Chuck Schumer

Dems Squeeze GOP Over Taxing Wealthy To Pay For Affordable Student Loans

Brian Beutler | April 30, 2012, 5:56AM

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

Now that the GOP has dropped its politically untenable objection to extending low-interest student loans, the legislative battle has entered a familiar realm, just weeks ahead of a scheduled rate hike: How should Congress pay for keeping the loans cheap?

It's familiar terrain for observers of the payroll tax fight, which ended with both parties simply agreeing not to pay for the holiday at all. But before they reached that point, the parties bickered over various financing schemes, while pushing ideologically opposed offsets. Republicans wanted cuts to domestic support programs, Democrats wanted to raise income taxes on income over $1 million a year.

This time around, though, the Democrats' opening bid is different -- and they argue that it reflects their willingness to set politics aside and extend the loan rates, currently set to double at the end of June, without a fight, while Republicans try use the coming cliff to eat away at President Obama's health care law.

Read more »

Education

Top Teachers Union Takes On Corporate Tax Loopholes To Fund Education

Brian Beutler | April 10, 2012, 6:05AM

The National Education Association is ramping up a public information campaign to build support for closing big corporate tax loopholes and directing the revenue toward key education initiatives. The push comes weeks after the Obama administration released a framework for corporate tax reforms that would be revenue neutral, suggesting a schism between the powerful union and the White House. But in a Monday interview, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel applauded Obama's record on education and said his group's push is meant to raise awareness of one of many ways to finance more federal investment in education.

"One reason to look at corporate taxes is because it is so huge," Van Roekel said, citing the Center for Tax Justice, which concludes (PDF) that closing seven specific corporate tax loopholes could raise nearly $1.5 trillion over 10 years. NEA proposes using the money to raise the maximum Pell grant award to cover half the average cost of public higher education, fund Title I spending on students from low-income families and other initiatives.

Read more »

Budget

How The GOP Budget Pulverizes Most Government Services (CHART)

Brian Beutler | March 22, 2012, 10:06AM

House Republicans' latest budget is a slightly new twist on a familiar theme: low taxes, particularly on the wealthiest, financed by extreme cuts to government spending programs. Knowing the GOP's -- and, frankly many Democrats' -- penchant for high levels of military spending, this mostly means unfathomably deep cuts to domestic health care, education, science and other programs.

Here's the twist. Last year, Republicans took a lot of guff for their plan to turn Medicare in to a subsidized private insurance system. That wasn't just because they proposed to privatize the program, but because the subsidies they proposed were extremely meager -- that's how it saved so much money.

This year, the budget calls for more generous subsidies. Which means that to hit the same long-term deficit targets, Ryan has to cut even deeper into other programs.

Here's how it looks graphically.

Read more »

Barack Obama

GOP Denounces Obama's Education Changes

Susan Crabtree | September 23, 2011, 6:00AM

President Obama

Republicans rushed to denounce President Obama's changes to No Child Left Behind in anticipation of the official unveiling Friday morning, deeming the overhaul just another government power grab by Washington.

In a White House ceremony, Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce a new plan to allow states to seek waivers on the NCLB requirement for school proficiency by 2014. But in order to qualify for the exceptions, states must follow education policy changes dictated by the administration.

Read more »

Evolution

Perry Says Texas Public Schools Teach Creationism... Which May Be In Violation Of The Constitution

Brian Beutler | August 18, 2011, 3:52PM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

Campaigning in New Hampshire Thursday, Texas Governor, and GOP Presidential candidate Rick Perry claimed that Texas public schools teach both evolution and creationism in their science classes.

Perry described evolution as "a theory that is out there," telling a young child questioning him that "it's got some gaps in it." That's why, he said, "in Texas we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools. Because I figure...because I figure you're smart enough to figure out which one is right."

There's just one problem with that: in 1987 the Supreme Court ruled that teaching creationism in public schools is an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause.

Read more »

Debt Ceiling

O'Malley: Eric Cantor And 'Dinosaur Wing' Of GOP Already Hurting States In Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | July 20, 2011, 2:10PM

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD)

The ratings agency Moody's is threatening to reduce the rating of five states with AAA credit (along with the rating of the federal government) if Congress fails to raise the debt limit in early August. Now the governor of one of those states -- Maryland's Martin O'Malley -- is publicly singling out the Republicans in Congress who are preventing swift action on the debt limit.

