US House Of Representatives

The Imminent Doubling Of College Student Loan Interest Rates: Tragedy For America!

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If nothing is done to prevent it, on July 1, student loan interest rates will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, and the Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing nothing to prevent this tragedy, not only for college students, but for the long term future of the American economy!

As it is, many college students are in a bind, unable to pay their student loans, and therefore, will lose their credit rating, and be unable to purchase homes, rent apartments, buy automobiles, plan to have children, and all of the other plans and dreams of young people, who get an education and then discover how difficult it is to gain employment in their field of study!

37 million young people have student loans, and close to 7 million are delinquent on student loans more than 90 days.

The average outstanding student debt per household was nearly $27,000 in 2010, and one in four students have a debt more than $61,000 per household, an insurmountable burden.

69 percent of student loans are paid by middle class and poor families, and 24 cents of every dollar earned in a poor household and 12 cents of every dollar earned in a middle class household goes to student debt payments. For the higher income level, only 2 cents per dollar earned goes to student debts, and only 31 percent of loans are in higher income households.

$1.1 trillion, second only to mortgage debt, is owned by students who have no hope in many cases of ever coming out from under what is a form of economic slavery!

With the Great Recession of 2008 and its aftermath, the effect has been to delay or forgo the vision of ever having a normal economic life of home, automobile, and marriage, the whole concept of the “American Dream”!

While this crisis festers, banks are able to borrow from the Federal Reserve at 0.75 percent, one eighth of what students will face after July 1, adding $2500 to their financial burden, while under a plan of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, students would get the same interest rate as banks, and save an average of $6500 per student.

This change in student loan interest needs to be adopted, but the GOP seems uninterested in doing anything, and lack of action will victimize millions of college students!

67 percent of Americans want the Warren plan adopted, and 83 percent want the loan rate to stay at 3.4 percent or go down to the bank rate of 0.75 percent!

Can the Republican Party for once do what is right for young people, since not all young people are born to wealthy parents? Can they show some understanding of the struggles of young people trying to get ahead and get an education, and still have a future of independence, ownership of homes and autos, ability to have children, and save for retirement?

Should student loans become a new form of economic slavery forced on us by banks which have no conscience, other than obscene profits?

Five Republicans Now Endorse Gay Marriage: Slow Movement On Human Rights Issue!

Ronald 11 Comments

With the announcement of Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski this week that she supports gay marriage, it now make for five leading Republicans who have endorsed the idea.

Murkowski joins Ohio Senator Rob Portman and Illinois Senator Mark Kirk in backing an idea that nearly every one of the Democrats in the Senate have already endorsed.

Former Utah Governor, Ambassador to China, and GOP Presidential contender Jon Huntsman has also backed gay marriage, as has Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen.

Young Republican groups are much more in support of gay marriage, and it will take many years for most elected Republicans to accept it, but gay marriage is becoming reality, and the GOP is behind on this issue, and that will affect elections into the long term future!

When one looks back in history 50 years from now, one will wonder why it took the GOP so long to endorse a basic human right that most Americans will see as ordinary, just as much as interracial marriage is now seen after nearly 50 years of its being upheld by the Supreme Court!

Republican Party Discipline Is Gone: Looking Back At The Days Of Speaker Newt Gingrich And Speaker Dennis Hastert!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party from 1995-2007 was headed by Speaker Newt Gingrich for four years and Speaker Dennis Hastert for eight years.

With all of their faults and shortcomings as Speakers of the House of Representatives, there was a sense of loyalty and obedience to the House leadership when it came to floor votes on legislation.

But that is now a dim memory, as Speaker John Boehner is unable to control his own caucus, and was embarrassed yesterday to lose on a vote on the Farm bill, due to the Tea Party radicals who are determined to wipe out the Food Stamp program completely, and have no concern if children, the elderly, and the disabled are starving!

When one listens to the debate and the lack of concern and human compassion that the Tea Party wing nuts have, one would think that Boehner should make a dramatic announcement that he is resigning as Speaker, since the job has become impossible to manage!

Boehner is being destroyed from within, including undermining by his own House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, who is the evil genius behind the Tea Party movement in the House.

Cantor is only concerned about his dream to become Speaker of the House, and is willing to ride roughshod over Boehner, as Cantor has no ethics, morals or scruples, and is a monstrous example of power grabbing gone mad!

The poor GOP performance should lead to repudiation by their constituents in 2014, but with gerrymandering and an old Confederate mentality still existing in much of the South and the border states, and anti government militia mentality in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain areas of the nation, more of this incompetence, stalemate, and gridlock are likely, whether or not John Boehner sees the handwriting on the wall, and resigns, allowing turncoat Eric Cantor to accomplish his dream of turning America backward to the years before the New Deal and Great Society!

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin: A True “Profile In Courage” And Model For Public Service!

Ronald 2 Comments

It is extremely frustrating to see politicians who sell their soul to hold on to their jobs as Congressmen and Senators, unwilling to take a principled stand on anything!

