about student loan rates and then vote for republicans. If you do, you are an idiot.

Tuesday October 9, 2012, 6:27 pm
The same Obama whiners keep posting here - Cam V., Paula M., and Carol D. and let's not forgot Diane O. - do you people have any real ideas about improving America or Canada, Cam V. ? Everything is Obama's fault. Don't the educational institutions set their rates and if you want attend that school, you pay that price? That is called free enterprise. And, if you don't have the money and you are not rich, then you take a student loan. Why don't you blame the real culprits here, the Repug do-nothing Congress.

Wednesday October 10, 2012, 1:12 am
Funny how neither the original -OP ED- nor the person that cut n' pasted here provided a single verifiable fact to back up the claims made.

Wednesday October 10, 2012, 2:57 am
Couple the student loans with more publicly funded post-secondary education institutions (instead of private universities) and I'll bet that restrains (if not actually eliminates) the escalating tuition problem!

Wednesday October 10, 2012, 3:06 am
Janet, Obama is on the wrong track. He taught The Cloward-Piven Strategy at Harvard and obviously believes it should work for our country. He was dead wrong. The American people sent Obama a huge message in November 2010 by replacing his democrats with republicans. So, don't blame the republicans blame the American people for taking such a bold step.

Wednesday October 10, 2012, 2:55 pm
Please stop with the canned rhetoric. If you have claims to make, back them up with evidence. Funny how instead of providing real numbers, with verifiable facts pointing directly to the policies of the Obama administration, we get substance free boiler plate comments being tossed around the right wing blogosphere and they expect them to support their positions. It's actually really sad.

Saturday October 20, 2012, 8:09 am
Cam failed to credit his source of information, with good reason. It appeared in "TheBlaze."

Thanks Mr. President: Student Loan Default Rate Skyrockets

Celia Bigelow is the founder of Students Against Barack Obama—a project of American Majority Action. She’s a frequent guest on radio shows across the country and often writes for CNS News and Fox Nation.

What is "TheBlaze," you ask? Well, according to Wikipedia, "TheBlaze is a conservative news and opinion website and television network owned by American media personality and former CNN Headline News and Fox News host Glenn Beck's Mercury Radio Arts. The website was launched three days after Beck's widely publicized Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. Beck has promoted The Blaze as an alternative to "mainstream media outlets," which Beck says are "distorting facts to fit rigid agendas."

Glen Beck??? When a farcical "news" outlet like Fox News no longer want to be associated with someone who is willing to say and/or do anything to promote its agenda, you KNOW that person has no credibility whatsoever.
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And Diane, the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" again? "Okay, here's a reminder: According to Wikipedia:

"Conservative commentator Glenn Beck referred to the Cloward-Piven Strategy often on his Fox News television show, Glenn Beck, during its run from 2009 to 2011, reiterating his opinion that it had helped to inspire President Barack Obama's economic policy. On February 18, 2010, for example, Beck said, "you’ve got total destruction of wealth coming... It’s the final phase of the Cloward-Piven strategy, which is collapse the system."[13]

Richard Kim, writing in 2010 in The Nation (in which the original essay appeared), called such assertions "a reactionary paranoid fantasy..." but says that "the left's gut reaction upon hearing of it--to laugh it off as a Scooby-Doo comic mystery--does nothing to blunt its appeal or limit its impact."[14] The Nation later stated that Beck blames the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" for "the financial crisis of 2008, healthcare reform, Obama's election and massive voter fraud" and has resulted in the posting of much violent and threatening rhetoric by users on Beck's website, including death threats against Frances Fox Piven.[15] For her part, Piven vigorously continues to defend the original idea, calling its conservative interpretation "lunatic".[16]"

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Richard Kim (executive editor of TheNation.com, co-editor, with Betsy Reed, of the New York Times bestselling anthology Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare. He has taught at New York University and Skidmore College):

"Suffice it to say, if Beck and crew believe half of this crap, they belong in an asylum in the middle of Shutter Island, where they can tend to their survival seeds and sleuth out imagined conspiracies apart from the rest of the human population. The danger, however, is that they will maroon a sizable portion of the electorate there with them.Since Obama's inauguration, references to the Cloward-Piven strategy have popped up with increasing frequency in op-eds and letters to the editor of local newspapers, including those in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Mexico. Snippets of Simpson's tome or Beck's rants appear frequently in the comments section of blogs and articles; a search for the term "Cloward-Piven strategy" generated more than 255,000 Google hits.

