You know economics has many dimensions to it. ~ part of that dimension is regional.

There is regions of our great nation where the sun rarely shines and the rain rarely falls, while one area might be seeking flood relief while another undergoing water rationing and restrictions is not uncommon.

Much like water, money and Job opportunity is not equally shared through out our nation.

Noise South Carolinian’s would be the first to not understand this “FACT” as federal money has been pouring into their state for so long in such large amounts they have grown quite use to it and consider it very matter of fact and quite normal. They enjoy fair weather that has been fabricated, in spite of drought.

It’s easy to see how they might have a hard time relating to other areas of the nation harder hit by economic hard times. “WELL, I paid mine! you can pay yours!” “You are just being sorry, no good and lazy!” could be a common cracker response, you might expect to hear.

That the Federal government has propped the state up for years, they elect to forget or ignore.

Hey! Yuma Arizona does not need any flood relief funding! but Las Vegas could sure use a little help with flooding and water shedding today. They don’t get a lot of water, but when it comes, ~watch out!

These are matters of State, of region and they often become matters of the Federal government.

That governor Dick Perry wanted to declare Texas independence one day and the next, be on hand a knee begging the Federal government for assistance from the CDC was not lost on me.

That a sitting president has found it necessary to circumvent an inert congress/senate in order to address and affect correction on ‘focused’ issues is indeed unfortunate.

Needless to say, people that have never supported this president will attempt to make as much political hay of it as possible. ~ It’s given, it’s understandable. Show us your worst. I believe he can endure it.

When was it ever you ever had a President that did exactly what you wanted of him? When did you ever feel like the President was to pander only your needs and concern while ignoring the needs of others? I don’t remember such a President.

If addressing needs with the power invested in him is buying vote, then he is buying votes! ~ but is it not clear, your vote has never be for sale to the president. That said, how can you hurt him? By talk bad about him? ~ Ouch! that hurt,

It’s the same old crap politicians have played forever. I’ll give you this if you vote for me. I think the president’s of late have been giving themselves some legislative powers.

My husband and I have raised four children. Our youngest will be 20 in a week. She is not in college yet. Our first three went to college, although our oldest daughter floundered and dropped out, her choice. She DOES have two jobs to pay back her student loans,and other bills. Our second daughter went to Jr. college, had 3 jobs AND was planning her wedding…she graduated with a BS degree, and owed nothing to the school due to scholarships and grants she received for high grades, she has been married now for 4 years, and is working in an Optometrists office, 8 hrs. a day/ 5 days a week. Our son, went to trade school on a 2 year scholarship in welding, due to the fact that he was the top welder in his high school, graduated with a diploma and a certification in welding. He owed the school nothing. Our youngest wants to go to cosmetology school…This just proves, IT CAN BE DONE!!! You CAN have a job AND go to school, pay off your debts or at least the majority of them while in school.
Obama is just doing this to get the college votes…they have NO idea how this is going to affect THEM and their CHILDREN in the future. SICKENING!!!!

” ‘Well, my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.’

” ‘It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. ‘No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week’s pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life.’ “The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.’

” ‘So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you.’

“I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have opposition, and this man should go to talking, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:

” ‘Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.’

“He laughingly replied; ‘Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You say that you are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the district, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and, perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.’

” ‘If I don’t’, said I, ‘I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I will make a speech to them. Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for it.’

” ‘No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to spare for those who have none. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbecue. This is Thursday; I will see to getting it up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.’

” ‘Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-bye. I must know your name.’

” ‘My name is Bunce.’

” ‘Not Horatio Bunce?’

” ‘Yes.’

” ‘Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before, though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.’

“It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his remarkable intelligence and incorruptible integrity, and for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him, before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.

“At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a confidence in me stronger than I had ever seen manifested before.

“Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept him up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before.

“I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him – no, that is not the word – I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I will tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the world by storm.

“But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted – at least, they all knew me.

“In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying:

” ‘Fellow-citizens – I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgment is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only.’”

“I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:

” ‘And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.

” ‘It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the
credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.’

“He came upon the stand and said:

” ‘Fellow-citizens – It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.’

“He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.’

“I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the honors I have received and all the reputation I have ever made, or ever shall make, as a member of Congress.’

“Now, sir,” concluded Crockett, “you know why I made that speech yesterday.

