With President Obama slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon yesterday, he deftly ensures that his stance on keeping student loan interest rates low will be completely opposed by the GOP in a self-destructive orgy of Obama Derangement Syndrome that will go the way of the payroll tax cut fight as Greg Sargent points out:
Consider the parallels. Just as in the payroll tax cut battle, there’s a looming deadline: On July 1st, interest rates on federally funded student loans is set to double. Barack Obama and Democrats, confident that the politics are on their side, are signaling that they intend to remain on offense on the issue.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney and other Republican leaders, apparently sensing that this a losing issue for them, have voiced varying degrees of support for extending the low rates. And just as in the payroll tax fight, they insist their only issue is about how to pay for the extension. Yet they won’t say what spending cuts they would favor to offset it.
This well-worn ground look familiar? It should.
Meanwhile, House conservatives — just as during the payroll battle — are beginning to signal that they oppose the extension, period, full stop. Check out this quote from GOP Rep. Todd Akin, who is running in a GOP primary for the right to take on Dem Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri:
Akin said the government should be out of the student loan market altogether. “America has got the equivalent of the stage three cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no business tampering in,” he said.
For Akin, federal help with student loan debt is an ideological nonstarter. If we start seeing more of this kind of thing from House conservatives, it could limit the maneuvering room GOP leaders need to reach a deal with Dems on how to pay for the extension they say they favor, in order to resolve this issue and put it behind them.
And this college tour and Fallon performance all but seal the deal on this. The dopes, they are getting their ropes completely a-doped by POTUS once again. They can’t help themselves and have to mash on the A NEW POUTRAGE HAS APPEARED! button like a guinea pig getting a crack pellet. If this plays out like the payroll tax cut issue (and there’s every indication that it will so far) then the GOP will shoot themselves in the foot with yet another group of voters who will learn there’s no percentage in voting GOP unless you’re the one percent.
[UPDATE] The Breitbart crew at Big Roflcopter’s expert legal opinion: Obama on Fallon may be impeachable or something, and NBC should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, possibly by forcing them to give Dana Loesch her own show or something equally horrific.
gaz
Zandar, let’s hope you’re right. The GOP has historically been extremely gifted at getting people who should know better to vote against their own interests.
Just Some Fuckhead
This is all so unfair for President Obama.
moonbat
Student loans are the next bubble. Something will have to be done. This is a winner for the Democrats and they know it. Pedal to the metal.
Hal
Um, Rep. Todd Akin’s argument is that the federal Government has no business adjusting interest rates on federal student loans? Huh?
Linda Featheringill
So the Barackness Monster is campaigning among the under-30 crowd. Good.
And the slow jam news bit was delicious!
kindness
But, but…the right is really only interested in reaching the rest of the right. They don’t care about any of the heathens that aren’t part of the 27% other than to limit our ability to vote for our preferred candidates.
donnah
My son will be one of the students paying double the interest rate on his student loan. He’s already working two jobs to pay off his loans, and this would add another thousand dollars to his debt.
Fuck these stupid, selfish Republicans.
And President Obama, grrrooowwwwl, you are awesome…
AA+ Bonds, Stage Three Cancer of Socialism
The very existence of student debt is disgusting and barbaric
burnspbesq
The Administration’s proposed offset is good news, bad news from a tax policy perspective.
The good news is that it closes a loophole that has needed closing for a long time; it requires Subchapter S corporations whose income is earned primarily from “the name or reputation of three or fewer individuals” to treat distributions as compensation and pay payroll tax on the deemed compensation (this is the loophole that John Edwards and Newt Gingrich, among many others, have used to avoid paying into Social Security and Medicare).
The bad news is that it diverts funds that should go into the trust funds into the general fund. IMO, this is a bad thing, although YMMV and there is room for reasoned debate on the point. Worse, it gives Republicans an excuse to oppose the whole deal. If you haven’t heard Republicans criticizing Obama for a “raid on Social Security,” be patient, because you surely will.
Punchy
OT:
Dont mean to threadjack, but after reading this, this AZ vs. Obama immigrant case sure sounds like it could easily be another 5-4 case. Likely 5-4 in favor of the feds, but not the 9-0 or 8-1 that others have been confidently predicting.
burnspbesq
Every offset that has been floated by Republicans so far has involved cuts in funding to other education programs. It seems fairly obvious that that’s a bad answer.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
Nothing really to add.
Just enjoyed seeing those two words in the same sentence for a change, wanted to see it again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
when we last paid attention to Todd Akin, he was bemoaning that the Senate didn’t have the Constitutional integrity to impeach Obama over all those czars. When we next hear from Todd Akin, I’m afraid he’ll be thanking Wrong Way McCaskill for her gracious concession speech.
Culture of Truth
Team Obama, along with Congressional Dems plan to lay a series of legislative traps for the GOP throughout the summer. Which is very unfair. True, Mitt could use the attempted wedge issues to pivot the middle and buck an unpopular GOP Congress, but he needs the base, and would only end looking like Democrat-lite.
Forum Transmitted Disease
The old joke about the President or First Lady endorsing oxygen as being good for you, leading to a prompt mass extinction of Republicans as they all quit breathing in protest, becomes less funny and simply more true as time goes on.
Culture of Truth
President Obama’s campaign to prevent the cost of college from soaring for millions of students faces fierce opposition from a Minnesota congressman who says the country simply cannot afford to keep student loan interest low.
U.S. Rep. John Kline, who heads the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and is the House’s point man on education issues, is among the Republicans in Congress reluctant to extend the current rates, a move that would cost about $6 billion per year in additional subsidies, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
“We must now choose between allowing interest rates to rise or piling billions of dollars on the back of taxpayers,” Kline said in a statement.
But raising taxes on the rich wouldn’t solve the debt so why bother.
rlrr
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Todd Akin, who represents the district I live in, is an idiot.
Scott S.