Why does the Cloward-Piven conspiracy theory hold such appeal? And what, if anything, does it accomplish? On one level it's entertainment. It allows believers to tease out the left's secrets and sinister patterns. Since none of the evidence that supposedly confirms the existence of the Cloward-Piven strategy is, in fact, secret, this proves rather easy to do, and so the puzzle is both thrilling and gratifying.

On another level, the theory is an adaptive response to the tea party's fragmentation. As Jonathan Raban pointed out in The New York Review of Books, the tea party is an uneasy conclave of Ayn Rand secular libertarians and fundamentalist Christian evangelicals; it contains birthers, Birchers, racists, xenophobes, Ron Paulites, cold warriors, Zionists, constitutionalists, vanilla Republicans looking for a high and militia-style survivalists. Because the Cloward-Piven strategy is so expansive, it allows tea party propagandists to engage any one--or all--of the pet issues that incite these various constituencies. For some, the left's "offensive to promote illegal immigration" is "Cloward-Piven on steroids." For others, it is the Cloward-Piven "advocates of social change" who "used the Fed, which was complicit in the scheme" to "engineer" the 2008 fiscal crisis. In his speech at the tea party convention in Nashville, WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah notes that Obama was just 4 when the Cloward-Piven strategy was written. "We think," Farah said. He paused dramatically before adding, "Without the birth certificate we really just don't know," as a sizable portion of the audience broke into applause.

Racial and class resentments, however, are never far from the surface, no matter which subject is slotted into the great Cloward-Piven conspiracy machine. The word "radical," for example, is almost always preceded by the word "black" when it can be (George Wiley), but nobody is ever called a "white radical" (Bill Ayers). Whenever grammatically possible--and sometimes even when it is not--Cloward and Piven are identified as "Columbia professors" and Obama as a "Harvard graduate." (Beyond just heaping Nixonian scorn on elites, the Cloward-Piven conspiracy credits the left with an almost divine intelligence.)

And as of now, the Cloward-Piven strategy is most often used to put two classes of people on the tea party's enemies list: those who work for the Obama administration and those who work to increase the political power of poor people of color. (Doing both--as was the case with Van Jones--can be fatal.) It is the latter target that is particularly appalling: here is a so-called populist movement promulgating a master narrative that holds poor people to blame for the world's woes. The precise impact of this conspiracy theory and the broader movement it incites on Obama's legislative agenda is, as of now, unclear. But the toll it has taken on organizations that advocate for poor people of color could not be more stark. On the weekend the healthcare reform bill cleared the House, tea party activists descended on Washington to decry "the end of America"; their bitter pill was soothed by front-page coverage of the end of something else--ACORN announced it was on the verge of bankruptcy, the victim of what CEO Bertha Lewis called "a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded right-wing attacks."

Perhaps most critical, the Cloward-Piven conspiracy theory pushes the tea party's kettle closer to a boil. In its obsession with voter fraud and the potential illegitimacy of the 2008 election--and the democratic process itself--the conspiracy suggests a tit-for-tat strategy for victory: if the left is going to cynically manipulate the system to produce tyranny, then so will we. How? To begin, there's the tried-and-true tactic of suppressing the poor minority vote--which would next place Project Vote in the tea party's cross hairs. But why stop there? Like every good conspiracy theory, this one too is a call to arms."
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Diane, why would you want to continue to promote this nonsense?

Saturday October 20, 2012, 11:00 am
and you have a problem with The Blaze because????? Why .....

Saturday October 20, 2012, 2:36 pm
Why do I have a problem with "TheBlaze," you ask? Because it's Glenn Beck's brainchild and its purpose is to make him even richer!

Excuse my repeating what was previously referenced, but: According to Wikipedia, "TheBlaze is a conservative news and opinion website and television network owned by American media personality and former CNN Headline News and Fox News host Glenn Beck's Mercury Radio Arts. The website was launched three days after Beck's widely publicized Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. Beck has promoted The Blaze as an alternative to "mainstream media outlets," which Beck says are "distorting facts to fit rigid agendas."

And this is how Glenn describes "The Blaze" on its website: "And don’t expect everything to be deadly serious. Boring is bad. We intend to have plenty of fun. We’ve put together a solid team of writers and reporters. I intend to keep them busy by sending a zillion story ideas at all hours." (A "zillion story ideas at all hours"? In other words, he makes them up.)

