Rubio Comes Out Against Obama’s College Plan

[ProSense]

Rubio Comes Out Against Obama’s College Plan

In a statement to TPM, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said that the senator would oppose President Barack Obama's plan to make college more affordable.

"While I share the President's goal of making college tuition more affordable, I'm strongly opposed to his plan to impose new Federal standards on higher education institutions," Rubio said. "This is a slippery slope, and one that ends with the private sector inevitably giving up more of its freedom to innovate and take risks."

Obama announced his plan Thursday in a speech in Buffalo, N.Y. The centerpiece of the president's plan is a new rating system for colleges, which the administration hopes to eventually tie to federal student loans. But that would require approval from Congress.

<...>

In background materials provided to TPM before Rubio's statement was issued, the White House noted Rubio's prior sponsorship in May of a bill that would, according to Rubio's office, "ensure that a wide range of accurate, comparative and easy to understand data about colleges would be readily available online for prospective students and their families." The bill never left the Senate Commitee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/rubio-comes-out-against-obamas-college-plan

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Obama wants to make college more affordable

The Republicans apparently think we can't have that. The Republicans are also against minimum wage hikes.

But remember, both parties are the same...or so I've been told.

[denverbill]

2. If they want to innovate and take risks, do it with their own money, not mine.

Why not privately guaranteed student loans for private schools, publicly guaranteed student loans for public schools.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

3. It ain't private sector if it's getting federal tax dollars, ass clown!

If a college wants to get no federal dollars, they can do whatever the he'll they feel like. You fucking welfare queen.

[frazzled]

5. To the extent that "private sector" schools get federal loans for their students

you can actually say that they are getting federal tax dollars. And it's what allows them to keep in the tuition-mill game, while providing few results.

I think most of Obama's plan is (once again) aimed at getting rid of these for-profit colleges, which eat up a lot of student aid, lure kids in by telling them they can get Pell Grants and other money, get them into debt, teach them very little, and produce relatively worthless degrees ... for the few who actually manage to graduate from them before giving up. It's a huge racket (one that this administration tried to attack in the first term) and one I suspect Rubio would like to protect. Very, very "private sector."

If the new rating system takes into account not just costs but costs versus results, these private, for-profit ventures are going to kiss their ability to get Federal loan dollars goodbye, and they will not survive.

Harvard or Princeton are private schools (though non-profit) that are very expensive, but a degree from one of those institutions can generally buy you a lot for the rest of your life. State universities are relatively affordable and also provide a pretty good value for the dollar. As opposed to say, Kaplan and their ilk ... which are businesses that prey on the unsuspecting, usually poor student.

List of for-profit colleges and universities here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_for-profit_universities_and_colleges

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. Very good summary of the situation

I agree with your assessment.

[Puzzledtraveller]

7. Great insight

thanks.

[JustAnotherGen]

12. Hit the nail on the head

Those for Private Colleges - first to go under this initiative.


And once again - it's 'Opposite Day' with the Republicans.


Obama could say "Marco Rubio is a kind, handsome and heckuva guy" and Marco Rubio himself would stick his tongue out and say, "No I'm not. I'm mean, ugly, and a loser."

[FarCenter]

21. The majority of private colleges are not for-profit, but are (or were) supported by a religious sect

From Boston College to Pepperdine.

[JustAnotherGen]

28. Niagara Grad

And clarity - Private and For Profit. The degree mills that promise a job as a medical professional.

Monroe Community College can get someone a two year nursing assistants degree for far less money.

We need more community colleges and less of the others. Make them prove their numbers exist.

[onehandle]

4. Rubio better hope he can trick enough Latinos to vote for him in 2016. nt

[markiv]

8. my health care premiums went up 80% since 'affordable' health care act

if he's going to make college more 'affordable' does that mean tuition is going up 80 percent also?

[ProSense]

9. Your insurance company is ripping you off, and it has nothing to do with the health care law.

Get rid of them, they're stealing your money.

[markiv]

11. just putting 2 and 2 together

they can raise my rates 80 percent, still keep out competition, and there's really nothing i can do about it

having a tough time seeing where 'affordable' describes it

[frazzled]

14. Surprising, since health care premiums rose on average only 4% this year

and 5% the previous year. You must be buying your insurance from the Come On Down and Let Me Rob You Blind health insurance company. Did you buy it from a robocall sales pitch?