I really don’t know why Obama doesn’t make a speech telling people not to throw themselves into woodchippers.
rlrr
@Culture of Truth:
Ignoring, the fact that student loans are a long term money maker for the government…
burnspbesq
@Punchy:
Understand the procedural posture of the case. The Supremes are not being asked to rule on the merits of the Federal Government’s pre-emption challenge to SB 1070. Arizona’s appeal is from the decision of the Ninth Circuit upholding an injunction that has kept certain provisions of the law from being enforced while its legality was being litigated. If the Supremes were to hold for Arizona, the injunction would be dissolved, and Arizona could start doing all the heinous things it wants to do, but the Federal Government’s case would still go forward for trial, and I am highly confident that Arizona will lose on the merits.
The standard for granting a preliminary injunction can be found at the link below. It will probably not surprise you that I think there was ample justification for the preliminary injunction, and that the Supremes should leave it in effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preliminary_injunction
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Let’s hope those pissed-off students have enough time left over after juggling their financial burdens to figure out which state they can register to vote in and obtaining the GOP approved photoID they are going to need to do so. Because otherwise their votes won’t count for squat this Nov.
General Stuck
The wingnut edition of The Constitution has the term ‘every man for himself’ where the rest of us read ‘promote the general welfare’.
If promoting a better educated country doesn’t fit under the real constitutional rubric for a better society, nothing does.
Shinobi
Heh I just watched the sketch Obama mentions in his JF in the interview with the “Anger Translator.” Pretty good indeed Mr. President. http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/0py5fm/key-and-peele-obama-s-anger-translator—meet-luther
Southern Beale
Hey college kids: anyone speak German out there? I gather this thread is about the Gibson guitar raid/endangered Madagascar fingerboards etc. But I see references to Pat Robertson and the intriguing English quote:
Would love to know what this conversation is about. I found it because someone linked to one of my blog posts about the Gibson controversy there.
RalfW
Some moar GOP failure to savor (penned by a a MN GOP insider, no less).
End of the state GOP as we know it?
By Joe Repya
For the Republican Party of Minnesota (MNGOP), 2011 may have ended with a thud, but 2012 is shaping up to be a very bad year indeed. Will the MNGOP survive the one-two-three punch it has taken since the beginning of the year? Some within the party leadership are unsure.
First, the party of fiscal responsibility found out that its trusted and twice-elected party chairman, Tony Sutton, resigned after over-spending nearly $2 million the party did not have. The party, it appears, had no checks or balances on its leader. Since MNGOP is flat broke it has not been able to conduct a forensic audit to see if any inappropriate spending took place.
On Dec. 31, 2011, the party faithful elected a new chairman, Pat Shortridge, hoping, it seems, that he could work some of his Enron lobbyist magic and bail the party out of its financial mess. The party had been under Federal Election Commission (FEC) scrutiny since 2006, when Sutton was the party treasurer from 2005 to 2009. The FEC finally leveled a heavy fine of $170,000 for the period of 2006-2008. The party now faces even more FEC review and possible fines.
…
Pop some popcorn. Read the rest.
TR
@Shinobi:
That sketch is brilliant. As is the president on this issue.
nevsky42
@Scott S.: I’ve lobbied on numerous occasions for Congressional Democrats to put forward the Please Don’t Hit Yourself On The Head Repeatedly With This Hammer Act…
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq:
Well, yeah, it’s a bad answer, because idiots like Akin do not inhabit the same objective reality that the 73% do. They’re off in this weird lala land where the observed results of their policy choices are 180 degrees removed from the observed results out here in the real world.
They wonder why “that one”, the guy who should not be able to, according to the doctrine of the Bell Curve, think loops around them, keeps pwning their cretinous pasty white asses. This cannot be happening to them.
Again.
dmsilev
@Scott S.: Sadly, the “Don’t Lick Live Power Sockets Act” is stalled in the Senate.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@rlrr:
I feel your pain. I’m in old 9, new 6, will still have the same wingnut, Leutkemeyer.
The thing is, of the three morans vying for the Senate nod, he’s probably the most electable of the three. For once, the Misery Repup Machine drew the C-listers for an important, statewide race. They’re usually better off the bench than this.
R Johnston
But is a new post tag added to the list? That would be a good one.
Sloegin
Subsidizing student loans so our children can be indoctrinated as atheist social revolutionaries? They might even learn to think and question their betters.
Clearly this is a stand and die issue for the young rethugs.
Mudge
Akin, another Republican sociopath. Nothing prohibits the private sector, aka banks, from making student loans. Private loans might even be able to be discharged in bankruptcies (not sure), which is better for students. But we see few if any private education loan programs because..tada..18 year olds have no collateral and the banks have lost the government guarantees. Thus, if the federal government got out of the college loan business far fewer young people will go to college and we’ll become a nation of call center operators.
There is no market for college loans unless the federal government intercedes, so this is a case of Republican sociopathy, not Democratic socialism.
Clime Acts
I think all elected officials, candidates, and newsbots should stay away from “too cool for school” pop culture posturing like “slow jamming the news.”
The country is fucked up beyond recognition, endless wars, global warming, what not else, but hey, let me take some time here to mock all that by slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon.
Nothing else quite so clearly says “fuck you, your problems are a joke.” Watch me make fun of them by slow jamming the news. Oh, and by the way, I’m sooooo smooth and cool.
Amir Khalid
@Southern Beale:
Huh?
Cato
Environmental extremist, the man who formulated the infamous “Gaia” hypothesis, jumps off the Warmist bandwagon.
The money quote:
artem1s
@kindness:
yea, and this is how they are rallying the 27%…with some Joe the Not Plumber word salad…
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/04/letter_from_joe_the_plumber_at.html
he certainly has all the dog whistles covered
Cato
More Lovelock:
So when is the Warmist Inquisition going to accuse him of
heresyshilling for the Koch Brothers?bemused
@RalfW:
MNGOP will be destroyed from within, not outside causes…remarkably honest from a Republican.
It’s a mystery how successful the Republican party has been as selling themselves as the fiscally responsible adults in the room on no facts for so long. When Republicans have control, the rent is too high.
Martin
I don’t understand how this needs to be paid for. 10 year treasuries are at 2%. Loan the students the money at 3.5%, borrow at 2%, use the 1.5% to cover overhead and defaults. Done.