Critical biographies (featured in Wikipedia):

"In June 2010, investigative reporter Alexander Zaitchik released a critical biography titled Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance, with a title mocking Beck's work, Common Sense.[162] In an interview about the book, Zaitchik theorized, "Beck's politics and his insatiable hunger for money and fame are not mutually exclusive", while stating: "Beck's true religion is not Patriotism, Mormonism, or Conservatism. His true religion is cross-platform self-marketing ... According to Beck's worldview, there's no inherent contradiction between his sophisticated instinct for self-promotion, his propagandist rodeo clown act, his self-image as a media mogul, and his professed belief system. I think he actually believes that God wants him to make a ton of money and become this huge celebrity by fear mongering and generally doing whatever it takes in the media to promote right-wing causes."[163]

In September 2010, Philadelphia Daily News reporter Will Bunch released The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama.[164] One of Bunch's theses is that Beck is nothing more than a morning zoo deejay playing a fictional character as a money-making stunt.[164] Writer Bob Cesca, in a review of Bunch's book, compares Beck to Steve Martin's faith-healer character in the 1992 film Leap of Faith, before describing the "derivative grab bag of other tried and tested personalities" that Bunch contends comprises Beck's persona:

His (Beck's) adenoidal 'Clydie Clyde' voice is based on morning zoo pioneer Scott Shannon's "Mr. Leonard" character. His history is borrowed from the widely debunked work of W. Cleon Skousen. His conspiracy theories are horked from Alex Jones and maybe Jack Van Impe. His anti-Obama, anti-socialist monologues are pure Joe McCarthy. His chalkboard is stolen from televangelist Gene Scott. His solemn, over-processed radio monologue delivery is a dead ringer for Eric Bogosian in Talk Radio. This is all well-worn stuff, but no one has drawn it all together and sculpted it for the purpose of conning an especially susceptible audience during turbulent racial and economic times.[164]

In October 2010 a polemical biography by Dana Milbank was released: Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America.[165]

The Blaze: Glenn Beck's news website

"It's time to realize that Glenn Beck is going to do whatever he wants whether it makes sense or not.
"Beck has become some sort of right-wing King Midas. When he’s not selling gold during commercial breaks, everything he touches turns into it. His opinions on his television show may not make sense, but his ratings are through the roof. He’s certainly no Ernest Hemingway, but he has made millions selling books to many of the same folks who buy his gold. And Beck is certainly not worthy of being in the same sentence as Martin Luther King Jr., but thanks to his rally, it happens all the time now.

So why not take shot a online journalism? He’s no Edward R. Murrow, but that doesn’t matter.

After all it’s Glenn Beck's world, and this stuff is all just in it.'

CRITICISMS OF BECK ABROAD:

"In the wake of the 2011 Norway attacks, Beck received condemnation for his comparison of murdered and surviving members of the Norwegian Workers' Youth League to the Hitler Youth. He said, "There was a shooting at a political camp which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth or whatever, you know what I mean. Who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing."[210] The statement was ill-received in Norway, leading senior political commentator Frank Aarebrot to label Beck as a "vulgar propagandist" and a "fascist",[211] and Torbjørn Eriksen, former press secretary to Norway's prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, to describe Beck's comment as "a new low", adding that "Glenn Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful".[212] Commentators pointed out that groups affiliated with the Tea Party movement and the Beck-founded 9–12 Project also sponsor politically oriented camp programs for children.[212][213][214][215][216] Beck condemned the attack in spite of his statements about its victims.[217]"

Cam, do you really take anything this man says or does seriously?

Sunday October 21, 2012, 5:26 pm
Anything Beck says? Nope, but that article was not written by him now was it? In fact it was written by a gal who has just gone through college and has the debts WITH the rise in the interest rates to prove her story so what more do you want?

Sunday October 21, 2012, 9:58 pm
Oh good. Anecdotal evidence as some kind of overall generalization. How factual.

Monday October 22, 2012, 12:15 am
Cam: Ms. Bigelow, who is the founder of Students Against Barack Obama, stated:

"Well, the president got his wish.