“There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week’s pay. There are in that House many very wealthy men – men who think nothing of spending a week’s pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased–a debt which could not be paid by money–and the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighed against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.”

We have encouraged young people to stay in school and get a good education for many years now. We have convinced families that higher education was a good investment in ones time and money, that the average degree’ed person made 1 million dollars more then a non-degree’ed over the period of a working career. If one held strong aspirations to aspire at degree with essential.

So today, we see the results this mindset and desire as we have a bumper crop of young degreed people attempting to enter the market place.

That families and banks and institutions of learning have made this possible by their commitment and investment, we should be proud.

These finical commitments was predicated on the notion that a opportunity for employment would exist 4 to 6 years into the future.

That these expected opportunities are no available in large enough numbers to employ the demand for jobs today is disappointing BuT temporary and this condition and state of affairs will someday pass.

In the meantime, the bill is in the mail box demanding payment. This places great stress on students and families as well as lending institutions.

Now you can fault the President for his direct approach in addressing this if you wish. If you are not sharing any of these current hardships it easy enough to do.

Booze has never solved anyone’s problems but neither has milk. So this attempt to replace one set of events with another in some attempt to justify you thinking process is flawed.

Leadership is to guide and direct as the road in front of us dictated. As far too often we see the road conditions are ever changing. Too fast, too slow, too much “left, too much “right” will put us in the ditch.

These are delicate times for some people today but they will pass. If you want to call this a buying votes, ~ fine. He is buying votes. He is addressing the needs of some voters found in great need.

At the same time, you and I know that he is selling off votes if you don’t believe the time and effort well spent and for the betterment of Americans.

Our children is our future.

Excuse me, while I go change my 86 years father’s diaper and empty his urine bag.

no matter how much your student loan is, anyway you figure it,the student will pay back less then half of what he owes and the taxpayers will end up paying the rest under this program.

I don’t get it. So we are telling the younger generation that it’s ok to borrow as much as you want for college. If you can’t pay it off in 20 years, the taxpayers will do it for you. By reducing the payments it just makes it harder to pay the principle down. It took me 20+ years to pay off my college loans but I never dreamed that it was the governments responsibility to do it for me. What is happening to our country.

This plan of this administration is doomed to failure down the road sooner or later and likely sooner. Student loans especially are not the way to finance an education for young people that are financially disadvantaged due to no fault of their own. Rather a grant program for any and all want to be students is a better way to go as the long term benefits out way the short term detriments given that there is a greater chance of these students educating their way into the middle class over time which will be a give back to the overall economy and thereby replacing those education dollars back into the economy. Secondly, it would be beneficial if corporations would set aside some portion greater than currently and with less restrictions for education grant dollars for education purposes as it would also be for State governments. Thirdly, disallowing either education loans or grants for non-US citizens would reduce the burden of availability for education dollars available to US citizens regardless of age of circumstance.

IThe GI Bills of WW II and the Korean War were great for educating us. It would seem that a lot of these whiners should go into the service now and get the current government offers for education. And, wouldn’t the service straighten a lot of them out?

i want to get a few student loans. my question is do i actually have to attend a real school ? does home schooling myself qualify ? my home school tuition would only be $47,345.00 a semester, with a ba when i graduate. that is a good deal mr US government.

student loans are the same principal as the company stores. an individual will owe so much cash to our govt, there lives will be controlled by our govt. fannie mae and mac control 100% of student loans. the availability of student loans and pell grants are a major reason school tuition is outrageously high. government, mind your own business.

The one question nobody ever asks is why is higher education so expensive in the first place? I graduated from a Catholic university 37 years ago & four years cost me about $13,000! One year at the same institution is going to set you back about $30,000+. I realize technology & new construction has created some expense but the overall costs are now out of control. In the early 70′s I found a great summer job at a Coca Cola bottling plant paying good wages, worked overtime & had a second job on weekends, too. These positions paid for all of my tuition, living expenses & books. Also, I had a partime campus job during the academic year. I actually began saving money, too. Those days are gone & when I hear of college graduates with upper five figure oustanding loans another question comes to mind, was it worth it? We all know of the art history major waiting tables, the newly minted M.B.A. who has sent out 100′s of resumes with no response & the recent graduate with the teaching degree who sees members of that profession being laid off because of budget cuts. Then on the other hand, try getting a plumber on Saturday, your antique clock fixed & working like it was new again or your grandmother’s armoire restored to its original lustre. Good luck!
In retrospect, we really might want to question the overall value of higher education & ask, is it really worth it? Yes, we need engineers, physical scientists & health care professionals but do we really have a need for more sociologists, classicists or even lawyers?