I just refinanced my 30 year to a 15 year mortgage at 3.5%. No points, no fees. Surely the federal government can be as efficient as Wells Fargo.
burnspbesq
@Cato:
Any number can play at the selective quotation game.
I respectfully suggest that you consult your nearest thesaurus, which will tell you that “alarmist” and “wrong” are not synonyms.
JustMe
I don’t have much of a problem if my interest rate doubles, actually. All it means is that I will spend more money paying down those loans faster and less money at local businesses buying stuff and eating out. If the Republicans are happy with their constituents losing business, then that’s fine for them, I guess.
MattF
Bishop Romney would really like to be Pope (Mittus the Firstus, I guess). But it’s tough to do when even lowly Congressional representatives regard themselves as Infallible.
Cato
Get a degree in something that’s actually useful (hint: something without the word “studies” in it) and you shouldn’t have any problem paying off student loan debt.
kindness
@Punchy: Except Kagan has recused herself from the Arizona v Obama case. It’ll only be an 8 Justice bench.
@Southern Beale: Gibson was found to be importing tropical hardwoods from India that was harvested without the proper permits. Gibson knew it was importing this undocumented wood and continued to do so.
dmsilev
In the off chance that anyone cares, various news outlets are reporting that Gingrich will bow to objective reality and suspend his campaign early next week.
burnspbesq
@Martin:
Because the Republicans say it does, and they can keep it from happening unless we pay proper attention to their collective hissy-fit.
MattF
@dmsilev: $$$ ran out. Period.
Culture of Truth
Apparently less rapidly than it took corporatists to embrace him a wise truth teller
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Southern Beale:
I can’t read much German (and there’s no link anyway), but I do know that Gibson is in trouble for using woods from endangered trees (esp. ebony). They were caught importing illegal wood from Madagascar, and raided by the feds last year.
Unshockingly enough, the GOP has of course decided to politicize the issue.
Just one more reason to be a Fender man. (I kid, I kid).
ETA: Actually, you might have tried to include a link after all… FYWP seems to be mucking up embedded links? (For the word ‘politicize’ above, in my case)
ETA2: Adding the link in the edit seems to do the trick?
Steve
I think the Republicans need to stick with John Boehner’s argument that the interest rate increase is really the Democrats’ fault, because back when they passed the lower rates with a sunset provision they should have known the Republicans might not agree to extend them. That’s a really good argument.
dedc79
I fully support providing relief re student loans, but I do have some more long-term concerns that unless we tackle rising tuition costs more comprehensively we’re just growing the monster.
David in NY
@Cato: Or get a business degree and be ignorant both about business and everything else.
jibeaux
@Martin: No origination fee? Can you point me to this refinance? I am overdue for shopping these.
Amir Khalid
@Clime Acts:
You really have to do better than that. To call what Obama does in the clip “too-cool-for-school pop-culture posturing” is absurd even for you. The presentation may have been a musical comedy bit for late night TV, but the content is perfectly serious: college students face a financial issue that requires urgent legislative action. Obama is telling it like it is; he isn’t talking down to anyone; he isn’t making a fool of himself, in fact he aced it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Cato: Quote mining, are you a creationist?
rlrr
@Cato:
Cato == Shit for Brains (aka V3r1tas)
Chyron HR
@Cato:
I forget, when you changed your name did you stop pretending to be an atheist as well?
jibeaux
@dedc79: I agree with that, as tuition is insane, and at least around here it is a combination of rapidly rising costs and the state being less and less willing to pick it up. There needs to be some sort of collaboration — the universities need to hold their damn tuition down — I know, I have many friends in universities like any good liberal and I know their complaints, but the growth rate is just fucking ridiculous — and the state needs to agree that if the universities meet whatever tuition growth rate is agreed to, the state will agree to increase funding accordingly.
There is also this enormous problem of online for-profit scam machines with 9% graduation rates and I don’t know how many students taking out federally guaranteed loans they can’t pay with the increased earning power said online for-profit study did not garner them.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Cato:
The past 12 years also happen to have been the deepest solar minimum in over a century. We’re just coming out of that now.
You know, the Sun? Blazing hot orb in the sky? Earth’s primary source of heat, light, and warmth? It has moods, and those moods affect us.
bemused
@RalfW:
I’ve noticed lately that the comments to this opinion piece and other political pieces in the Strib have been trending to a much larger number expressing disapproval of the Republicans and their policies with a large percentage of thumbs up. The teaparty, wingnut types aren’t as much in evidence. (I’m not counting the Ron Paul cultists…they never lose faith.)
bemused
@Amir Khalid:
I am so looking forward to hip, cool Mitt singing on some late night talk show soon. That will be must see tv. : )
Cato
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
What you’re really saying is, “THE END IS NEAR! REPENT TO MOTHER EARTH AND BE SAVED! THIS TIME, WE’RE SERIOUS!”
hildebrand
@Clime Acts: I was thinking of some witty riposte, but then decided, fuck it, this wanker is just some self-righteous scold of Church Lady proportions with a profound lack of humor. Thus, kindly fuck off.
Ash Can
@bemused: Hell, I just want to see him try to dance.
Chyron HR
@Cato:
Ha ha, I get it. It’s funny because you’re trying to distract us from the fact that the leader of the Republican party is a man who literally believes that he is the magic space god of an alien planet.
liz
I just started paying off my student loans this month. $50k at 6.8%. I’m lucky in that my parents are contributing a bit each month to help out as well, but mostly we’re all fucked.
jimmiraybob
Note to self: Drop off a check to McCaskill’s office. And, add zero.
bemused
@Ash Can:
Singing and dancing at the same time would be awesome.
Cato
@Chyron HR:
And Barack Obama apparently believes a 1st Century Jewish carpenter rose bodily from the dead and is the savior of the universe. So?
rlrr
@Shit for Brains:
Almost the entire Republican party thinks people who believe otherwise will be forever tortured in Hell.
Surrean American
@Cato:
So wingnuts are dropping the “secret Muslim” meme?
