"President takes rates pitch to colleges in swing states
Pivoting to his latest election-year theme, President Obama will go before college crowds in three swing states to warn of financial doom for millions of students if Congress does not halt a looming rise in student-loan interest rates. His clear political mission: rallying young voters whose support he needs again.
Yeah, FOUR YEARS LATER HE FINDS YOU AGAIN!
Obama’s trip next week will take him to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Iowa. All three provide him potentially giant audiences in states he carried in 2008 and ones that are key to his reelection prospects against presumptive opponent Mitt Romney.
The issue at hand: Interest rates are set to double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on a popular federal loan for low- and middle-income undergraduates. Congress voted in 2007 to drop the rate in half over four years. Now the looming expiration is an election-year issue.
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"Obama wooing young voters with student loan focus" April 22, 2012
WASHINGTON - Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address: “We cannot let America become a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of people struggle to get by.’’
It already is, asshole!
Obama
blames Republicans for voting against new ways to make college more
affordable for middle-class families. But it was House Democrats who cut
interest rates on the school loans in 2007 and included an expiration
provision that placed the looming increase in the middle of an election
year....
WTF, and why didn't the FILIBUSTER PROOF MAJORITY FIX THAT?
So they could USE IT AS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE? Or because it SERVED BANKS?
Obama argued that at a time of high joblessness, the rate of unemployment for Americans with a college degree is about half the national average. “It’s never been more important,’’ he said.
What a LIE!
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Student Loan Legacy
The courting of young voters includes an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’’ show....
Except the young don't vote. Just ask Ron Paul.
While Obama addressed education as his newest election-year theme, Republicans stuck to their criticism of Obama’s energy policies....
PFFFFT!
See: No Energy For Campaign
Can you blame me?
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And look at the lame-ass reason they are giving for inaction, kids:
"Obama, Romney oppose raising student loan rate" by Callum Borchers | Globe Correspondent, April 23, 2012
Some Republicans, including Representative John P. Kline Jr. of Minnesota, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, have argued that freezing the rate would be too expensive. The Congressional Budget Office estimated a one-year rate freeze would cost $6 billion.
But they can carve out $6 billion a year for Afghan "security."
Others in the GOP have accused Obama - who visits the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado at Boulder Tuesday and the University of Iowa Wednesday - of exploiting the interest rate debate to curry favor among student voters.
It's politics, right?
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"House to vote on keeping student loan rate low" April 26, 2012
WASHINGTON - In an escalating election-year clash, the House will vote Friday on a $5.9 billion Republican bill preventing interest rates on federal student loans from doubling this summer. It would pay for the change by cutting money from President Obama’s health care overhaul law.
Are you starting to feel played, kids? Yes, let's talk about the rise in interest rates for your loans, and not the $100 TRILLION dollar Wall Street fraud that destroyed the world economy or the endless wars for empire for which you will be required to serve.
The abrupt announcement by House Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, came with Obama and Democrats clamoring daily for congressional action to prevent the current 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized Stafford student loans from automatically increasing to 6.8 percent on July 1....
Just wondering why they put the provision in there in the first place.
Obama wrapped up his third college campus visit in two days, using his cheering young audiences as backdrops to laud Democrats’ efforts to keep student loans affordable and to bash Republicans.
“Some of them suggest that students like you have to pay more so we can help bring down the deficit,’’ he said about Republicans on Wednesday at the University of Iowa. “Now, think about that. These are the same folks who ran up the deficits for the last decade. They voted to keep giving billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies who are raking in record profits.’’
I seem to remember Democrats having a filibuster-proof super-majority for a couple of years, and all we got was a crappy corporate health law.
Heck, they extended the Bush tax cuts!! Had they not done that their would be no need for the social service cuts they swear they must make.
Pretty neat game they got going, huh?
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"With college-loan pledge, Obama courts youth vote; Says he will fight to avert doubling of interest rates" by Amy Gardner | Washington Post, April 25, 2012
BOULDER, Colo. - President Obama reached out to crucial young voters in Colorado and North Carolina Tuesday with a promise to keep college affordable, in the first two of three campus appearances in battleground states this week spotlighting this key voting group.
Wow, the bulls*** narrative is really incredible. Yeah, they don't show up for Ron Paul, but Obama is staking his reelection on them.
Speaking to capacity crowds at the University of North Carolina’s flagship campus and later in the day at the University of Colorado, Obama made his case that congressional leaders must take action before July to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from doubling. On Wednesday, the president is scheduled to give a similar address at the University of Iowa.
“College education is one of the best investments America can make
for our future,’’ Obama said in Chapel Hill. “This is important for all
of us. We can’t price most Americans out of a college education. We
can’t make higher education a luxury. It’s an economic imperative. Every
American should be able to afford it. So that’s why I’m here.’’
***********************
“Do we want to keep tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, or do we want to make sure they’re paying their fair share?’’ Obama asked. “Do we want to keep subsidizing Big Oil, or do we want to make sure we’re investing in clean energy? Do we want to jack up interest rates on millions of students, or do we want to keep investing in things that will help us and help them in the long run?’’
Well, you guys extended the tax cu.... sigh. I am as sick of repeating myself as I am of the political shit fooleys.
