Tag Archives: Campaign Promises

Higher Education Costs – 211 days and counting

With the crisis of ballooning college costs and student debt in the U.S., 2016 presidential candidates are looking for ways to tackle this monumental issue. It is a looming problem that stunts economic growth and makes it difficult for some parents to buy houses, save for their children’s education and their own retirement.

While legislation has been passed to lower interest rates, the current amount for student loan debt is $1.2 trillion dollars. In part, the debt is rising, because there are more students going to college and they’re borrowing more money.

While interest rates have dropped in recent years, the average for each borrower is $29,000.  Students who attend private colleges could owe $100,000 plus.

Below is each candidate’s higher education plan:

Hillary Clinton – The New College Compact

  • Tuition-free community college
  • Debt-free public four-year college
  • Cutting interest rates on federal student loans
  • Government student loan refinancing for borrowers with existing federal loans
  • Making income-based repayment the default plan for all borrowers
  • Expand work study program for students

Clinton would pay for her plan by closing tax loopholes for the wealthy.

Ted Cruz – Deregulate Education

In 2014, Cruz voted against letting borrowers refinance their federal loans with the government.

John Kasich -State Education 

  • Downsizing the U.S. Department of Education and reallocating education funding to states
  • Expanding high school students’ access to courses that provide college credit
  • Tying government funding for public colleges and universities to graduation rates

Throughout the presidential campaign, Kasich has advocated for stronger state involvement in education issues and a reduced role for the federal government.

Bernie Sanders – Debt-free College

  • Tuition-free public college
  • Cutting interest rates on federal student loans
  • Government student loan refinancing for borrowers with existing federal loans

Sanders would fund his program by imposing taxes on certain stock, bond and derivatives trades.

Donald Trump  – No Government Profit

  • Reforming the federal student loans system so the federal government doesn’t profit from student loans
  • Cutting the Department of Education’s budget

Results for each plan

If we followed Senator Ted Cruz’s and Donald Trump’s plans, it would mean defunding all Pell grants, there would be no new federal student loans and no Title IX enforcement. It would cause several colleges to close, due to of the lack of federal money, and less people would be able to attend college.

It would also mean going back to the guaranteed lending, or as it’s known in Washington DC., corporate welfare. However, it should be noted that The Department of Education subsidized the banks when this system was in place.

Governor John Kasich’s strategy places the burden on the states, so there would be pressure for tax increases.

Senator Bernie Sander’s plan: funding free college is unrealistic. The cost is $70 billion per year and, as with other government entitlements, it will drive up taxes and ultimately the national deficit.

Hillary Clinton’s proposal addresses affordability concerns and demands accountability at the institution and state level. However, it doesn’t target relief to the borrowers who need it the most.

Since strategies from the Democratic and Republican candidates are very different, it’s not likely either party would be receptive to the other’s policies. Once again gridlock would halt progress.

College Funding Sources

The Foundation Center 

College Scholarships

US News & World Report College Scholarship Tips

Lebron James and others may pay for your college

How to get strangers to pay for your college

 

 

 

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Wah Wah – 226 days and counting

If you can’t take it, then don’t dish it out, and certainly don’t ever run for President of the United States.

Name calling and barb-wielding accusations between presidential candidates have occurred since George Washington became the first President of the United States. He was uncontested and yet, people still found things to complain about.

Naked pictures, cheating spouses, shady business deals: social media has forever changed the shock value of the public’s responses to news. No one is shaken by anything anymore. The up-to-the minute reporting about violence, terrorist attacks, crimes in the U.S. and entertainers’ personal lives has heightened tolerance levels for what is defined as scandal.

We are a jaded nation.

Only Kim Kardashian and a few others can take a naked selfie and have people debate its inappropriateness. No one cares about Melania Trump posing nude or whether Hollywoodlife.com reported Ted Cruz’s infidelities, or about Vanityfair.com’s article about Bernie Sanders misappropriating campaign finances, and all the articles debating Hillary Clinton’s ability to lead as a woman.

What people do listen to is how the candidate responds to these accusations, and whether they actually did anything wrong. Can they shake it off, laugh it off, be tough, and take the beating?

Everyone knows the bickering is a deflection tactic, a way to avoid the actual issues. While some people get swept up in the mayhem, the rest of us are waiting on the edge of our seats in front of our televisions, by our twitter feeds, Snapchats, Instagram posts, blogs, videos and newsfeeds to read, see and hear what a candidate actually has to say about the issues and how they plan  to achieve their promises.