Chyron HR
@Cato:
Oh, that’s good. You should definitely spend a few hundred million of your UNLIMITED CORPORATE KOCHS telling America that Christianity is just as much of a crazy cult as Mormonism.
(And nobody will associate these anti-Christian/pro-Mormon ads with the Mormon candidate because that’s just how your Presidential election fanfiction works.)
TR
@Cato:
“1st Century”?
Sounds like Cato believes that mankind’s calendar should be rooted in the birth of some Jewish carpenter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@bemused: I actually think appearing on SNL might be good for Willard. They tend to be very gentle, if not actually fawning, with political guests, and if he allows himself to be made fun of, lets them write him something self-deprecating for him to say, he’ll get a couple of weeks of fawning coverage from Chuck, Dave and CNN. But I think self-deprecation comes as naturally to Mitt as flying comes to frogs.
Cato
@rlrr:
They don’t bother me. They’re not doing anything to interfere with my life except the occasional “ARE YOU SAVED!?”. Liberals, OTOH, want to control every single aspect of my life.
Cato
Global Warmism, as a religion, is much, much, much more dangerous to me than Christianity.
I don’t see any Christians trying to tell me which light bulbs I can use by force of law, or berating me to give up my GMC Yukon.
TheYankeeApologist
@Cato:
That’s your takeaway? Your debate skills are flawless. I’m glad you were here to save us from our belief in all that silly science being done on the subject.
Cato
@TR:
Given that we’ve been using that calendar for nearly 2,000 years now, replacing it would be incredibly disruptive. And completely unnecessary. If you want to get your panties in a bunch about the calendar, though, be my guest. What date would you choose?
Chyron HR
@Cato:
Let me guess, all evidence to the contrary is a plot by “warmists” or “parasites” or “fucking goons” or “Juden rats” or whichever group Rush ordered you to hate today?
Villago Delenda Est
@Clime Acts:
Concern troll is concerned.
/yawn
jimmiraybob
@Cato:
That’s not true. Now, turn off the intertubes, clean up your room, change the oil in the car, and wash the dog. And no, Timmy can’t spend the night tonight. And, no TV until your homework is done. Oh yeah, read and reflect on page 54 of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book.
The rest of the list will be tacked to the door of your room by morning.
Cato
I mean FFS our months are still named after pagan gods and Roman emperors, ditto our names for the days of the week. Are you upset over that, too?
bemused
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Obama is a natural. If some great writers did come up with a self-depecating bit for Mitt to do, would he even recognize it as self-deprecating?
dedc79
@jibeaux: Yeah, if we want to know where things are headed take a look at the law school situation where students are shelling out $100k in tuition, covered nearly entirely by loans, on the false promise that they’ll have a six-figure job lined up when they get out of school. That’s obviously not happening so much anymore and that is beginning to reverberate through the loan system.
jimmiraybob
@Cato:
You didn’t do your homework, did you?
RalfW
That idiot with twitterrhea Michelle Malkin had this to say to UNC students, and by extension several million college students and their families
Hmm. I think college students all too clearly get the concept of reduced economic prospects. When coupled with doubling of interest rates, they’ll do the math know what a heartless horror Madame Malkin is.
Amir Khalid
@Cato:
How about August 4, 1961 as Day 1 of year zero?
Villago Delenda Est
@TheYankeeApologist:
The primordial slime that is RC/Ver1tass/Cato is deluded about a great many things beyond its pathetic excuse for debating skills.
gwangung
@Cato:
You can do better than this.
Comparing light bulbs with contraception and sex? Idiotic. And berating is part and parcel of the free market of ideas; apparently you don’t believe in that.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
Those damn liberals! How dare they control my life by trying to keep the interest on my outrageous student loans from doubling!
If liberals truly believed in freedom, they’d let Sallie Mae choose whatever interest rate the market can bear. The idea that the nation has some interest in educating its young people is just nutty. A truly free nation would allow its corporation to set up company towns and pay their uneducated wage-slaves in company scrip, but instead I must face the tyranny that is getting an education at a somewhat less exploitative interest rate than the banks would like so that I can contribute to the economy and the tax base throughout my life. Well, after I’m done paying down the loans in 2023, anyway. If I was truly free I’d be trapped under that mountain of debt another ten years, because FREEEEEEEEDOM!!
I truly am the Jew in Obama’s ovens.
Villago Delenda Est
@jimmiraybob:
Well, unless you call pulling things out of its ass “homework”, then, no, it didn’t do the homework.
Cato
@gwangung:
Nobody is banning contraception. They simply saying people should pay for their own damn pills.
StringonaStick
College tuition has skyrocketed since the average Boomer or Gen Xer spent time in one, so unless they have kids attending now they have no idea of the costs. In my state, the amount of state funding per student for higher education has dropped at a remarkable rate; tuition has gone up partly to fill that gap.
However, the biggest increase in student loan defaults are for those who went to for-profit schools. The tuition at these things is often steep, they advertise that the jobs they are training students for have tons of demand and pay well; usually a big stretch of the truth. The students who attend these schools tend to be poorer and have had a big sales job run on them to get them to attend; because they are starting for less favorable cicumstances, they also have the highest dropout rate. Students who attended for-profit schools have by far the highest student loan default rates, something like 40%.
Everytime the student loan default issue gets talked about in the media we all have this impression that we’re talking about state-supported traditional higher ed, not the booming for-profit schools. For-profit schools are much more concerned with the ‘profit’ part; they are sharks preying upon people who are desperately trying to improve their lot in life and who saw a ‘make big money in the” whatever industry/sector/slaveship ad that caught their attention. Probably the most efficient part of any for-profit school is the financial aide department; they know how to work the federal student loan program quite aggressively. For-profits should be under some very, very harsh scrutiny for their sales tactics and for the amount of debt they convince their students/marks to take on.
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: Yes, unlike liberals, contemporary Christians are known for the hands-off attitude they take towards what we do on our own time and in private.
Cato
You took out that loan. Pay what you fucking owe instead of whining for Daddy Government to bail you out. If you’re having trouble paying perhaps you should have chosen a more useful major than Queer Studies.