Student loans, school/university/college subsidies and every type of government ‘assistance’ control of academia; all are tied together and are one of the most blatant sources of slavery in the current world.
Academia, because it ‘depends’ on subsidies form the government, not private enterprises or the community as it should be; tends to develop hunger for more cash, and so it allows groups of power like sodomites, Marxists as well as many other groups, of government choosing, to infiltrate and in this way confuse the minds of children, polluting them with ideas of collectivism and other wrongs exploiting their natural idealism. Of course, students are trapped, because if it is not the assignments, it is the qualifications on those assignments and if not, well, it is their way into their own prosperity which they will find is more politically bound that what they think or refuse to admit. And so, society, impulsed by that other monster of enslavement, the income tax and other many taxes, have impose upon students that extra ideal that says they are not supposed to do what their talents or inclinations or vocations mandate, but that what gives them more money, because after all; “everybody knows the power of the IRS and there is only one truth, death and taxes” and so, it is money what is required not happiness and so, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and even priests, are now not bound by vocation but by what their own self tells them is more ‘profitable’. I have included priests because one of the by products of this paradigm is the fact that people not vocationally motivated to deal with children, tend to abuse them and this too include teachers and every other people out there in position of leadership. And the spiral, because it is not a circle of life but an spiral of destruction, a leviathan, called government control, which keeps growing and growing like the Blob, that movie Steve McQueen starred many years ago and which depicted what a monster that only eats and keeps eating flesh and not flesh is or can be and which us, in the XXI century are only finding.
Student loans should not be needed and governments should focus only on respect for the law, for the protection of life and freedom.
Without that intrusion of government in families, women would not feel so ‘liberated’ to choose killing in the name of pleasure, sorry, health(?), right(?), being women(?!) and being the family not so invaded by the government demands, there would not be this obscure pestilent plague called sodomy but solutions to social problems from individuals, family and community up, not form the government down. To cut this ‘process’ from the source, it is imperative to not just reform the taxation system, but to make it so that politicians clearly understand their duties to serve and not be served and so, taxes can only small and of one kind and never altered but by the effort of the people and the mandates of the market.
Under this premise, taxation to be fair and just, can only be applied to the goods and services people freely chooses to consume on an equal percentage. My idea is 3% without any deductions of any sort. If the poor is capable of buying something, just pay 3% of the value, or otherwise cannot affdord it and if the rich wants to pay an immense amount of cash for anything, pay the 3%. The poor would be paying $0.03 for a dollar while the rich would be paying $30,000 for a million. With no deduction, and in consideration of the economic cycle, perhaps the true tax would be in the order of 12% to 15% altogether on average.
The best part is that government will have this and nothing but this to work with and so it will be forced to downsize to its minimum or is it maximum, productive level and everything excessive, will not be affordable.
Another last point is that finances, would be much more manageable for the people, because of the influx of cash, credit would need to be applied only as required and not to cover what the government with its taxes don’t let you. Of course small businesses would flourish as the people will not have to just through credit on them but actual cash.
The morality is not in being able to pay for credit, but on wanting and committing to do it and it works for both sides, the lender, giving to the ones that can pay, and the recipient.

Let`s start at the top and do A trickle down trim. Let`s let the president cut his salary in half and challenge congress to do the same and let congress challenge all the CEOs to do the same and meet the middle class on A little more level playing field. There is entirely too much money at the top.

Opraisme is not only BUYING votes. He’s daring us to put him in his place [OUT of the White House]. Students have a hard choice to make. They can take the easy way out, and screw themselves out of a future. Or, they can take the tougher option, and not get into any degree scheme that doesn’t net you a job that has job security (science, math, health, etc.). Art, social studies, women’s studies and political science applicants need not apply. This is the REAL world, kids.
Time to step up to the plate and show America what you’ve got, kids.
Time to put childish things behind you – and that includes the worthless, LYING poser in the White House.