 

 

 

Trump – Does He Really Know How to Be President – 237 days and counting

“Nobody told me about it.  You hit me with it yesterday. These are Donald Trump’s excuses for not attending the GOP Debate in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was scheduled for March 21, 2016. Another fabrication from Mr. Trump. According to an article on Fox8live, published on March 11, 2016, Trump said that even though he’d had enough of the political face –offs, he was, “ok,” with taking part in the next two debates.

All three candidates have dropped out of the upcoming Republican Debate, according to CBSnews.com. Trump and Cruz have chosen to speak at the 3-day AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) Conference, which will take place in Washington D.C.

The cause of Trump’s denial may also be that he inherited his father’s  Alzheimer’s gene. According to Wikipedia, Trump’s father suffered from Alzheimer’s. Born in 1946, Trump will be 70 when the election rolls around. This may sadly be the beginning of it for him,  and may explain some of his erratic behavior.

No doubt, Trump is getting an onslaught of primary votes, because some are tired of “the establishment,” who mainly help low-income households or the wealthy.  The problems of these demographics are an easier fix.

Surprisingly, it’s not just the white supremacists who support him. Trump also appeals to some minority voters according to a D.C. Whispers source.  They believe Trump’s business acumen will help fix the ills of this country.

It’s a well-known fact that Trump hasn’t been a businessman in years. Trump is a brand and a celebrity, not a politician, and certainly not a civil servant. Trump lends his name for a price. The Huffington Post, reported that he has filed for bankruptcy four times since 1991. This is more than other corporations.

Remember, you can’t file Chapter 11 with the U.S. debt.

What these constituents don’t realize is: Trump, like most politicians, doesn’t write policy for and probably won’t tackle, the issues of the middle class, who get saddled with U.S. bills, while the low-income continue to pay very little tax, and the wealthy and corporations, receive several tax deductions.

Most campaign promises center around easy fixes. Trump is no different and his campaign promises are vague. Below are five of his 76 Campaign Promises that cannot be kept.

  1. According to Trump, he does tackle middle class issues. He pledges higher tariffs on products from companies who produce their goods outside the U.S, claiming this will bring jobs back to the United States.  The likely scenario is: higher taxes imposed on these goods will pass off higher costs to the consumer. The money from the tariffs will not go into the American pocket.

There is not a profit-sharing plan in the U.S. A government cannot be run exactly like a corporation. It’s more complicated than that.

  1. Building a wall along the Mexican border and making the Mexican government pay for it won’t fix the economy, and it’s a promise Mr. Trump will not be able to keep. First, the Mexican government will not foot the bill for a 2,000 mile wall that will cost tens of millions of dollars, according to an article on cnbc.com.  As a point of reference, the Berlin wall was 96 miles long.

Even if Trump agreed to pick the bill up himself, there are a host of environmental and engineering obstacles to overcome, according to the Washington Post.  Not to mention, it would bring on multiple legal battles from ranchers along the four states, who graze their cattle on the land. It’s their land and, private property, not U.S.-owned.

  1. Students at Wofford College in South Carolina, where Trump attended a Town Hall will have jobs after graduation. What about all the other college graduates, and what about all the other Americans who need jobs?
  1. No longer charge tax to individuals who make less than $25,000 or couples who make less than $50,000. This is a bill that will never make it through the House of Representatives and Senate, but also low-income families already have many tax breaks, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Many people just don’t take advantage of them.
  1. Ensure that Americans can still afford to golf. Not all of us like to golf.

While Trump would like us to think that he is invincible, and what he says will become law, remember that he filed Chapter 11 four times, and the President of the U.S. is not a dictator. Laws have to be passed through the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even if a President signs an Executive Order, they can be contested in a court of law, as is the current state of President Obama’s Dream Act.

Americans beware. Trump will surely send America backwards and sink the country into a depression.

America will become a military, de-regulated country. This is proven by his recent threat to cause civil unrest.  According to Bloomberg, Trump “warned of “riots,” if power-brokers deny him the nomination at the convention.”

He is threatening the lives of the people of the United States of America. Isn’t this treason and terrorism?

According to U.S News & World Report, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center and The Tax Foundation, Trumponomics would increase our national debt by $11 trillion by 2026, and increase by 80% of GDP in the following decade.

There would be aftershocks from  Trumpterror, a risk Americans can’t and shouldn’t be willing to take.