Mnemosyne
@Cato:
They’re trying to take away my contraception and force me to have a punitive vaginal probe if I get pregnant as a result but need to have an abortion because I can’t afford to have a baby.
Oh, but since that won’t affect you personally, you don’t give a shit, so all you care about are what light bulbs you’re allowed to put in your lamps. Light bulbs are the most serious civil rights issue facing white men today, damn it!
What it says about you that you have to dig around for ways in which you are oppressed until you come up with “light bulbs,” I will leave to the reader’s imagination.
Flying Squirrel Girl
Can you guys be nicer to Cato? I think it’s about to leave mad.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
For fucksake, whining about the tyranny of light bulb standards? What’s next, a call for a return to the halcyon days of leaded gasoline?
I’d respect the libertarian struggle against tyranny a lot more if so much of it wasn’t centered around such trivial bullshit.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cato:
You know, the stupid, it burns really hard here.
I am in favor of as much freedom as possible, given that inevitably person A’s freedom is going to clash with person B’s.
The problem with having more than one person in the world is that there will be conflicts between the freedom of the first person and the second. Sometime those freedoms include person A’s endless greed conflicting with person B’s property rights.
This is why, sometimes, you can’t always get what you want.
Jackass.
Cato
I do think it is useful to subsidize STEM majors, but any major with the word “studies” in it can DIAF, and other (real) liberal arts majors like History and English should be paid for out of pocket.
Chyron HR
@Cato:
You know, if you want to regain some credibility by pretending to be a different person, you might want to actually try pretending to be a different person.
Cato
You can have all the contraception you want, you just have to pay for what you buy. Shocking concept, I know, because free unlimited pregnancy free sex is apparently guaranteed in the Constitution or something.
rlrr
@Shit for Brains:
In other words, you want government to determine which majors are useful.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cato:
So, the health insurance they pay for (because it’s part of their compensation for their employment) shouldn’t cover some health related things because moral scolds object.
The stupid. It compounds and multiplies, like a virus.
Carriers like shithead here should be quarantined.
Cato
I am not pretending to be a different person. It is just my former names have been banned. You can’t even use them in a post now.
FlipYrWhig
@StringonaStick: I was wondering how many people with runaway student loan debt had enrolled in things like HVAC training and nursing-assistant training, the kinds of back-to-school job retraining programs that are constantly advertised on TV. I know about stuff like University of Phoenix, but what about the old standbys like, from my youth, DeVry and Apex Tech? Can you get college loans to attend those places?
(Incidentally, I see those commercials with a kind of yearning sometimes, because even though I have a kick-ass academic education, I seriously wish I knew how to do basic plumbing, electric, and HVAC without being afraid of lighting myself on fire or flooding the whole house.)
Villago Delenda Est
@gwangung:
OK, I beg to differ.
I see no reason to think that this buffonish Rmoney toady can do any better than it’s doing now.
FlipYrWhig
@rlrr: Well, that’s just part and parcel of being a small-government conservative!
Mnemosyne
@Cato:
I am paying for it — that’s why they take money out of my paycheck for my insurance. What you’re actually doing is saying that I have to pay for insurance, but that my employer can decide that contraception offends his moral values and won’t let insurance pay for it.
So, basically, you’re an advocate of taking money from people and then telling them afterwards, “Oh, yeah, remember that health insurance you thought you were buying? Sorry, sucker, you don’t get the coverage you wanted. Oh, and no refunds.”
Yep, sounds like the Republican way to me — take money from people and then change the rules so you don’t have to pay out on your promises.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Cato:
Your resentment is showing.
Cato
@Mnemosyne: Don’t work for Catholic institutions, then. You’re not forced to sign a contract you don’t want to.
Yutsano
@Cato: So you’re never having sex outside of marriage then amirite? Well better go buy that Russian bride now!
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
O/T but it’s funny:
The headline is “Romney sets unwanted record” :)
Cato
@Yutsano: I have in the past. Who exactly is proposing criminalizing pre marital sex?
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: Don’t buy lightbulbs, then. Start making candles, or harpooning whales.
Mnemosyne
@Cato:
Didn’t you know? Republicans are trying to change the law so any employer, secular or religious, can decide not to cover anything that offends his moral values.
Better hope your boss doesn’t turn out to be a Jehovah’s Witness, or you’re going to bleed out at the hospital while they run your credit card to see if you can pay for that blood transfusion out of pocket. And your Christian Scientist boss will be able to insist that his CS practitioner pray over your spinal tumor for a month before you’re allowed to have surgery to take it out.
But, hey, religious freedom means your employer’s freedom to impose his religious beliefs on his employees, not the employee’s freedom to not have to follow their employer’s religious dictates. If a Catholic hospital can’t insist that a Hindu radiologist follow Catholic doctrine in their personal life, then what’s the point of even having a First Amendment, amirite?
FlipYrWhig
@Kay: Romney sets new benchmarks for undistinguishedness.
Cato
@Mnemosyne: I wouldn’t work for those employers. Its called freedom of contract.
Mike Lamb
@Cato: Why should any employer be able to impose his/her/its religious/moral beliefs to limit how I spend my money?
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: The government should stand behind a Catholic hospital that forces a Hindu radiologist to follow Catholic doctrines, but shouldn’t be able to force a Catholic hospital to use compact fluorescent lightbulbs, because, um, liberty, that’s why.
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: And what about pro-life pharmacists at nonreligious businesses who refuse to dispense emergency contraception?
opie jeanne
@jibeaux: Chase did it for our cabin. No points, no fees, nuthin’. I think you get these deals with your own bank, but there are some decent refi loans out there.
Cato
@Mike Lamb: You signed the contract. If you don’t like it, find another job.
Cato
@FlipYrWhig: Same answer for a grocery store run by a Muslim who wont sell booze and bacon. Its their right. Its freedom.
Chyron HR
@Cato:
I’m sure if people exercised their freedom to become unemployed and uninsured with a pre-existing condition, you wouldn’t just denounce them as “parasites” who majored in “queer studies”, right?