Has it occurred to anyone to ask: Who is left holding the bag when the loans are “forgiven”? Think about it. It’s YOU, the taxpayer. Let’s just pass another disaster on down to the next generation of Congress. Kind of like the one that passed on the housing crisis to THIS Congress. Obama gets the student vote and the Congress of 20 years from now gets to start dealing with the consequences. Anything for a vote. Hmmm. Maybe he IS smarter than I thought!

If Obama really wanted to help these students, if he were really concerned about the underwater home owners, if he cared even a little bit about the unemployed, he would get off of his very tired “Tax the Rich” mantra and do what is best for all of them and get big government the heck out of the way!

If the 0′bomb really wanted to do something about student loans and higher ecucation, he would limit how much colleges could raise expenses to the CPI. Of all the monies sent to colleges in the past 15 years in the form of increased tuition, only 3% has gone to increasing the teaching staff or the improvement of facilities the balance or 97% of the increases have gone to administration costs. Much of which has gone into studies to confirm that the institution is conforming with increasing government regulations.

Hmmm. Let’s see…Obama raises his middle finger in disdain of congress, the senate and we the people…in essence saying:
“Screw laws”
“Screw due process”
“Screw legislative process”
“Screw the average tax payer”
“Screw the economy”
“Screw the future of the USA”

What a wonderful example of supreme treachery and stupidity. How much longer must we endure such skullduggery?

This whole Problem would clear up and blow away if we started hiring People for their abilities not JUST their Degrees.

Guess What? Higher Education is Big Business that has extorted this money from them through being in Bed with Big Government turning Higher education into a right rather than a priveleage.

Remember when we said in this country “I worked hard to put my Kids through College” Well now they can’t do that anymore because the cost are to High, due to the “Over-Valuing of the “Degree”" I refer to it at the “Higher Education Kindom”

While we are at it, we need to be able to fire ineffective Union workers especially in the Teachers Unions! Michelle Rhee! you are one of my heros!

sorry for the duplicate sentence…am only on my 2nd cup of coffee, this morning, so my brain isn’t fully awake, yet.

My middle & youngest daughter BOTH have worked (fulltime) and paid for their own college education. The middle daughter used student loans to finance much of her education…and she made payments on those loans, the ENTIRE time she was getting her degree. Did she have a 4.0 gpa…No, because she worked full time AND had a husband & two children to care for (her gpa was in the 3′s instead of a glorious 4.0).

The youngest daughter has NO student loans. She also has worked full time and paid her own way. Fortunately, for her, she does not have a family to take care of, so her gpa IS a 4.0.

Does it take longer to go that route…sure it does. Does it take longer to go that route, sure it does. However, it’s not stopped either from making good wages (they both have very high “work ethics”) so I know, it can be done.

The majority of those who have taken loans out have done so, knowing they would come due, at some point. Instead of working while going to college, they chose not to. Regardless of whether it was because they were “lazy” or because they wanted to be able to have a high gpa, they had the old option of “paying as you go”.

Now, like their college years, they apparently feel that they should be supported, once again, this time by the taxpayer instead of their parents.

Apparently, Obama is so desperate to win his second term, that there is no limit to all the “new” things he is going to introduce to entice voters, even if it is to the detriment of the country.

Anyone that believes that this idiot that calls himself President is doing anything but destroying our Nation and attempting to gather votes from the students, belongs in the same catagory as he. If these students “borrowed” money, they should have to pay it all back. I did and was glad to have had the opportunity to do so. Was it easy, no, but I manned up and did the right thing.

obama would have these young men & women believe that the Federal Government should be their nannies. Remember, the Government that is big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it all away.

some people will just out & out lie as we see from what Obama says, its no way the government will forgive your debts for school when so many people in this country owes so much money, he lies to us everytime he opens his mouth.

5 kids in college at the same time. They had student loans, worked part time in college…..and they all paid off their loans! All have good jobs now, working 12-14 hrs. a day.

I paid my own way through college and not a rich boy. Pay off your debts and don’t let the Gov’t feed you with a baby bottle. It takes hard work and cutting your own expenses to get what you want. It is called sacrifice. No cry babies allowed here. If you don’t succeed try other alternatives. A lot of people have succeeded with out a college education. Rush Limbaugh for one never went to college. He is a millionaire today. Everyone is going to succeed in some way. Your life has already been planned out for you. Get off the potato couch and get going. Stay away from protestors. Bad idea. Think with your head and not your feet. Think about it and YOU WILL SUCCEED.