In the past 2 weeks, President Obama has forsworn the far right GOP and scored huge political points while strengthening the economy. First, there was health care. As readers of this blog know the far right (i.e., the entire GOP) has been reduced to incoherent rants and gibberish regarding ridiculous polls they claimed were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. They just made that up!
Here are the last three table of contents for the NEJM:
http://content.nejm.org/current.dtl
http://content.nejm.org/content/vol362/issue12/
http://content.nejm.org/content/vol362/issue11/
No poll! Only on Fox News does such a poll warrant publication in the NEJM.
Then came historic student loan reform. Who knows what ridiculous points they will raise against eliminating bank subsidies and instead "diverting" money to real students. I can hardly wait to see anonymous comments on that!
But, Obama was not done. Besides strengthening the economy by securing human capital and reforming student loans to eliminate wasteful federal spending, Obama took a page from the GOP and allowed more oil drilling off the coast of the US.
Here's the reality: the GOP is mired in scandal. They are busting apart. The far right has hijacked the GOP and really is behaving in a way that will alienate the middle. Plus, their leaders are spending contributions at strip joints.
Bottom line: Obama is about to open a can of whup ass on the GOP. Look for the Dems to extend their majorities. You heard it here first.
OK, back to the book.
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The latest CBS News Poll, conducted between March 29 and April 1, found Americans unhappier than ever with Mr. Obama's handling of health care - and still worried about the state of the economy.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama's overall job approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 44 percent, down five points from late March, just before the health bill's passage in the House of Representatives. It's down 24 points since his all-time high last April. Forty-one percent of those polled said they disapproved of the president's performance.
When it comes to health care, the President's approval rating is even lower -- and is also a new all-time low. Only 34 percent approved, while 55 percent said they disapproved.
CBS News
Turns out the Democratic Congress' passage of the Democratic healthcare legislation signed last week by Democratic President Obama is so wildly popular that a new Gallup Poll finds for the first time this survey cycle registered American voters now prefer that a Republican represent their district.
The new survey of the generic congressional ballot, taken after the massive healthcare bill's partisan votes last month and just released overnight, finds 47% say they'd like a Republican representative and 44% prefer a Democrat.
The Gallup report notes how unusual this kind of finding is:
A Republican advantage among all registered voters in midterm elections has been rare in Gallup's 60-year history of tracking congressional voting preferences, happening only a few times each in the 1950, 1994 and 2002 election cycles -- all years in which Republicans had strong Election Day showings.
LA Times
anonymous:
ReplyDeletei am looking for your response to the new england journal of medicine claim i believe you made previously. what was your justification other than the typical far right strategy of purposely misleading or deceiving?
or is it that michelle bachmann, matt patterson and glenn beck simply do your thinking for you? no research necessary.
i am looking for your response to the new england journal of medicine claim ... no research necessary.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am still looking for a coherent, thoughtful argument from you. I've noticed that your responses almost never include links to supporting evidence, is that because there is none, or because you don't read?
As for the Medicus poll, it really doesn't matter whether it was published by the NEJM, or a newsletter associated with a branch of the NEJM, what matters are the results which have been confirmed by other polls.
Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming to your senses on the NEJM.
That seems to me to prove your good faith.
Now, if only we could get you to come to your senses on laissez-faire.
I have high hopes for the student loan reform. As a student, I’m hoping that Congress realize that banks need to provide lower subsidies to students. What is really exciting is the provision in the student loan reform which speaks to income based repayment. Although, this will not impact me, because I'm graduating before 2014, I think this has been overdue. Students typically, pay loans back for five, sometimes ten times the amount of time they spent accumulating the loans. Why should it take 50 years to pay off 4 years of loans? Typically, students have difficulty paying off loans because of the interest that has been accumulated. With the reform, banks are taken out of the subsidized market, which will be really beneficial for students. The money usually given to banks can and should be used to decrease interest rates on federal loans, by using the money to disperse to federal lenders; it should decrease the need to collect high amounts of interest.
ReplyDeleteI too am excited to see some changes to student loans. However, and not coming from an elitist by any means, dont believe that school is the answer for everyone. In fact, during my small stint as a teacher was disapointed to find out that the norm these days is to head to college. Any college! I see students take on huge debt from schools that are internet based and doubt they'll ever make any money to pay them back, they have been mislead. Is there anything in the loan reform which appropriates monies for those who plan on attending accredited, ranked, colleges, or will it be a free for all?
ReplyDeleteAaron Passy STU
I am excited about the student loan reform and I looking forward to the advantages that it will provide to all students. In addition I am grateful for how this new reform will transcend to the outside lenders and how they will be more accountable for the funds that are distributed to students. President Obama is really taking strides and taking serious "blows" at the GOP. There was going to come to a point that President Obama would be unable to appease all sides, and it has most certainly come to a crossroads. The true questions is to make sure that the current decisions will not backfire any where in the near future but truly will be beneficial to him as he works towards establishing a solid platform for the next series of elections. All in all I wish him the best and he is doing a great job for the nation.
ReplyDelete-David H. Kenton
Saying that Obama has blown the down-trodden GOP away is like saying Hulk Hogan destroyed the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 10.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, any opposition you see of the GOP and Obama is as fake as pro wrestling.
