SCOTUS Ruling Doesn’t Give Biden Free Reign On Student Loans

You may have seen that the Supreme Court has issued a ruling that basically states that there were student loans that could be forgiven. This only effects a few thousand of the millions of student loans out there, and doesn’t effect most of the colleges and universities in the country. There were only a handful of schools that were told they had to cancel the loans, and it had nothing to do with Biden’s fiasco.

There’s a LOT more to it than that.

There were three colleges (not necessarily universities) that had asked the highest court in the land to disallow the forgiveness of debts, but not for the same reasons as the Biden administration argued. Everglades College, Lincoln Educational Service Corp. and American National University, filed suit with the high court seeking a halt to an already agreed upon class action settlement that had nothing to do with Biden’s wiping out student loan debt.

This case dealt with students that had successfully argued they took out loans after receiving misleading or false information from the schools. There were about 3,800 loans that qualified to be erased, totaling about $6 billion, far less than what Biden is talking about.

The schools had been placed on a list of colleges that the federal government labeled as “Substantial Misconduct”.

Biden’s case has already been heard by the Supremes and their decision will be made public in a couple of months. Biden’s plan is skating on extremely thin ice on several issues. First of all, Biden himself (and the Department of Education) has issued the cancellation notice, not the Congress. Since the debt isn’t really going to be cancelled, but transferred to the taxpayers, making it a new tax. Biden doesn’t have the authority to tax anyone. That’s Congress’ job. And if Congress would have passed a bill prior to this past January saying they were going to go along with his plan, it would have been OK. It would have had the same weight as the whole Obamacare thing did back in 2012, when the Supreme Court issued a ruling stating that Congress has the right to tax people, and that’s what they were doing (even though Obama’s people swore up and down this wasn’t a tax).

There’s another fly in Biden’s ointment that is going to come back to bite him in the rear end. He has repeatedly said that he used the “Hero’s Act” as the reason why he was cancelling the debt. That was actually passed by Congress back a ways and gave service men and women who were serving their country overseas, the ability to defer their debts or in some cases cancel them altogether because they were serving their country and couldn’t tackle the day to day chore of bill paying. It had nothing to do with students. Biden applied the act to students because of COVID. Well, Biden himself has set May 11th as the end of the national emergency dealing with the COVID pandemic. So, one could reasonably argue that after that date, there is no reason to use the “Hero’s Act”, because after May 11th, there is no national emergency.

There is no reason in the world for the high court to rule in favor of Biden on this one. His was a calculated plan to try and get out the vote in the midterm by announcing that he was going to forgive billions in debt to students, and shifting that debt to the American public. What’s interesting is that about 70% of America was against this. The bill shifted the debt to hard working Americans who had either already paid off their student loan debts years ago, or had never gone to college and had to pay off the debts of someone that did, and would, according to most research make more money than the folks that got stuck paying off the bill.

Now, you add to that the fact that no one held a gun to these students’ heads and forced them to take out a loan to pay for college, nor to major in something like Women’s Studies, or Art History, or Philosophy, which gives them zero chance at getting a decent job in their field, and you’ve got a major problem that has been foisted on the public by the colleges and the universities who wanted to show how “woke” they were. Those three are just examples of some of the worthless degrees that are being offered by some rather prestigious universities these days. The problem is, there aren’t many jobs available for any of them!

And so, for the three colleges on the fed’s “Substantial Misconduct” list, they have to bite the bullet and erase the debt. More businesses masquerading as “higher learning institutions” are going to be going out of business!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The China Problem

Joe Biden has a rather large problem. It’s called China. And it’s not going to go away on it’s own. The mere fact that Xi Jinping traveled to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin is certainly cause for alarm. But the whole thing goes much deeper than that. And I really don’t think anyone in the Biden administration has a clue on what to do about it. Except that Joe has made so much money from China, he doesn’t want to upset them any further.

Let’s look at some (not all…just a few) of the problems.

First off, you’ve got the total trade imbalance. The US currently exports about $120 billion in goods to China. We import $539 billion. That’s a deficit of $419 billion. And that’s a problem because China controls a lot of what we need in order to survive. Have you gone to the pharmacy to have a prescription filled and been told that they are “out” of the medication? There is a huge shortage right now of medicine in this country, and a lot of the medications we depend on come from China. There is a small move a foot to get some of those jobs sent back to the United States, but it’s years away from becoming commonplace. Then you’ve got the whole computer chip industry that’s taking place in the “second China”, Taiwain. We are starting to make inroads there, but that takes years. China currently makes 12% of the world’s chips. Taiwan makes 54%. The US? We currently add about 12% to the total. Between China and Taiwan, they make two-thirds of the world’s chips.