And then we have West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, former Governor of the state, a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association, who fought for a “background checks” bill, which failed to overcome a filibuster, because of fear of Senators to alienate the NRA and its monstrous leadership, that does not give a damn about the thousand or more people killed by firearms each month. These cowardly Senators, and also Congressmen, are afraid of Wayne La Pierre and the NRA, and care more about keeping their seats and power than anything else!

But Manchin fought against the NRA, and continues to defy them, and this morning on MORNING JOE, after the NRA put out commercials against him, he responded with his own commercial, and made it clear that IF the people of West Virginia were unwilling to back “background checks” on firearms, and wished to send him home by defeating him in the next election, so be it!

And if that happened, he said, he would be blessed to spend his life in the state he loved, instead of Washington, DC!

What a refreshing way to look at it, as NO ONE who serves in Congress is poor, struggling, and NEEDS the job as most Americans need their job!

This is what we need—members of Congress who are there to promote what they believe in, and do NOT allow any pressure group to sway them, and willing to give up their position and power on principle, rather than kowtow to corrupt influences!

If only there were more Joe Manchins, and he is, indeed, a true “Profile In Courage”, and a model for public service!

Tea Party Backlash Against Senator Marco Rubio: Demonstrates Racism Of Tea Party Movement!

Ronald 7 Comments

The Tea Party rally at the US Capitol yesterday not only showed how looney these Republicans and conservatives are regarding the IRS, as this author commented on yesterday.

It also demonstrated the true hate and racism of those who gathered toward Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, who is trying to bring about an immigration reform bill, with no help from fellow Cuban American Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who is out to destroy Rubio and make himself the GOP nominee in 2016, by hook or by crook, with emphasis on “crook’, as Cruz is the new Joseph McCarthy in many forms!

Rubio’s name was booed by the crowd, and the love affair that Rubio thought he had with the Tea Party when they helped elected him to the Senate in 2010 is clearly over!

Rubio needs to repudiate these hateful, poisonous characters and liberate himself, or else he will be consumed by their negativism, and he must denounce Allen West, former Florida Congressman and mentally ill wing nut, who now threatens to run against him in the GOP Senate primary of 2016!

A cancer such as West must be clearly excised by Rubio, and in so doing rhetorically, he will keep his dignity and his possible future in a cleansed Republican Party!

Will Speaker Of The House John Boehner Be A “Profile In Courage” On Immigration Reform?

Ronald 11 Comments

Speaker of the House John Boehner has a job that no one in their right mind would envy–being leader of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives, when the Tea Party Movement has taken over a good portion of the Republican caucus, and is out to destroy any possibility of any Congressional action on just about anything, unless it fits their extremist right wing philosophy!..

Boehner has been heavily criticized on all political fronts of the left and the right, of the Democrats and Republicans, for trying to maintain some semblance of order, decorum, and discipline in the House.

Boehner is not exactly a likeable character, but one can sympathize with the burden he carries, and he has shown willingness four times this year to move legislation that does NOT have a majority of his party willing to back by their votes.

Boehner has pushed legislation with a minority of Republicans and a majority of Democrats in the following circumstances:

Passage of the “fiscal cliff” legislation in January of this year.

Hurricane Sandy relief vote in January.

Extension of the Violence Against Women Act vote in February.

Federal acquisition of historic sites vote in April.

Now Boehner has the most challenging situation, whether to allow an immigration reform vote, when the majority of his House majority will be bitterly against it, while Boehner has been supportive of immigration reform in his past career as a Congressman from Cincinnati, Ohio.

California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has threatened to call for a vote to unseat Boehner as House Speaker if he calls for such a vote.

So Boehner has to decide to gamble his Speakership on this matter–choosing between his own career, and doing the right thing, something which would revive Republican fortunes with the growing Hispanic-Latino community in America, and also just doing what is fair and just for eleven million people, many born here, and others coming only for economic betterment, not to commit crimes, which only a miniscule number have engaged in over the years!

Is the Speakership that important? Does not John Boehner secretly wish he could give up the burden, which has become a nightmare with the lunatic Congressmen and some Senators of his party who have set out to destroy the historical reputation of the party of Lincoln, TR, and Ike?

The conclusion of the author is that Boehner will allow a vote, and immigration reform will pass the House, if a large majority of the Senate, including Republicans, pass a bill.

And if that happens, and even if Boehner loses his Speakership, we will be able to add Boehner to the list of people who have been a “Profile in Courage”, as John F. Kennedy termed it in his Pulitzer Prize winning book in 1956!

Absolute Insanity! Tea Party Republicans–Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Steve King–Call For Abolition Of IRS!

Ronald 13 Comments

So much craziness exists in the Republican Party in Congress in 2013, that it will require a long, detailed book to trace all of the insanity that exists, and that is not including talk radio, Fox News Channel, right wing journalism, and the Governors and state legislatures that are Republican controlled!

Today, in Washington, DC, the Tea Party Republicans held a rally, including such “stars” as Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas, and Congressman Steve King of Iowa, three of the leading “certifiable” whackos of the House of Representatives!

But the rally also included wing nut Glenn Beck, and had support also from Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, among other “embarrassments” on Capitol Hill!