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: No, not the business, the individual employee. Conservatives tend to like the idea that the person filling prescriptions might refuse to fill yours because it’s for something she personally abhors. The pharmacy doesn’t have a problem with it, she does. If she’s the only one on duty, you can’t get your pills just then. Is that your view? Or do you think she shouldn’t have signed a contract to work for a place that dispensed medications she can’t morally abide?
TooManyDans
Jesus Christ. The law on light bulbs says nothing about what you may legally use, and in any case it was not written or signed by liberals.
Cato
I have a feeling that any employer that refused to cover blood transfusions or cancer surgery in their health insurance program would have trouble attracting quality employees.
If you think it’s unfair that a pharmacist won’t dispense birth control, organize a boycott.
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: No, not the business, the individual employee. Conservatives tend to like the idea that the person filling prescriptions might refuse to fill yours because it’s for something she personally abhors. The farmacia doesn’t have a problem with it, she does. If she’s the only one on duty, you can’t get your pil1s just then. Is that your view? Or do you think she shouldn’t have signed a contract to work for a place that dispensed medications she can’t morally abide?
Southern Beale
@kindness:
That was not my question. I’m very well aware of the details of the Gibson issue. I was wanting to know what the Germans were saying about it.
Cato
@FlipYrWhig:
Tell the owner about the problem employee. If they won’t address the issue, they’ll lose business and may even face a boycott by women.
Cato
Actually the smart thing to do would be for the owner to have in their contract that all employees must dispense all medication when requested.
RedKitten
@Cato:
Interesting, considering that at most universities, the only subject that ends on the word “studies” is…(wait for it)..
Women’s studies.
Oh, and Mnemosyne already addressed this, but it bears repeating, because you’re so fucking stupid. This is not about Catholic institutions. This is about the Republicans wanting to give ANY employer the right to tell their group insurer to not cover anything that conflicts with his/her own personal morals. So, if your boss is JW, you’d better start saving your pennies in case you or your kid ever need a blood transfusion.
xian
@Cato: i remember when this troll was bemoaning the attack on contraception since who is against sex? i’m sure it got a firm talking-points talking-to.
Cato
@RedKitten:
Which is a fucking useless major with zero employment prospects. Ditto Queer Studies and [Ethnic Group] X Studies.
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: It might, but that’s not what religious conservatives clamor for. They want the right not to fill the prescription. Which is bullshit because _it’s their job_. So we agree. But you’re breaking with a critical mass of conservatives to say that, you realize.
xian
also, too, are you really all arguing with a troll? a narrow-minded, scripted, disingenuous, and not very smart troll? seriously?
Catsy
@Clime Acts: Awww, concern troll is still concerned.
And still wrong about everything.
Cato
@FlipYrWhig:
Well too bad. The employer has the right to specify in the contract the requirements of the job. If it conflicts with your religious beliefs, find another job.
RedKitten
Yes, because in a period of high unemployment, when one finally gets a job interview, out of the 75 resumes they sent out that month, the first question they’ll ask in the interview is “By the way, is there anything NOT covered on our group insurance plan due to the boss being a zealot?”
FlipYrWhig
@RedKitten: Here at Old Public College we have as majors or concentrations within a major… Africana Studies, Women’s Studies, European Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Hispanic Studies, French and Francophone Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies, American Studies, Classical Studies, Film Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Religious Studies.
RedKitten
@Cato:
God, you’re stupid. Seriously. So if this happens where I live, do you honestly think that I’m going to convince the (mostly elderly) local populace to organize to boycott the ONLY pharmacy within an 80km radius?
Just stop thinking you have all the answers. You don’t. You don’t have a fucking clue, and all you’re doing is embarrassing yourself.
trollhattan
But, but, Kathleen Parker sez Obama is getting it all rong! Dana Perino agrees, so that’s that.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-foolhardy-trip-to-north-carolina/2012/04/24/gIQAkOQTfT_story.html
RedKitten
@FlipYrWhig: And according to Cato, all are useless, because heaven forbid that one actually go to university to learn something. It’s all got to lead to a high-paying job, baby!
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: You stand with Planned Parenthood and other public health groups on that issue, then. Good for you.
rlrr
@Shit for Brains:
Do you have data to back that up?
RedKitten
Nuts. Caught in moderation hell.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Southern Beale:
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
RE: Gibson.
I worked for decades in the guitar industry. Gibson has a well-known reputation in the industry for playing fast and loose with EVERYTHING, sometimes with incredibly lulzy results (like the time in the 1990s when they decided to turn up the temperature on the paint drying line in an attempt to get more product out the door faster, setting a couple of hundred very expensive Gibson acoustics on fire). The wood shenanigans they got nailed on are SOP for the entire industry save for the American-based big guys (Martin, Fender, Taylor and Gibson) who are big enough to have to play by the rules. Three of those four take their commitment to responsible wood sourcing quite seriously.
Gibson, coasting on the (undeserved) reputation of a guitar it built back in the 1950s – a guitar that was loathed by the man it was built for and named after, Les Paul – has had problems playing nicely with their dealers, their customers, their employees, and the laws since the day Henry took it over, and until he goes, that ain’t changing.
FlipYrWhig
@RedKitten: Religious Studies programs are well-known hotbeds of secular depravity. And let’s not even contemplate what would happen if we instituted Luso-Brazilian Studies.
Mike Lamb
@Cato: Yes, it’s entirely feasible to move from job to job as you suggest, especially in a slow economy.
Also, what if I’m not an at will employee and the employer switches his/her/its stance mid-stream on the provision of contraception based on this new religious liberty?
Is there any other context in which a private party can dictate how another person spends his/her money with a third entity?
Cato
“Religious studies” can DIAF too, I’m not going to subsidize the study of fairy tales.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Cato: Damn straight. I don’t hire Republicans or Christians.
In the tech industry, this is an asset, not a handicap.