Let’s look at another area…education. China is sending their students here to get educated. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, they all are full of Chinese students. Currently, over 369,000 students studying at American universities are Chinese. And the rumor is that an awful lot of them are sending information back to the Communist Party in China. Yes, we are being spied on by Chinese students. What the Chinese can’t learn through our education system, they steal.

What about espionage. Do you think those balloons that floated over the US (and continue to by the way) a few weeks back were just on vacation? Of course not. And we allowed them to fly over military installations. China knows much more about us than we know about them.

China has infiltrated our youth through TikTok. And though TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew testified yesterday in Congress that his company isn’t doing anything untoward, they continue to track everything our kids are doing. There are over 150 million users in the United States alone on that social media platform. That’s about half the country! And they can listen in to what you’re saying, they can watch what you do and where you go, and they can send videos to you that THEY decide you should watch, regardless of whether it’s something you want your kids seeing or not.

While the US is mired in debates over stupid stuff like transgenderism, and liberal pronoun usage, the Chinese are beating us in every category out there. They have bought and paid for our president many times over, and continue to do so.

So, what’s the answer?

What needs to happen is the United States first needs to realize what is happening here. Second, we need to do something about it, and that will take time to unspool ourselves from China. They are so ingrained in our way of life today, that is not going to be an easy task. There will be pain, trust me. But we need to pull the plug on China. We can start by stopping all of those container ships coming over here and not do business with them. We can stop sending them stuff too. We can expel the 369,000 students here and send them back. And we need to develop a way to create medicines here, and if we don’t have the rare earth materials we need, we need to develop them artificially in the lab. And that all takes time.

Second thing we need to do is bring back our businesses from China. We need to stop sending them our best and brightest ideas to manufacture. We need to take Coca Cola, and Nike, and the millions of other businesses that are over there producing wares, and shipping them back here. We need to bring those jobs and those businesses back to the US. In order to do so, we need to make it so expensive for those companies to do business there. If you make it unprofitable for them to be there, they will return. Congress can certainly do that.

China has become more than a nuisance. They have become a millstone around our necks. And if we don’t do something about it, you’re going to be having ducks feet for dinner real soon!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Can ChatGPT Be The Answer?

ChatGPT has been in the news a lot lately. In case you haven’t heard ChatGPT is a “chat bot” that basically is being used by students, and basically anyone that wants to write an essay or report to do so without much input from the person. It’s been blamed for being a mechanism for cheating, and there is no doubt that it is skirting the rules. After all, students are supposed to write their own essays and show their own research and ideas. ChatGPT basically takes that away from them and looks at things through whatever eyes it has and is programmed to do through it’s algorithms.

Want to see proof of what ChatGPT can do? I asked it to write a short essay on The Lone Cactus blog. I told it that the blog dealt with politics and the media. The rest was up to ChatGPT. Here’s what it came up with:

The Lone Cactus is a popular blog that discusses a wide range of political issues and topics related to the media. The author of the blog, who remains anonymous, offers a unique perspective on current events and challenges the mainstream narrative on a regular basis. This essay will explore the themes and messages conveyed through The Lone Cactus and examine how the blog contributes to our understanding of politics and the media.

One of the central themes of The Lone Cactus is the notion that the mainstream media is biased and often operates with a specific agenda. The author argues that many media outlets are no longer focused on providing objective news and analysis but are instead motivated by political ideology or financial gain. This idea is reflected in many of the blog’s posts, which often critique the media’s coverage of current events and highlight instances of media bias.

For example, in one recent post, the author criticizes the media’s coverage of the January 6th Capitol riot, arguing that the coverage was unfairly one-sided and focused too heavily on demonizing the protesters. The author suggests that this type of coverage is an example of the media pushing a specific narrative rather than providing objective news.

Another theme that emerges throughout The Lone Cactus is the idea that political correctness and cancel culture are stifling free speech and the exchange of ideas. The author often criticizes the left-wing media and social justice activists for promoting a culture of intolerance and for attempting to silence dissenting voices.

In one post, the author argues that the cancel culture movement is dangerous and undermines the principles of free speech and open debate. The author suggests that this movement is motivated by a desire to silence those with different views rather than engaging in honest dialogue and debate.

Overall, The Lone Cactus provides a thought-provoking and often controversial perspective on politics and the media. While some readers may disagree with the author’s views, the blog serves as an important reminder of the importance of critical thinking and independent analysis in today’s media landscape. By challenging the mainstream narrative and highlighting instances of media bias, The Lone Cactus encourages readers to question the information they receive and to seek out alternative viewpoints and sources of information.

