The One About Read This Now While You Are Still Allowed To Do So.

Well it’s Angry Hour (TM) at The One About…. I recently found this rage inducing piece via Americablog,

“President Obama called the idea a “no-brainer” last fall, predicting it would take billions of dollars from the profits of private lenders and give it directly to students, and many colleges were already moving to get loans directly from the federal government in anticipation of the next move by Congress.

But an aggressive lobbying campaign by the nation’s biggest student lenders has now put one of the White House’s signature plans in peril, with lenders using sit-downs with lawmakers, town-hall-style meetings and petition drives to plead their case and stay in business.”

This is the state that things have devolved to. Let me explain this whole mess very simply.

First of all the Republicants are a bunch of obstructionist assholes. This is the core idea that you must keep in mind, because without it none of the rest makes any sense.

Now second of all I have serious doubt that Obama actually wants to completely do away with the student loan industry. Frankly it’s not his style. Obama is essentially a centrist and corporatist. However he is also a pragmatist. He is not so in love with corporations that he is completely unaware of what a bunch of goat rapists the student loan industry have turned into. Once upon a time they were at least somewhat moral and responsible. Offering people loans for their educations at reasonable rates. But then they figured out that they could hold people’s futures
hostage by hitting them with unbelievable interest rates, and best of all because of Federal backing even if people defaulted they still weren’t carrying all that much risk. So today you have practices such as people with less than a fraction of the original debt left to repay, who have repayed as faithfully as they were able suddenly finding that the interest has been jacked up, and suddenly they still have thousands of dollars in interest to pay off. So Obama knows that if something isn’t done, the situation is only going to get worse, and pretty soon no one who doesn’t
already essentially have enough money for college so as to not need a loan will be able to get one. And while Obama may have a great many failings I do believe he is as sincere as a politician can be about the need to provide broad access to education opportunity.

Now in the good old days, what Obama would have proposed would have been some kind of common sense regulation of the Student Loan Industry. Broader over sight, a lower ceiling on the amount of interest that could be charged, tighter regulations about under what circumstances the interest rate could be raised etc. But Obama knows damn good and well that any such common sense approaches will be screamed down by the Republicants. So instead he proposes ideas that are what I call Radical Red Herrings. They are in the spirit of the scenes of sex and violence that Alfred Hitchcock used to include in his movies. Scenes so lurid and graphic that he knew there was no way in hell they’d get past either the studio or the MPAA. Thereby
allowing the scenes he really wanted in the film, to skate by because they’d look mild by comparison and because he would not put them in until after he’d been “forced” to take out the scenes the censors would not allow. That way it would look like he was compromising.

So the Republicants behaving in perfect Pavlovian fashion are indeed screaming bloody murder at this “Radical” plan to destroy the student loan industry. Now if you were dealing with human beings this ploy might work. But I have my doubts because I think that Obama and most Democrats continue to underestimate and misunderstand the new Zombie GOP. The ZGOP shambles around intoning “NOOOOO!” to everything. There is no negotiating with them. They will decry the radical version of the plan, and then they will decry as a “Socialist Bolshevik” Plot the more reasonable modified version. Meanwhile Obama is harming the plans credibility with the average citizen because all they will see is the Radical version of the plan, and they will be uncomfortable with it. Hell I’m not entirely comfortable with it. I mean it’s a great idea in theory but unless part of that plan is to create the Federal equivalent of loan officers, I suspect that a lot of people would end up not getting help because the paper work would be more than they are able to handle. Look at the 1040 EZ tax form. It took me about two hours to do one properly, and there were rebates that if I hadn’t read it carefully I would have missed out on. (I still stand by my belief that Federal Tax forms are better designed and easier to fill out than state ones, but never the less as Scotty’s First Law Of Engineering tells us, “The more you over think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.”)

So what will happen is that Obama will most likely again drop the ball, he will fail to get the message out there, and the Republicants will run with it. They will make certain that as few people as possible find out about any amended compromise version, and they will use the image of the first more radical plan to demonize it in the minds of most people and as a result any kind of Student Loan reform will be as dead as everything else the ZGOP put their slime covered bony hands to.

The ultimate result? Student Loan companies, especially Fanny Mae which has been pledged UNLIMITED money from the government will be allowed to set any kind of rates they want, Obama’s suggested 20 year cut off period regarding how long the debt is allowed to exist before it is forgiven (10 years if you get a public service job) will go by the wayside, and anyone who contemplates getting a student loan will know up front that they will be looking at a crushing mountain of debt that is due pretty much the instant they leave school. So most people will decide against it. Some of the more determined ones will try to either get federal or state financial aid (PELL grants etc) or scholarships, or they will try to work and go to school. But most will decide it’s not worth it, enter the work force and hope that if they work hard enough they can make a decent life for themselves.

And the Corporatocracy will win again. Their ongoing plan to keep us uneducated, fearful, and in debt will roll on. The Republicants will of course make nice sounding noises about how important education is, all the while doing everything they can to make certain that people like you and me don’t want one, and can’t get one even if we do want one. And most of the Democrats will cluck their tongues and exclaim how awful it all is, all the while not doing one single meaningful fucking thing!

So what can we do? Formally not much. Progressives can try to field candidates, can try to educate our friends and neighbors. But we also have to prepare with an eye toward when the enemies of the Working Classes push their agenda forward. Use the internet while it is still open to us. Self educate. Read everything you can get your hands on about politics, history, science and more. Don’t worry about if it’s “useful” or not. Expand your mind. Don’t piss away your time with worrying about American Idle or any of that other shit. And do what you can to educate those around you. Make it clear to them that if we do not TAKE our education we will not have it, because our Corporate Masters are bound and determined not to let us have it.

Their interests are better served by us being as ignorant as possible, so they can feed us FOX Newsaganda and we’ll believe it’s the truth. We can not beat them with guns so we must beat them with brains. By spreading the truth person to person, by any means possible. It is only when we give up the struggle that they’ve won. So don’t give up. Don’t let them win. Make it clear at every turn that you don’t buy what they are selling. That is the only real hope left to us.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

(This article originally appeared at The One About…)

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