"All of this brinksmanship and these threats of the dinosaur wing of the Republican party led by Eric Cantor to drive us needlessly into a default have impacted confidence I think throughout the country," O'Malley told me in a Tuesday interview. "It's impacted consumer confidence, it's impacted investor confidence, it's impacted the confidence of small businesses who are the backbone of this economy and who need to hire again. In that respect it's already had an effect. The closer we get to this deadline, and the more immediate ramifications that has for those of us that are going out into the bond market."

These concerns will become very real if Congress doesn't raise the debt limit in the next few days.

Read more »

Rick Santorum

Santorum Blames Liberal Plot For Students' Bad History Scores (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | June 21, 2011, 4:33PM

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

Another day, another entry for Rick Santorum's list of liberal conspiracies.

This time Santorum is arguing that the reason so few U.S. students perform well in U.S. history is because of "a conscious effort on the part of the left who has a huge influence on our curriculum, to desensitize America to what American values are so they're more pliable to the new values that they would like to impose on America."

Read more »

Hypocrisy

Republican Governors Quietly Accept Federal Dollars -- While Attacking Federal Spending

Brian Beutler | April 20, 2011, 9:17AM

Govs. Rick Perry, John Kasich (R-OH), Chris Christie (R-NJ) and Tom Corbett (R-PA)

Republican governors stormed into state houses this January after campaigning against federal spending, and various so-called state bailouts. They won in part by painting a slanted picture of fiscal mismanagement by their Democratic predecessors.

That rhetoric -- and the rhetoric of their more senior Republican peers -- continues to this day, and occasionally translates into genuinely puzzling acts of malgovernance. Florida Governor Rick Scott, for example, turned down $2.4 billion in federal funds to build a high-speed rail line from Orlando to Tampa.

But in other ways, their failure to publicly embrace additional federal commitments during tough economic times has left them behind the eight ball, politically. As the costs to their states of providing needed social services has risen, and their revenue has fallen, they're looking for sub rosa ways to take the money without catching flak from their bases.

Read more »

Barack Obama

Obama: Do We Want To Be Pothole Nation?

Susan Crabtree | April 19, 2011, 1:58PM

During the first stop of a three-day campaign-style blitz across the country promoting his vision for reducing the $1.4 trillion deficit, President Obama decried the country's "crumbling" infrastructure and said proposed GOP cuts would lead to "potholes everywhere."

The Republican plan, he said, would cut transportation costs by a third, leading to more deterioration of the nation's roads and bridges, which would in turn, would hamper economic growth.

Read more »

Continuing Resolution

Newly Released Spending Deal Targets Health, Environment, Energy

Benjy Sarlin | April 12, 2011, 10:08AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

House Republicans and Senate Democrats have posted details of the bipartisan spending agreement that staved off a shutdown, providing a first look at where the $39.9 billion of cuts come from on a program by program basis.

Republican priorities can be seen throughout the agreement, with reduced funding for enforcing environmental regulation, scientific research, health care, and education all leaping out.

One of the hardest hit institutions is the Environmental Protection Agency, whose power Republicans have sought to curtail in recent years through a variety of legislative means. The agency will receive $1.6 billion less in funding than current levels, a 16 percent drop, including a $49 million reduction in climate change programs and $149 million cut to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. In a press release, Senate Appropriation Committee Democrats noted that the EPA cuts, while tough, were nearly $1.6 billion less than Republicans' original proposal. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also saw a $142 million reduction in funding and is prohibited from creating a Climate Service.

Read more »

Republicans

Ad Targets Republicans For Choosing Oil Companies Over Education Programs (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | March 16, 2011, 10:15AM

The progressive group Americans United for Change will go live Wednesday with a new ad slamming Republicans for prioritizing subsidies for big oil corporations over federal education spending.

"There is a right way and a wrong way to get our country's fiscal house in order and Republicans have chosen the wrong path: corporate welfare over the well being of Americans and our children's education," says Tom McMahon, executive director of Americans United.

Read more »

Ron Paul

Rep. Ron Paul: "Education is Not a Right" (Video)

Meena Rupani | March 3, 2011, 1:42PM

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)

For Rep Ron Paul (R-TX), education and medical care are not rights but rather "things that you have to earn."