In conclusion, The Lone Cactus is a valuable resource for anyone interested in politics and the media. While the blog may not always provide a balanced or objective perspective, it offers a unique and thought-provoking take on current events that challenges readers to think critically and engage in open debate. By shining a light on media bias and promoting free speech and open dialogue, The Lone Cactus serves as an important voice in today’s political and media landscape.

It comes close, but I wouldn’t say it’s spot on when it comes right to the point. It’s interesting to say the least but I don’t think I ever would have risked a grade in college on what this machine and algorithms would say!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The Final Word On Student Loan Debt

You KNEW it was going to end up with SCOTUS, right? I mean, when Biden announced that he was going to wipe some $400 billion off the books, which was basically another lie because he was transferring it to the rest of America, you KNEW that the states weren’t going to go for that.

And they didn’t.

Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on why the government should and shouldn’t be allowed to wipe away the student loan debt. Initially, the plan is to drop up to $10,000 from anyone making $125,000 a year or less, or with a married filing jointly income of $250,000 or less. If the person had a Pell Grant, they could take up to $20,000 off what they owe.

OK, so that’s the plan, the numbers say that it’s going to cost us (you and me) about $400 billion over the next 30 years. Now, can anyone tell me the last time the government got the estimated cost of anything right? Buhler…Buhler… That’s right. The answer is never. They usually are two to five times below what the final costs are going to be. So, count on paying up to $2 trillion! The good news is, I’ll probably be dead in 30 years!

There are 40 million student loan borrowers in the country that are eligible for at least some forgiveness. If there is a silver lining in this anywhere it’s that 53% of them owe less than $10,000.

But the high court heard arguments Tuesday on two different levels. First there is the lawsuit from two students that have loan debt, but they wouldn’t benefit from all of the provisions. I really expect the high court to deny both of these petitioners their day. One of the students claims that they were denied because back in the day, their parents made too much money to qualify them for any relief. The other says she didn’t qualify because the loan was “privately held”.

The second part of the lawsuit is from six states, mostly in the midwest. They are fighting this on the basis that it’s not loan forgiveness, but rather a loan shift. It will still be paid back, only the US taxpayers will be the ones doing the paying. The fly in the ointment for the Biden administration (among others) is the fact that the President cannot pass new taxes. That requires Congress to get involved. So, if the money is being shifted to the taxpayers, that’s a tax increase. That’s illegal.

Of course, there is the moral aspect to this as well. No one held a gun to the head of these students and told them they HAD to take out a loan in the first place. They were totally free not to accept the terms of the agreement and to walk away. They chose not to do that. Another problem I personally have is that it sets a terrible precedent. If I take out a new mortgage loan on my house now, and decide in two years that I don’t have the money to pay for the loan, can I ask for a bailout? Why not? It’s been given to students because they were dumb enough to take it. Why not me?

And then of course, there is the fact that those are people that chose to get a higher education. It’s not like they were forced to go to college. And they could be forcing people who didn’t go to college to pay their debt. They also are forcing people like me that actually DID go to college, and DID pay back debt, to pay more debt. That’s debt that I frankly, didn’t incur, and shouldn’t have to pay back.

And finally, the straw that will break the camel’s back in this situation is the fact that Biden chose to use the “Emergency Clause”, which isn’t even written for students. It became law because of people serving overseas in the armed services. If they got into trouble paying back a loan because they were serving their country, they could have the loan or a part of it forgiven. It has nothing to do with college students. And of course, the fact that Biden tied it to the COVID pandemic, when he claims is over, and is officially set to end (according to the government) on May 11th. If there is no longer an “emergency”, then why do we need to have loan forgiveness? The students haven’t had to make payments on the loan since Donald Trump incorporated the waiver back in 2020 when the pandemic first hit. Biden keeps kicking the can down the road with extensions on waiving payments.

I would be very surprised by anything less than a 6-3 repudiation of Biden’s attempt to bypass the Constitution and impose a tax on America without Congress’ consent. Mark my words, no one will be getting their student loan debt forgiven. Bet the kids’ college fund on it! You can collect in early July when the ruling is released.

Carry on world…you’re dismiss.

Who Is The Most Dangerous Person In The World?

I think if you were to ask 100 people who the most dangerous person in the world is right now, depending on their political persuasion, they would say either Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, or maybe Ali Khamenei. You may even get some die-hard Republicans saying that the most dangerous person in the world right now is one, Joseph Robinette Biden. And, you’d probably get a lot of people to agree with you.