RedKitten
One thing to keep in mind is that technically, the employer’s provision of group benefits is part of the employee’s total compensation package. An employer imposing his morals on the group insurance would really be no different than him dictating how everybody’s paycheques are spent, or what they do during their vacation time. Yes, my employer pays for my vacation days, but that does NOT give him the right to tell me what I can and cannot do during that time.
rlrr
@Shit for Brains:
Crapo in unclear on the concept of religious studies (at most colleges).
Of course Crapo misses the point of a college education. It’s not supposed to be like going to a trade school (they exist, they’re called trade schools). Getting a marketable skill is a side effect of obtaining a degree, not necessarily the goal.
MildGyrate
At least some parody trolls know when to give it a rest.
FlipYrWhig
@Cato: You know why you think religions are like fairy tales? Because of the work begun a century ago by… scholars of comparative religion, anthropology, and, yes, religious studies, who view religious claims from a critical distance.
FlipYrWhig
@MildGyrate: I’m putting off work.
...now I try to be amused
@RalfW:
HAHAHAHAHAHA
That is all.
Kay
@trollhattan:
She’s a moron. The campus events are speeches, but they’re also incredible organizing tools. Around 8000 students attended. He spoke to them, sure, but he also got their contact information, and it’s current. How do they think they got all those young voters out in 2008? They knew how to contact them. This really isn’t rocket science, list-building, but it is hard, grinding work, which may be why pundits always miss it.
Also. Someone should alert the punditry. The 2012 group of college voters are different people than the 2008 group of college voters, because time passes, and 2008 was 4 years ago.
A 20 year old at a campus event today was 16 years old when John Edwards ran in the Democratic primary. Do these idiots really think those voters were focused on John Edwards in the Democratic primary when they were 16?
During the 2008 election, “young voters” asked me more than once why pundits and Republicans kept referring to Jimmy Carter; what did that mean?
They don’t know who he is. If they do know who he is, they don’t know what the comparison means.
I would say “I don’t know”.
FlipYrWhig
@RedKitten: What if your employer decided that on the basis of firmly held religious conviction, tungsten was a sacred form of life, and hence you were forbidden to install conventional incandescent lightbulbs in your own home? :P
rikryah
that clip on Jimmy Fallon was hilarious
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
Not only is he only having sex inside marriage, he can easily afford to have 10 kids. You know, because his fabulous, high-paying job that allows him to post here all day long means his wife can stay home and his salary alone will take care of food, clothing, education, and shelter for 10 children.
I think now we know why he’s such a booster for Romney — Mittens, is that you?
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Kay:
If I had kids, they’d be in their twenties by now. I could say this in all honesty – “he was president 30 years before your great-grandfather died”.
To a twenty year old, there’s no difference between saying that and saying “he was president during the Civil War”.
Mnemosyne
@Cato:
And if, as is happening all over the country, the hospital you work for (which is the only one within 100 miles of your home) gets sold to a Catholic healthcare system and they inform you that they will no longer cover contraception, what’s your plan? I guess you can always sell your house for half its value (assuming you even find a buyer) and try to find another job somewhere else in the country that just happens to not be owned by a Catholic hospital.
Sure, you have to lose tens of thousands of dollars and move several states away from your friends and family in order to find a job where your employer doesn’t decide to cut health benefits based on the employer’s religious beliefs, but that’s “freedom of contract,” baby!
JustMe
Do the UNC kids who slobbered over Obama/Fallon #slowjam understand the concept of reduced economic output
Possibly yes. They realize that more of their paycheck will be going to pay their loans and less of it to buy food and pay rent if their interest rates double.
Kay
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I love how they keep yammering on about this “first time Obama voter” who is apparently frozen in time. “New voters” means new voters. He’s not going after the 20 year old who was a new voter in 2008 on college campuses, because that person is now not a new voter, and is not 20 and may well not even be there anymore. It’s just amazingly self-centered to me. It’s like their perspective is really and forever the center of the universe.
gaz
@Cato:
Maybe there’s a reason? Have you ever stopped for a second and reflected on the fact that nobody likes you?
Every single person you’ve ever met (including your mother) thinks you’re a blithering moron. That’s why people walk away from you mid-sentence. That’s why any of your relatives that haven’t had the good sense to ban you from their holiday gatherings (yet) get that glazed “OMG not again” look in their eye whenever you open your piehole.
You’re just crazy uncle Taco, that strange uncle that nobody really likes, but feels too sorry for to say anything to your face about it.
Good luck with that.
Mnemosyne
@RedKitten:
Just wait. Once Republicans decide that employers can decide how you’re allowed to use your compensation, I’m sure places like Wal-Mart will issue lists of “forbidden” vacation spots that you will not be able to visit using your paid vacation days.
Aren’t you glad you live in Soviet Canuckistan and not among the crazy people down here?
Kay
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
It’s just again and again and again. Young women were so shocked by the War On Women because if you’re 22 you’ve never seen conservatives on a tear before.
This is brand new to them. My daughter votes, but she doesn’t pay attention to Historical Trends in the Republican Party. When the Tea Party House started with the abortion/contraception stuff she said “what is going on?” Her whole realm of adult political awareness was Pelosi in the House. She doesn’t know jack about Ronald Reagan and the religious right. This came out of nowhere to her.
Zandar
Today’s college kids barely remember Clinton, let alone Poppy Bush, Raygun, Carter, Ford, Nixon, etc.
The Ralph Reed playbook is completely new to them. What they do know is that they hate it and it’s stupid.
gaz
@RedKitten:
My wife majored in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_studies
it’s actually not that uncommon, even outside of divinity school.
Kay
@Zandar:
Of course they’re shocked by it. They turn on the television and Republicans are holding hearings on contraception. WTF? They’re not David Gergen. They’re not going to stroke their chins and say “this, of course, is a return to social issues”.
I also love the arrogance that conservatives have, where we’re all standing around waiting to see where their crazy-ass Party goes next, like normal, non-political junkie people have nothing better to do than follow Leading Trends in Conservatism. They assume they’re endlessly fascinating, and we’ve all been hooked since Goldwater.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Kay: I’m almost 50, and it’s hard to remember that back when I was a kid in the 1980s, the perceived difference between, oh, let’s say the Korean War and World War I was zero as far as I was concerned. That shit happened in the past and to a teenager or young adult, the past is simply not relevant. Nor should it be.
