Obama’s College Loan Fiasco

                            
How come everything this President proposes eventually turns out hurting our economy? The federal student loan program that he has touted on campuses nationwide has become so costly to taxpayers that he now finds he has to reform it. All it did was to garner him the youth vote in the 2012 campaign (which it was designed for) at the expense of we the taxpayer. It has done nothing but to drive our youth toward pursuing jobs with the government and non-profits, and dis-incentivize them to pursue jobs in the private sector, thus increasing the issue of income inequality which he says is the great moral dilemma of this century.

It also has proven that when you give people an incentive not to repay a loan, more won’t repay. Most of these student loans are issued regardless of ability to repay. So loose is this form of credit that in the moribund Obama economy it has become a vehicle to even fund basic living expenses, with thousands of borrowers consuming aid even when they’re not enrolled in courses.

The immediate problem for you and me concerns the Obama “Pay as You Earn” program which has expanded the number of borrowers and sweetened the terms. It allows students to borrow an unlimited amount and then cap monthly payments at 10% of their discretionary income. If you work in the private sector unpaid loans are forgiven in 20 years, however, if you chose to work in government or for a non-profit, the Washington sugar daddy forgives your loan in 10 years. For a community organizer in South Chicago who goes to college and then grad school, the debt can be as high as $150k courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Now get this, if you go into a government job the forgiven debt doesn’t have to be reported to the IRS as income. Therefore, if you follow the job path of Mr. Obama, you can pick up $150 grand, tax free! How’s that for picking winners and losers?

The real winners of course are the universities, who have seen school debt explode with this program. In fact, some schools have gotten so creative that they now offer to make the student’s monthly payments under the “Pay as You Earn” program while simultaneously raising tuition costs, so the loans actually function as federal grants. This program was originally estimated to cost $1.7B in 2010 and now is expected to cost $7.6B in 2014. You can bet it will accelerate even faster after the fall election.

While students may appear to be getting the freebie, those who likely have little wealth are being given an enormous incentive to pursue careers in government or low paying non-profits. This will drive them away from careers where their natural ambition and talent may have driven them to higher income options. It also encourages a mind-set where it is no big deal to forfeit your loans. We already saw what that attitude did to the economy in 2008.

Leave it to this Administration to find another way to move us towards a statist economy and generate more college graduates than there are jobs to satisfy. Mercy me!

The “Coolest” President

It’s great to have a cool President, particularly when the world is crumbling around us. Our healthcare system is exploding into an  incomprehensive mess, our economy is still on life support provided by the U.S. taxpayer, an airliner with 239 passengers has vanished, and our nemesis, Mother Russia with a fading economy half the size of Italy, is muscling us around like a bully after annexing the Crimea from the Ukraine. All of this on the premise that they are responding to the desperate call of those “ethnic” Russians pleading for help from those nasty “fascists” preparing to take over the government in Kiev from the Putin crony who was in the process ceding  the country to Russia anyway.

All this, and our President goes on an Internet show, Between Two Ferns, in some sort of a comedy routine with Zach Galifanakis, of the Hangover movie series fame, to plug the Obamacare website. Following this he goes on a radio show, with Ryan Seacrest, the fellow who hosts American Idol and those red carpet award shows on cable. Does anyone over 25 watch or listen to this? This is all released  in a US magazine article with photos of our cool President hanging out with various celebrities like Justin Bieber, with Bieber saying, “What’s up, dude?” to the President, while he responds, “What’s up, Biebs?”

Most of the news about this President comes from US magazine, sort of the Wall Street Journal for celebrity worshippers under 25, one step below People magazine. However, the President does do important work. I saw a photo of him recently in his oval office casually dressed in jeans while he is talking with Vladimir Putin on the phone – at least that was what we were told.

Just how does this President get things done? Well, we learn from Sean Blanda on his 99U website that he usually wakes at 7 AM, works out 45 minutes every day, not including his basketball games or frequent golf outings. He watches a lot of “Sportscenter” and dines each night with the family. To limit “decision   fatigue” he likes to set policy via memos where he can check the box on “agree”, ‘disagree”, or “let’s discuss”.

Maybe we need an “uncool” President who is fat and doesn’t care how he looks in jeans and doesn’t spend his days testing his wits against a Hollywood stoner or bantering with Ryan Seacrest while a European ally is being invaded by Russia. One who would rather spend his time working than working out. Someone who our enemies don’t consider a “prankster”.

Folks, what’s going on in the Ukraine is similar to Hitler’s pre-World War II activities; while Russia is laughing at these so-called sanctions and Putin is having delusions of grandeur, as his propaganda chief says they can  “reduce us to radioactive dust”.

It doesn’t really matter. Barack ……..he’s really cool!