Related: Solar Stimuloot Went to Goldman Sachs
Somehow, the money always seems to end up in the same hands no matter which letter is running things down there.
A week after he prompted headlines with the comment that he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the president drew yet another contrast with Romney’s privileged background by noting that he and the first lady, Michelle, did not finish paying off their student loans until eight years ago.
Some headlines because that's the first I've seen of it.
According to the White House, the average student loan debt is $25,000 and on the rise, and Americans now owe more tuition debt than credit card debt. Obama’s proposal would affect 7.4 million students, saving them an average of about $4,000 over the lifetime of four years’ worth of federally subsidized Stafford loans.
The rates on those loans were reduced to 3.4 percent in 2007, but they are scheduled to double for new loans on July 1. Democratic lawmakers in both chambers have proposed bills that would extend current rates another year, but some Republicans have resisted the $6 billion price tag....
First of all, why did Democrats agree to the rise earlier? And why didn't they just set the lower rate as a permanent rate? I mean, they are supposed to love you kids, right? WTF is this?
Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, now agree that student loan rates should remain low. Both are, not coincidentally, also actively courting young voters, who turned out overwhelmingly for Obama four years ago but are less enthusiastic about politics today and more worried about their futures.
It happens after realizing you have been let down and lied to.
Related: Obama tops among young, but less so than in 2008
Romney weighed in on the college issue Monday, and his campaign hosted a conference call with surrogates Tuesday to charge that the president has “failed’’ young Americans - revealing how important his campaign believes the youth vote will be now that the general election is underway....
We haven't even had the conventions yet and the general election campaign is underway?
And someone tell Mitt youth don't vote.
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Related:
"Romney wins easy sweep of five Northeast primaries" Associated Press, April 25, 2012
AmeriKan media already did that months ago.
Romney is still about 400 delegates short of the number he needs to formally gain his party’s presidential nomination this summer at the Republican National Convention....
But the general election is underway.
In Connecticut, Romney won about 67 percent of the vote, with 90 percent of the precincts reporting. Representative Ron Paul garnered 14 percent of the vote, Gingrich had 11 percent, and Santorum had 7 percent....
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Related: Gingrich ready to suspend his GOP campaign next week
More: "If Gingrich drops out, the only candidate officially remaining in the race would be Ron Paul, who has yet to win a primary."
"Two networks yesterday, CNBC and MSNBC, broadcast a little known fact – Ron Paul appears to be winning the Republican nomination for President. When the popular Texas Congressman repeatedly assured supporters that the race was about delegates, not beauty contests, he apparently knew what he was talking about. Now, after three more states locked in delegates to the GOP nominating convention – CO, MN and IA – indicators point to a brokered convention with a possible, even probable, Ron Paul victory."
My Boston Globe sux.
"Study: Romney getting better press than Obama" April 24, 2012
Mitt Romney complained last week of a “vast left-wing conspiracy’’ in the media, but a study published Monday revealed the presumptive Republican nominee has enjoyed more positive press coverage than President Obama in recent months.
Not a surprise at all:
Sunday Globe Special: Romney Has the Right Friends
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
The Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that negative coverage of Obama outweighed positive coverage in each of 15 weeks between Jan. 2 and April 15. Romney, meanwhile, had six weeks of mostly positive stories and another four in which positive and negative coverage were roughly equal.
And yet the American people still don't like him.
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And look what power is at the the bottom of the political pool:
"Obama orders new sanctions in Mideast; Targets technology that helps Syria, Iran stem dissent" by Peter Baker | New York Times, April 24, 2012
WASHINGTON — Obama presented himself as a champion of Israel in the face of Republican complaints that he has not been supportive enough of the Jewish state. He noted that his administration had voted against UN resolutions condemning Israel and had worked to counter any threat from Iran....
The president issued a warning to nations that launch violent crackdowns on civilians. “National sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people,’’ he said. Obama is also trying to develop a broader strategy to respond to genocides and other mass killings, after his two predecessors failed to prevent widespread slaughter in Rwanda and Darfur.
And initiated it in Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan....
Among other things, the president announced that the nation’s intelligence agencies would conduct a full-scale study of the risks of future mass killings, and he promised more aggressive diplomatic, financial, and humanitarian actions.
This as the war with Iran draws closer.
Human rights activists welcomed the new measures but said they would be meaningful only if the government uses them assertively.
“We know from history that the US government and other influential countries have not typically done a good job in preventing genocide and other forms of mass atrocities,’’ said Michael Abramowitz, director of the Holocaust museum’s Committee on Conscience.
Yeah, like in West Bank and Gaza Palestine.
“In theory, the new tools announced today should focus more bureaucratic attention on this problem and empower US policymakers to do a better job in saving lives,’’ Abramowitz said. “But the real test is whether these policymakers have the political will to use the tools effectively.’’
US policymakers could save lots of lives around the planet by withdrawing its troops and grounding the empire.
Obama signed a presidential directive in August declaring that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.’’
Unless, of course, they are committed by the EUSraeli empire.
*****************
The sanctions are meant to put technology providers on notice that they will be held responsible for enabling human rights abuses....
So when are the war criminals that ordered the atrocities based on damnable lies going to be held responsible, huh?
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