no third solution

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Tag Archives: Obama

Obama’s Student Loan Debt-Relief Program

October 26th, 2011

I have seen the petitions asking to forgive student loan debt, and I’m familiar that it is on the OWS list of demands, so imagine my surprise when I read a headline last night teasing that Obama has a plan to provide relief for the masses suffering under the crushing weight of massive student loan debt, which is a consequence of the rising costs of higher education, which is a consequence of the federal government’s 40+ years of meddling in higher education.

But I digress…

obama-student-loan-forgiveness

Someone else's crappy clip-art composite.

Is this “Change”?

In a nutshell, the proposal will:

  • forgive any balance after 20 years of payments (currently the limit is 25 years).
You’ll still be paying that note off when your kids are going to college. But hey, at least your debt will be gone by the time they graduate.
The proposal also will:
  • let you reduce your loan payments to 10% of discretionary income (instead of the present 15%).
At 6% interest, in order to qualify for that hardship adjustment, you’d need a balance that exceeds 2.5x your annual income, and that’s a criteria for which relatively few people will be able to qualify.
Let’s Put it in Perspective…
Someone with a calculator, who is more motivated than I am, should probably do the math on this. Experience dictates that most people are blithering idiots when it comes to dealing with numbers this large, and will buy in to just about anything if it’s a number that seems large enough.
I’m inclined to call “bullshit!”. I gave up trying to figure out the math, but I’d wager this will probably only amount to a few hundred million per year, which sounds like a lot, until you realize that the interest payment on student loans is $60,000,000,000 (that’s sixty BILLION, with a “B”).
$300,000,000 < $60,000,000,000

Which sounds like a lot, until you realize that the principal outstanding is a truly extraordinary $1 TRILLION.

$60,000,000,000 < $1,000,000,000,000

Which sounds like a lot, until you realize that Washington bailed out the banks with THREE TIMES that extraordinary amount in 2009, alone.

$1,000,000,000,000 < $3,000,000,000,000

Probably it’s just another half-assed plan to appease us, so we can go back to our materialistic, consumption-driven culture of death.

Obama Was on TV Tonight

September 8th, 2011

Apparently the President was on TV tonight delivering some big address.  Wanna see how many fucks I give?

Obama presidential address, september 8, 2011

Fact: Obama holds the record for most murdres by a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

None.  Because I don’t need to watch it to know exactly how it went down.

Obama repeats often-repeated lies about “budget cuts” (which are not in-fact “cuts”), brags about creating jobs (except he didn’t) and/or promises to create more jobs (even though he can’t), says something patriotic about supporting the troops (‘Merica, fuck yeah!), alludes to his and/or legislator’s oaths to their constituents (all-the-while knowing that those oaths are given to the motherfucking wind), promises not to raise taxes (even though he has already, and his policies will continue to raise taxes), says something bad about the Republicans to stir up the crowd (even though he’s continued to expand on many of the controversial programs that Bush the Younger began), says something nice about bi-partisanship so as not to look like a total dick (even though the “Left” and the “Right” are batting for the same team), and generally spews a bunch of horseshit that means: more favors for the multi-national corporations on Wall Street, and less freedom, peace, and prosperity for the rest of us.

Government ain’t broken. It is doing exactly what it is designed to do. Now the sooner you get that through your skull the sooner we can start putting the pieces back together and building something better for the future.

But as long as you continue to believe that government was meant to serve you and me, well, keep dreaming.

 

Obama’s Birth Certificate Means Nothing

April 27th, 2011

Much ado has been made about Obama’s place of birth. Recently, Donald Trump’s publicity stunt masquerading as presidential campaign breathed new life into the 3-year old rumor that Obama was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii and as such could not serve as President of the United States.

It doesn’t matter where Obama was born.

Whether Obama was born in Kenya or in Hawaii or in Antarctica or on Neptune is irrelevant. He still sold you out to Wall Street. He is still a murderous thug; commander in chief of a dangerously belligerent empire that wages perpetual war in order to secure cheap labor markets and resources for transnational corporations.

His place of birth doesn’t change any of that.

Le Roi est mort! Vive le Roi!

People got mad when Bush extended tax cuts to “the rich” yet Obama gave massive bailouts to Wall Street. People got mad when Bush put innocent people in Guantanamo, but Obama hasn’t released them. People were upset with Bush’s “war for oil”, yet Obama hasn’t withdrawn the troops.  All members of the political class are cut from the same cloth.

Even if someone proves Obama is “foreign born”, what will happen? Some other carefully groomed figurehead would take his place and do the exact same things.

no third solution

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