Congress passed legislation to keep interest rates low on student loans back in June of this year. By doing so, college degrees are essentially regressing into earning a second high school degree—you need one just to keep up with the rest of the country and for just a hope of finding a job."
…………
You’ll notice Ms. Bigelow’s careful wording when she states: “Congress passed legislation to keep interest rates low on student loans back in June of this year.” Fact is, it was President Bush who “halved” the interest rate of student loans back in 2007, as evidenced by an article that appeared in the Washington Times on April 28, 2012: “In 2007, President Bush signed a Democrat backed bill which cut the interest rate on subsidized loans from 6.8% to 3.4%.” President Bush lowered the interest rate, and President Obama extended the bill.

Do you see any flawed reasoning or selfish intent here, Cam?

Does she want interest rates to remain low to keep her student debt low or does she want the rates to rise to lower the number of individuals who can receive a college education? What is her motive?

Another fact Ms. Bigelow failed to mention was that President Obama has proposed legislation to cap college tuition, which was criticized by college administrators and Republicans, as evidenced by an excerpt for an article, which appears below:

From the Washington Times dated Monday, February 6, 2012:

"Shrugging off widespread criticism of its college tuition cap proposal, the Obama administration mounted a public-relations blitz Monday to sell the plan to students and university leaders.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts were among the White House officials and congressional Democrats who headlined events in Florida, Massachusetts and the District in a coordinated effort to build support for the idea of cutting off some federal financial aid to colleges and universities that continue to raise tuition each year.

The measure, the details of which have yet to be announced, was first outlined by President Obama in his State of the Union address two weeks ago and was immediately panned across the higher education spectrum.

House Republicans also bashed the proposal, and Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky told an audience of college presidents last week that it has virtually no chance of becoming law this year..."

Read more: Administration pushes proposal to cap college tuition

Ms. Bigelow states: "During the Obama Administration alone, College Board has reported a 25 percent overall increase in college tuition. Students are encouraged to live fiscally irresponsibly by taking out massive loans to attend schools who keep raising prices."

Is it fair to blame that on President Obama when he has taken steps to put caps on tuition, and the Republican majority won't act on them?

You're right, Cam. Glenn Beck did not write the article. But a Google search reveals that Glenn Beck's publication is the only one that published it. It was copied onto a few blog sites, but I didn't see it any credible publications. Feel free to do a search of your own, just in case I missed something.

Monday October 22, 2012, 12:30 am
Cam: I forgot to mention this. You said, "Anything Beck says? Nope, but that article was not written by him now was it? In fact it was written by a gal who has just gone through college and has the debts WITH the rise in the interest rates to prove her story so what more do you want?"

That's the thing. Interest rates didn't rise. She's complaining because they were lowered, but doesn't mention that they were lowered during the Bush administration. Student loans are defaulting because of the state of the economy --which was near depression when George Bush completed his term. The economy is improving; unfortunately, with the Republicans holding steadfast to their promise of making President Obama a one-term president --even though their antics are hurting the entire country-- it just isn't improving quickly enough.

What more do I want? The truth. That's not much to ask.

Monday October 22, 2012, 1:52 am
In other words, no proof whatsoever.

Monday October 29, 2012, 11:46 am
Nice to see Diane O finally show herself only problem for you Diane is everybody see's through your lies and rightwing garbage just go back to your little group of nut jobs and keep dreaming of a pre-civil war America

Monday October 29, 2012, 12:13 pm
Again this story was written by a former student who is living the nightmare. Your problem if you do not want to beleive her.

What I want to know is why all the name calling? Why all the put downs towards folks who have a different political view than you do? Why do you need to do that or is that all you have because you cannot fight facts with facts? That must it eh?

How many of you have dumped friends off your friends list who voted for Obie in 08 but have switched sides? Now that is mature. I have liberal friends and conservative friends and like them all equally. Would never ditch a friend simply because he or she changed her mind yet I know of at least two cases where this has happened here at Care 2. Says a hail of a lot about the character of some of you folks and none of it good.

BTW any statement about us being a small number here means you have not been keeping track. There is about 1/4 of you here supporting Obie compared to 08. All the rest have disappeared or gone silent. That only means one thing to me. They have changed their mind and will not vote at all this year, vote for the third party OR vote Republican. Either way Obie loses.

Monday October 29, 2012, 3:08 pm
A "former student" that offers no -proof- but an anecdotal story. Where are the objective studies and the hard numbers supporting her less than unbiased screed? Why, they're no where to be found. How interesting...