The surprisingly modest premium increases in health insurance, as compared to before the ACA (which actually doesn't start till October) has been big news for the past several days. If you're getting ripped off by an unscrupulous company, it seems you have your own poor shopping habits to blame, not the Affordable Care Act. Because it seems to be doing a damned good job of keeping the rise in health care costs down ... and it hasn't even gotten into full gear yet!

Premiums for employer-provided health insurance have increased by relatively modest amounts this year, according to a new survey, a further sign that once-torrid health care inflation has abated for now.

The average annual premium for a family rose 4 percent in 2013, to $16,351, according to the survey results released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Annual premiums for individual policies purchased through an employer rose 5 percent, to $5,884.

The 4 percent increase for a family is relatively tame, at least compared with the roughly 10 percent annual increases experienced a decade ago.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/business/survey-finds-modest-rise-in-health-insurance-premiums.html

[ProSense]

15. LOL!

"the Come On Down and Let Me Rob You Blind health insurance company"

[SoCalDem]

16. ACA has not kicked in yet.. your insurance company is a bottom-feeding gouger

or your employer is a rightwing nutcase who's lying to you about what they actually pay, so they don't have to give you a raise..

Some employers have had a sneaky way to avoid raises.. tell the employee how expensive his/her coverage has gotten, as they transfer more and more cost to YOU......are you really sure about what the coverage costs the boss? or did the boss just figure out a way to keep "raise-money" for themselves?

[markiv]

19. it's an individual plan, a certain colored cross and shield

so it has nothing to do with employer

[cloudbase]

10. Just like Groucho.

Whatever it is, I'm against it.

[Johonny]

22. +1

[TBF]

13. Why don't they just lower the interest rates so we can

actually pay back the loans we took out? I still don't understand why the bankers get all the bail-outs and the rest of us are stuck with their crappy products.

[ProSense]

17. Interest rates are about loan repayment. The tuition schools charge is a separate issue.

This is about the value of the education, and institutions that rip off students.

[TBF]

18. OK - so fixing it for the future

that's cool. They could also help current repayment by lowering interest rates a bit ... just a thought for the administration.

[Cha]

24. There's this.. "Obama signs bipartisan student loan bill into law"

snip//

President Barack Obama Friday signed into law a bipartisan student loan bill which the House overwhelmingly approved late week. The Senate OK’d the measure by a vote of 81 to 18 two weeks ago.

Without congressional action, interest rates on loans to college students were increasing from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. But under the law signed by Obama the interest rate for undergraduate loans will fall back to 3.86 percent. The interest rate on graduate student loans will be 5.41 percent.

Obama’s signature on the bill ends months of arguments over how much the federal government should subsidize student loans and whether students in the next several years will face crushing repayment burdens if interest rates go up, as most observers expect they will.

snip//

At the signing ceremony at the White House, attended by King and other members of Congress, Obama said it "feels good signing bills. I haven't done this in a while."

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/09/19951265-obama-signs-bipartisan-student-loan-bill-into-law?lite

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110213433

[TBF]

25. Well it's something --

Elizabeth Warren's comment was good tho:

One Democrat who supported the Reed bill, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, called the final compromise bill “obscene.” She said that supporters of the bill “say that it will lower interest rates for students this year, and that's all that matters. That's the same thing the credit card companies said when they sold zero-interest credit cards and the same thing subprime mortgage lenders said when they sold teaser rate mortgages.”

She added, “Nobody disputes the fact that within just a few years, according to our best estimates, students, all students, will end up paying far higher interest rates on their loans than they do right now.”

[Cha]

26. It's something to keep working on. If we work hard at getting Dems

in Congress..there's a much better chance of rates not going higher in years to come.

[CBGLuthier]

20. I swear to god one of these days some fucking republican will come out against

something Obama proposes a week before he even has the idea.

[Cha]

23. Of course he does.. that's what dipshits do. nm

[Lobo27]

27. The reason republicans are against anything to make college afforable.

Is that that big banks love them. Think about it, I read that on student loans the Fed charges banks 0.75% and the banks charge students 3-6%. Think the republicans or anyone who benefits from bank money wants to cut the hand that feeds them.