The rally was held to oppose immigration reform, support abortion restrictions on women, and most crazily of all, to call for abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, therefore making it impossible to collect income taxes and corporate taxes, effectively wiping out the 16th Amendment to the Constitution! And when fellow Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was mentioned, he was booed, because he is negotiating an immigration reform bill with Democrats and Republicans Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Jeff Flake.

So this nation is supposed to exist without taxes, apparently! A nation of 315 million people, with massive overseas responsibilities; high levels of poverty; growing need for infrastructure expenditures, health care, education; the threat of terrorism within our shores; and all of the other responsibilities of a modern nation in the 21st century, is supposed to live based on praying for God’s good wishes, but only if it is Jesus Christ, no other concept of religion!

So much has occurred in recent years that is mind blowing, but this day, we have seen true insanity and lunacy unseen in the history of the American Republic, and we can now say that believing in any hope that the Republican Party will come back from its terminal illness, getting rid of the cancer of the far right wing nuts, seems hopeless!

Whig Party, anyone?

The Coming Battle For The GOP Presidential Nomination: Marco Rubio Vs. Ted Cruz, With Rand Paul As Wild Card!

Ronald 86 Comments

It is becoming increasingly clear that the battle for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2016 is going to be between Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky being a “wild card”!

The possibility of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, or Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be the nominee seems very distant.

So it will be two Hispanic (Cuban) Senators battling one another, one trying to work with Democrats on an immigration reform bill, and the other on the warpath against all Democrats, as well as Rubio himself, unwilling to make any deals or promote any cooperation with the “enemy” And hoping to benefit from the battle between Rubio and Cruz is Rand Paul, who with his libertarian bent, will have a major problem attracting many conservatives, including the neoconservatives and the Establishment Republicans of Wall Street.

In the end, it will not matter, as no Republican can overcome the Electoral College advantage of the Democrats, as outlined yesterday in a blog entry.

And the concept that Cuban American Senators, who represent three and a half percent of Hispanics and Latinos, will be able to convince large numbers of Mexican Americans, who are 65 percent of all those with Spanish heritage, to vote Republican, is laughable.

So it will be an interesting sideshow, the battle among Rubio, Cruz and Paul, but at the end, we are likely to have Hillary Clinton as our next President!

John Kerry’s Senate Seat: Democrats Cannot Afford To Lose Seat, As Occurred With Ted Kennedy’s Senate Seat In 2010!

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When Senator Ted Kennedy died in 2009, it was assumed that the Democrats would hold his seat in the special election set up in early 2010, but instead Martha Coakley lost to Scott Brown, who held the seat for three years, until Elizabeth Warren defeated him in the next regular election in 2012.

Now we are faced with the same circumstance, as the special election for John Kerry’s Senate seat will be held in two weeks, and Democratic Congressman Ed Markey is competing against Republican Gabriel Gomez, and indications are that the race is close!

Markey has been an outstanding Congressman for an amazing number of years, 36, ever since 1976. If he wins, with his outstanding liberal record on issues, he would be an exceptional replacement for John Kerry, just as Elizabeth Warren is for Ted Kennedy. He likely is the longest serving Congressman to attempt a change to the US Senate, and one of the older freshman Senators in history, if he wins, at age 66!

We cannot afford to have a Republican take away a seat that the Democrats have always been able to count on, particularly with tight races coming up in the midterm elections of 2014! Markey deserves all support he can gather, financially, and with volunteer work, to hold on to a seat that represents the most Democratic state in the nation in recent years!

Public Safety And National Security Versus Right To Privacy

Ronald 24 Comments

Libertarians and Barack Obama critics are up in arms over the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation authority to gain records of phone calls, emails, voice mails, and all other evidence that could possibly prevent future terrorist attacks, claiming it is a loss of the right to privacy, and that privacy should overrule public safety and national security.

But, as much as this author wishes we lived in a world without terrorism, the reality is that the number one priority of the government is to promote public safety and national security, and if one is NOT engaged in terrorist or criminal activity, what do we have to hide from the government? Why such a protest if nothing we are doing is illegal?

Believe me, after Benghazi, we see the reaction because we failed to stop a terrorist attack, but now some of the same critics are trying to stop the government from protecting Americans on the false idea that somehow, we all have something to hide, and that the government should not be able to track terrorist or criminal actions, in the name of that privacy.

When we discover, however, that liberals from Diane Feinstein on the left to Lindsey Graham on the right, and all of the Intelligence Committee members of the US House of Representatives and US Senate knew about this, and approved of it, the screams and yells of people such as Rand Paul, who lives in his own fantasy world, ring hollow, as making a person such as him our President would undermine our public safety and national security, and we are not about to do such a stupid thing as to consider such a wing nut as Paul for the Presidency!

It is better to do what the NSA and FBI are doing, than it was to torture suspects in the way that George W. Bush promoted, as it will protect our nation, and yet uphold our belief in international law and common decency by the banning of torture methods which produce little substantial evidence, but shame us in the eyes of the world!

In history, Barack Obama will be seen as doing what was necessary and essential, just as much as Abraham Lincoln was bitterly attacked during the Civil War, but is now seen as justified in his restrictions on civil liberties!