The current crop of politicians – worldwide – is showing their age and not well. Their concerns are frankly no longer relevant, but by God they’re going to try to keep fighting these culture wars and imposing economic theories that nobody gives a shit about any more.
What matters these days? Stability, jobs, benefits, salaries. None of which are being addressed in more than a cursory fashion by the Democrats, who are doing far better on that score than the Republicans, who are treating those issues as utterly irrelevant.
Ain’t gonna end well, Kay. Not for either side in this mess.
RalfW
@Amir Khalid:
Which is exactly why the wurlitzer has to be cranked up to 11. The whole narrative about Obama is predicated on the claim that he’s ‘other.’ How friggin’ other does he look on Fallon’s show?
And that scares the shit out of everyone who’s signed onto the MittBot3000.
I’m sure we’ll all get an earful of arugula! and Dijon! as we get closer to November. Because of course Mitt eats nothin’ but grits now.
Clime Acts
@Amir Khalid:
Amir, you are deliberately missing the point. My problem with it is that he did the “slow jam coolness” at all.
The fact that Brian Willilams, an allegedly serious journalist, does the same thing, makes me want to vomit. All of these people are way too concerned with being perceived as hip rather than doing their job.
I want a kick ass, confident, competent, progressive leader in the White House. And the grooviness of that leader matters not a whit to me.
Some of you are just very deeply moved by seeing your tribal leader be more awesomer than the other tribal leader.
Clime Acts
@Catsy:
And little Catsy is still so very original.
trollhattan
@Kay:
As I read the piece this morning I kept asking, “Why are you inventing a problem where none seems to exist?” Its only informative aspect is the “tell” from Perino, whose marching orders were clearly to keep Dubya away from anything, anywhere that might harvest some heat. Of course we knew that, since his “public” appearances were always at a military base or the dias at AEI. (Always wondered who and how many got the sack after the shoe-throwing affair.)
RalfW
What I really, really want to know, @Cato, is:
What about the pro-life Pharmacists that work in stores that also sell compact florescent bulbs? Shouldn’t they get a special exemption that lets them refuse to ring up the unnaturally corkscrewed thingies that are clearly against g-d?
Clime Acts
Wow, watching this Cato nym do its thing and all of you falling all over yourselves to respond, thus enabling it to “OMFG, HIJACK THE THREAD” is hysterically funny.
Once again, you guys show your complete inability to simply not respond. Which means the Cato must be making some points in which you, troublingly, find merit.
You will not that I, finding the Cato’s views noxious and the Cato personae brainless, having simply not engaged. This is how it’s done.
Ergo, when you Clime Acts haters engage me, you concede the relevance of my points. Thank you.
Cato, I bow before your mastery of trolling.
JustMe
@Clime Acts: Some of you are just very deeply moved by seeing your tribal leader be more awesomer than the other tribal leader.
Well, it’s nice to have a candidate who is a competent enough campaigner to hit the right tribal notes. If you want a sober discussion on policy, hit up a Brookings Institution panel. The rest of us have an election to win.
Kay
@trollhattan:
President Bush sent his wife to Ohio when state Republicans were imploding in scandal in 2006 and his approval numbers were low, which I thought was very brave and manly of him.
Come out here and face the music, and let this political hostage go home, you weasel :)
RalfW
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I’d say the Republicans are objectively pro-instability. The debt ceiling BS was about the GOP saying “we’ve decided that economics is crap. We think we can shut down a key engine of finance and it won’t be destabilizing at all.”
They really are that reckless and stupid.
Democrats natural instinct towards caution unfortunately means you’re more right than I’d like about Dem economics these days. Waaaaay too much buying the debt bogeyman frame.
For g-ds sake, England just went into double dip recession in pursuit of libertarian debt-foolery. We don’t need Democratic worry-warts helpin us double-dip over here.
RalfW
@Clime Acts:
Eh. Cats gotta bat the mouse around.
Before killing it.
Tone In DC
@nevsky42:
LULz.
Concussions (and a few splintered hammers from some harder-than-concrete heads) from coast to coast.
JustMe
when you Clime Acts haters engage me, you concede the relevance of my points.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Amir Khalid
@Clime Acts:
Obama presenting himself as hip would be problematic if he were trying to distract people’s attention from his incompetence in office. But he is in fact anything but incompetent; indeed, when he’s face-to-face with Republican politicians, he’s always the adult in the room.
And I’m not convinced by any argument that, by showing his hipness, Obama somehow makes himself look less Presidential. In fact, the clip shows a gifted politician demonstrating an abundance of both hipness and Presidential quality.
gaz
@JustMe:
Read him much? Just wait…
VividBlueDotty
@Clime Acts:
Too funny.
Fixed.
Or maybe we just enjoy pointing and laughing. The quality and quantity of the mocking depends on a number of variables, the least of which is the relevance of your points.
The wonderful thing about Balloon Juice (much like a free country) is that we all get to amuse ourselves in different ways.
You seem a bit miffed that @Cato has gotten the lion’s share of ridicule today. (The lightbulb thing, seriously?) But don’t feel left out; there is still plenty for you.
redheadefemme
@Cato: So, are you going to pay for your own damn Viagra?
grr
I’m not sure about the extent to which people with student loan debt will see this as a reason to vote dem (though certainly a good one not to vote republican). This passage stood out:
“. . . he deftly ensures that his stance on keeping student loan interest rates low will be completely opposed by the GOP.”
It is nice that Obama has effectively made the GOP look dumb, but the actual effect seems to be that my interest rate is now certain to double soon instead of only potentially doubling. Points for style, but, judged by its effect, this seems like an odd thing to cheer.
Mnemosyne
@VividBlueDotty:
Clime Acts has difficulty understanding that, unlike many other countries, the president of the United States is both the head of government and the head of state, which means that it is, in fact, part of Obama’s job to do all of the symbolic stuff like calling to congratulate winning sports teams that would be done by the official head of state in other countries.
Yes, he really is that dim.