Obama has renewed the Patriot Act, he has abused warrantless wiretapping, he believes in military tribunals over the Due Process of our court system, he's escalated the war in Afganistan, he supports indefinite detention, he has done nothing to limit the expansion, or review the content, of federal antiterrorism watchlists, including pre-flight watchlists that routinely turn up false matches (in fact, this typed response will probably put me on a no-fly list and render me ineligible to own a gun), has not ended the Bush-era policy of establishing "free speech zones" for protesters.
Yes he did pass healthcare, which the GOP supposedly was staunchly against. . . but guess what? The Insurance Companies wrote that bill! The same Insurance Companies that bankroll the GOP for election time.
This Left/Right Paradigm is an illusion created by the media, it is nothing more than theater. Both Democrats and Republicans will take away as many rights as they can.
- STU 3L Steve Newbold
The GOP is at odds with themselves because they are having difficulty figuring out whether they want to adopt their radical-Tea Party side or whether they would like to be more moderate-McCain side. Recently, it seems as though the Bush era seemed to split the GOP from the neo-Christian far right and the moderate right. As a result, those who are still elected in Congress have the arduous task of maintaining their positions while trying to figure out what demographic of their constituency they want to bank on to keep them in office.
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats, whether they will be in office beyond 2010-12 or not, must push forward in spite of the Republican opposition or else the country will be stagnant and the Democrats will face the same split.
I agree in principle to student loan reform, however I do not know if it is the smartest idea. Simply too many people go to school and study subjects that are just not needed a great deal in society. Allowing anybody to take out loans to study anything they want may not be the greatest idea. This is because there is a good chance that it will never get paid back. Also, students are notoriously loose with their student loans and I have a feeling that with more government regulations that allow for "cheap" money a good portion of the money will be simply blown. If the money is government guaranteed (not sure if this is in the bill) and payment is not recouped or is at least not recouped on time, then it is the working class that will ultimately foot the bill.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the student loan reform is going to be good for the students who can take advantage of it. Allowing education to become cost prohibitive might be the most counter-productive thing a government could do. On the other hand, the government can't tell the institutions to get realistic about tuition prices either. That is probably the bigger problem, but there is really no choice other than to subsidize. So I say study what you want where you want. Any one curriculum is just as valid as any other. The simple fact is that education is required and tuition prices go up annually whether or not the increase is justifiable or even meaningful to the institution's budget. People can't be asked to give up on themselves because they might default on a loan. Money is real and the economy is out there, but so what? It will be what it will be. Once Congress is done putting together a budget (and some years that doesn't even happen), the middle class ends up paying for a lot more wasteful things than a teenager getting a degree, even if the degree is in Sanskrit.
ReplyDeleteWhereas I am very excited about the student loan reform, I do agree with Mr. Oswalth that "Simply too many people go to school and study subjects that are just not needed a great deal in society. Allowing anybody to take out loans to study anything they want may not be the greatest idea." I believe that this reform could have been in some way available to students who study subjects that are in high demand in the job market and thus possibly more beneficial to society. I am very enthused about the income based repayment. I think this is a fantastic idea. The New York Times stated "The legislation will make it easier to pay back student loans, by reducing the share of income that a graduate must devote to loan payments and by accelerating loan forgiveness — but not right away." While as a student being enthused, I do wonder, however, if there will be some problems with this bill. With the new legislation, students will have to take out their loans through their college’s financial aid office, instead of using a private bank. I just wonder will this increase or decrease jobs; especially in banking?
ReplyDeleteThe logjam of legislation build up behind the health care reform has finally broken, and some wonderful things have begun. The full impact of health care will take a long time to work through the system to reach people, though the student loans rider is fantastic, since it comes into effect immediately. However, I don’t think the Dems will keep their majorities after the elections – the jobs picture is too weak. A recent WSJ had a gloomy though realistic article by Robert Reich – whose perspective on economics is very human centered (he was Secretary of Labor, after all). He points out the serious structural losses in the economy as a result of the economic crisis, and that we still face a decreasing ability to provide a stable and rising standard of living through decent employment. Hard as the legislative fight over health care seemed, this reality poses an even tougher challenge.
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304222504575173780671015468.html
As a student with a growing loan balance, I am in full support of President Obama's loan reform efforts. The President himself even admitted that he and the First Lady struggled to pay off their student loans, which gives him a different perspective than the privileged of Capitol Hill and a better understanding of the importance of such legislation. Although the proposed reform will not affect me I think it is necessary for our future.
ReplyDeleteIn response to some of the comments regarding, students studying subject that are not necessary to society, I must disagree. I do not think there is such thing as an unnecessary degree, after all isn't that the point. A diverse community, with different view points and schools of thought, together to improve our society.
Kyle Sheehan
ReplyDeleteWho is to decide what subjects "simply are just not needed a great deal in society?" What would qualify as unneeded, needed, or greatly needed? A law degree? A doctoroate? Medicine? I would hate to imagine a society that wouldn't encourage its people to become more educated and more sophisticated. The line that you draw between people's educations that are needed and those that aren't is scary, and frankily not one for a government to choose. The markets can dictate what degrees are needed at a certain time or not, but a government should provide the opportunity for one to achieve those degrees should they so choose to.