Tag: Marco Rubio

It's amazing, but with the South Carolina GOP primary in the rear-view mirror, we're now getting really close (eight full days to go) until...

by Lowell Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, February 21. Trump wins South Carolina; Bush drops out of...

by Lowell Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, February 20. E.U. leaders strike deal to try to keep...

How can you tell when 2016 GOP presidential candidates are lying? Basically, whenever their lips are moving. I could spend all day - really...

Student debt is currently about $1.2 trillion. Even more staggering is that, according to Brookings Institution figures, the amount increased by 20% in just the past 2 years. And though Brookings' research plays down the consequences, the analysis is flawed. Warner has recognized what could become a significant crisis.

There were stories about student debt on the Wall Street Journal This Morning today and in the Journal's newspaper yesterday mentioning initiatives by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and others. Unfortunately and maybe intentionally, our Senator's initiatives went unheralded.

During a swing through Virginia last month, Senator Warner stopped at a number of campuses to discuss his concerns. The commercial media has not given Warner's ideas the attention they deserve and his opponent hasn't been challenged on the issues.

Studies like the one done at Brookings that downplay the impact of student loan debt rely on data from 2010 and before; not recent enough to capture the changes to the economic landscape precipitating from the financial crisis. They also fail to account for the debt generated from loans that paid for "educations" from predatory for-profit colleges and universities and the waste of veterans benefits squandered at those same institutions.

Plus there is an intangible factor bearing on the psyche of graduates that the Senator lays out after explaining that his own first two ventures in entrepreneurship and capitalism ended in failure and financial loss:

"The point of the story is: if I had come out with, the way many students are now, with forty, fifty, sixty, seventy thousand dollars' worth of debt, I'm not sure I would have had the courage or ability to try to take those multiple chances."

College debt may be an obstacle to the kind of freedom necessary for the creativity and invention that made America the leader in innovation. Warner offers a number of ideas to mitigate the challenge that student loan debt presents.  

"How come liberals never admit that they're liberal?" he asked. "They've now come up with a new word called 'progressive,' which I thought was an insurance company but apparently it's a label."

Here's my response to Marco Rubio.

Say it loud and say it proud,
I'm proud of being a liberal and I won't back down.

Here is what I believe.

I believe that every American should have the chance to lay the golden egg of economic prosperity. At present, we are nowhere near this goal. For all of the Rubio's of America who have made a cozy place for themselves, there are thousands of others who, through no fault of their own, have not had the same opportunities for success.

I believe that a woman's body is her own temple to do with whatever she pleases.

I believe that unions are a benefit to society, imperfect as they may be.

I believe that the federal government has an important role to play in ensuring healthy environments and preventing runaway capitalism.  

Did Marco Rubio forget to invite somebody to this or what? Hint: the person not on the invitation is a media-appointed "rising star in the Republican Party" like Rubio; he's an attorney who served in the state legislature, like Rubio; he has views as right wingnutty as Rubio's; and, like Rubio, he has issues with campaign contributions. Now who could that be?

UPDATE: In the comments section, Ben Tribbett says that Cooch did an event for Rubio previously, and that "I bet McDonnell/Bolling didn't want him there taking the credit for backing Rubio 'early'." Interesting.