In an exchange about U.S. credit policy with MSNBC's Cenk Uygur on Wednesday, Paul was asked whether people should be able to borrow money to buy a house, or car. "Oh, in a free market, you can do that," Paul said, but only so long as that credit is backed up by real money, and not something that "comes out of thin air."

Uygur asked the Congressman if students who can't afford tuition should be able to get government loans. "No one has a right to anyone's wealth, I don't have a right to come to you and say my poor kid needs 500 dollars for an education," Paul replied, "an education is not a right, medical care is not a right."

Read more »

Government Shutdown

Is A Government Shutdown Still Possible? Yes -- Very

Brian Beutler | March 1, 2011, 12:59PM

President Barack Obama meets with Democratic and Republican leaders

House Republicans and Senate Democrats have arrived at detente on spending, which should prevent a government shutdown through the Ides of March.

But it's a brief and fragile detente, and for now only masks a greater divide between the parties -- one that's less about spending levels and more about the right of the Obama administration to undertake routine functions in an era of divided government.

After a weeks-long stare-down over spending, both sides blinked last week, when they came to terms on a two week measure to keep the federal lights on after funding runs out March 4.

But Democrats blinked fastest.

Read more »

Pledge to America

Schools, Cops, And Health Care: What The 'Pledge To America' Would Actually Cut

Brian Beutler | October 7, 2010, 10:15AM

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

"With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt."

So reads the House Republicans' "Pledge to America" -- a supposedly deficit-reducing plan that calls for trillions of dollars' worth of specific tax cuts, but only $100 billion of non-specific spending cuts to offset that cost.

Still, $100 billion pays for a lot of things. Bloomberg took a close look at just what would take a hit under the Republican plan -- adding specificity where the Republicans offered none. Here are the top five issues that would suffer under the Pledge to America.

Read more »

2010 elections

New Right-Wing Meme: Education Spending = 'Money-Laundering' For Dems

Eric Kleefeld | August 16, 2010, 1:53PM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), US Senate candidate Sharon Angle (R-NV), and Rep. Steven King (R-IA)

An amusing meme has popped up on the right, opposing the state education aid bill that passed last week: It's not just bad policy from big-spending Washington liberals -- it's a criminal enterprise!

Here's how the logic goes: President Obama and the Democrats spent a lot of money to prop up school districts in the midst of a tough economy and revenue shortfalls at the district level. Much of that money will pay teachers; some of that money will then go to union dues; in turn, the unions will spend money to campaign for Democrats. Ergo, the whole bill was an act of money laundering, to have the federal government fund Democratic campaigns.

Read more »

Tea Party

GOP Voters' Top 20 19 Recycled Ideas For 2011 (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | August 3, 2010, 11:41AM

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN), Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Republicans know they could retake the House of Representatives. But, they say, they're reluctant to adopt a complete legislative agenda until they complete a nationwide listening session -- part of their new America Speaking Out initiative, which included a listening session with the nation's top corporate lobbyists.

They've tipped their hand just a bit recently, however. America Speaking Out allowed voters to suggest, in brief, some policy prescriptions they hope the GOP will back. In a recent web video, House Republicans picked 20 of their favorites. Many of them will be familiar to anyone who paid attention to the GOP agenda for the last decade. Some of them Republicans liked so much they picked them twice... verbatim.

"The Government needs to enact a balance [sic] budget amendment so that the government can finally learn to live and need speed [sic] more than what we have," writes Republican1988. (This would, of course, make extending the Bush tax cuts nearly impossible.)

Read more »

Education

Administration Announcing New Program To Reduce Drop-Out Rate

Christina Bellantoni | March 1, 2010, 6:00AM

President Obama today will detail the money in his budget proposal for a national effort to turnaround the nation's worst schools and a new plan aimed at reducing the drop-out rates among high schoolers.

The plan is built upon the idea that engaging students from as early as sixth grade can make sure they stay on track, and identifying troubled teens early and devoting alternative resources to those students will help keep them there. It looks to better prepare students for both college and going directly to a career.

Obama will outline the plan at an America's Promise Alliance Education event today at the Chamber of Commerce with Colin Powell and Alma Powell. The White House said Obama will talk about the need to reform the worst schools, and in some cases shut them down or take them over.

Read more »

Education

GOP Senate Candidate Pat Toomey Praises Obama's School Speech

Eric Kleefeld | September 8, 2009, 12:55PM

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA)

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA), the presumptive nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010, seems to really be going out of his way to shed his old image of being a right-wing fire-breather. In the latest example, Toomey's campaign has released a statement praising President Obama's back-to-school speech:

Allentown, PA - U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey called President Obama's speech today to school children in Arlington, Virginia "an inspiring and moving speech for students across America."

"Education is the cornerstone of our country's future," Mr. Toomey said, "and it is important that we relay that message to our young students. The President's emphasis on responsibility and the personal stories about his own education are exactly the kind of inspiring messages our children need to hear from our country's leaders."

Read more »

Education

Rove: I Bet "A Dime To A Dollar" That White House Rewrote School Speech

Eric Kleefeld | September 8, 2009, 12:00PM

Karl Rove

Karl Rove appeared on Fox News today, and joined in on the emerging right-wing line that the White House changed the text of the back-to-school speech -- which they say would have originally been aimed at political indoctrination of schoolchildren -- after conservatives objected. And Rove also charged that the whole speech is an improper use of government resources to advance President Obama's political profile.

"Oh, I bet it was," Rove said, when he was asked whether it was rewritten. "I mean, look, the White House was tone deaf, they clearly had a purpose here, which was, let's have the President speak to every student in the country, let's have a study guide, let's have them write the President and the President can write them back.

Read more »

Education

More And More Schools Not Showing Obama's Stay-In-School Speech

Eric Kleefeld | September 7, 2009, 6:04PM

It's become clear that as President Obama delivers his speech on staying in school, a whole lot of schools won't be showing it.

As we noted before, some local groups are organizing in favor of the speech, and opposing school officials who have decided not to show it. Most schools are doing the sensible thing and allowing parents who object to their kids seeing a speech by that evil socialist dictator to opt out. But some aren't showing it at all.

Here's just a small sampling of some more schools and school districts that won't be showing the speech, available after the jump.

Read more »

Education

Gibbs: Attacks Against Stay-In-School Speech "A Sad State of Affairs"

Eric Kleefeld | September 7, 2009, 2:26PM

White House Press Sec. Robert Gibbs

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today fired back at right-wing critics who have attacked President Obama's upcoming stay-in-school speech. From today's press gaggle:

"I think it's a sad, sad day that the political back and forth has intruded on anyone speaking to schoolchildren and teachers and parents about the responsibilities that they have as we enter a new school year. If one kid in one school hears one message and goes from being a D student to a C student, then the speech is worth it. If one kid decides not to drop out of school, then the speech is worth it. Right now nearly three in 10 kids in school will not walk across a stage and get a high school diploma. If anybody thinks that's the recipe for long-term economic growth, I've got news for them.

Read more »

Education

Gingrich Praises Obama's School Speech: "Will Be Good For Students To Hear"

Eric Kleefeld | September 7, 2009, 2:15PM

Newt Gingrich

A voice of sanity is now emerging on the right over President Obama's stay-in-school speech tomorrow: Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich put up this Twitter post this afternoon, after the White House released the text of the speech:

Just read President Obamas speech to students.white House posted it. it is a good speech and will be good for students to hear

And he followed it up with this:

Remember that Presidents Reagan and Bush also talked to students nationwide. As long as it is non political and pro education it is good

Gingrich also appeared yesterday on Fox News Sunday, and spoke out in favor of the speech.

Barack Obama

Obama: "And Yes, I'm Gonna Have Something To Say Tomorrow To Our Children"

Eric Kleefeld | September 7, 2009, 1:53PM

During his speech now at the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic, President Obama just got in an ad-libbed jab at the right-wingers who are speaking out against his back-to-school speech.

Obama said he was for "an America that commits to education, because the countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. And the best jobs will go to the best-educated. So we got to do a better job educating our sons and our daughters."

He then deviated from the prepared remarks -- and the crowd cheered quite passionately along with it: "And yes, I'm gonna have something to say tomorrow to our children, telling them to stay in school and work hard, 'cause that's the right message to send."

After the extended cheering quieted down a bit, Obama let out a brief laugh, and continued with his remarks.