But I saw an interesting interview with Mike Pompeo the other day. He feels that the most dangerous person in the entire world right now is one Randi Weingarten…president of the American Federation of Teachers union. And by gum, he makes a pretty good argument for it.

He says, we’ll get Putin figured out. We’ll probably get Xi figured out if we haven’t already. Kim Jong Un, we probably will never have him figured out, but I doubt he’s capable of doing much harm…just a lot of saber rattling. As for Ali Khamenei, yeah, I can say he’s probably in the running (he’s the Supreme Leader of Iran by the way), but when you take into account the damage that Weingarten has done to this country over the past few decades, she very well could top all of the despots mentioned.

Don’t think that’s true? Who do you think was behind the whole teaching transgender stuff to six year olds? How about teaching Critical Race Theory, and trying to eliminate the contribution that whites made to the formation of this country? Who do you think was all for keeping the schools shut down during COVID, to the point that every single student in America has fallen farther and farther behind other students from around the world? Who do you blame most of all for “the dumbing down of America”? There is only one person who can be fingered for all of those atrocities, and that’s one Randi Weingarten.

She is the one person that has started the whole mess between school boards and parents. She is the one person that has vowed to make our kids and our grandkids more “accepting” of socialism. She has poisoned the mind of millions of youth in this country. She was behind taking prayer out of school, of stopping the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in class before the start of each school day. She is the one behind teaching sex education to kindergarteners, and pro-abortion philosophy to third graders. And you don’t think that makes her dangeous?

Go to YouTube and watch videos of the “Man on the Street” segments where they ask younger folks simple questions. Questions like “How many stars are on the American flag?” or “What country does Hawaii belong to?” Ask those same people what three squared is. How many of them will come up with the answer of six? (It’s 9).

Yes, you can blame the teachers, but the ultimate authority figure in the schools in this country is Randi Weingarten. She is the one that is at the heart of ruining our country. She is guilty of treason, no matter how you define it. And she is the one that should pay for her sins.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Jill Biden On Education Is Like Me Running A Car Company…

I don’t care if Jill Biden has experience in the classroom or not. She doesn’t have a lot of great ideas when it comes to education. She sounds more like Randi Weingarten than she does someone that basically is supposed to have a PhD (she doesn’t…it’s an Ed.D…the same degree Bill Cosby holds). She still insists on being called “Doctor Jill Biden”, even though technically, it’s not a PhD. She got it, by the way from the University of Delaware. The reason it’s not a PhD is simply because the University rejected her dissertation as “as sloppy, poorly written, non-academic, and barely fit for a middle-school Social Studies classroom.” Yikes!

But Jill Biden and I do agree on a couple of things regarding education. Our system is a mess. We will differ radically on the reasons, and the fixes. You’ve heard hers, here’s mine.

I agree with Jill Biden that we need to pay teachers more. We need to respect teachers more. That’s where we agree. I think starting salary for teachers should be $100,000. They are molding our kids’ brains, after all. Where Jill Biden and I disagree is how to get at that starting salary.

Teachers should have at the very least, a masters degree. When I was in school back in the stone age, I actually had teachers in high school who were only five years older than me. They had just gotten out of college. They weren’t ready for the classroom (and they weren’t ready for me!) Yes, teachers who have advanced degrees get paid more at pretty much any school district, so the incentive is there. But it’s not a requirement. And you’ve got people as teachers who are not that smart, and are lazy. They are everywhere. Those folks needed to be weeded out. One way to do that is through a system of tests or ratings that the teachers would go through on a regular basis. Another thing teachers should be required to do is to take on-going training. I don’t care if you’ve been in the classroom for 50 years, you are behind the times unless you get trained on the latest techniques that are working elsewhere. Those are things that can be done to make sure teachers are respected. As we’ve seen with Jill’s husband, you don’t respects someone who’s terrible at their job. That holds teachers as well as presidents. And trust me, the kids know who the good teachers are and who the bad apples are. They aren’t being fooled.

One thing I would do immediately is to dissolve the teachers’ unions. Unions were put together for one reason and that was to protect the worker and make sure they were paid for their efforts. What’s happened since the days of Joseph Riis was that rather than train their members and keep them informed of the latest developments (like the trade unions do with their apprenticeships), teachers’ unions set the bar to protect the lowest member’s abilities and they protect that person. That’s a terrible way to improve anything because 99% are going to be better than the low bar naturally.

The next thing I would do, and parents are going to hate this, is make school a year round thing. Yes, there would be ample time for vacations in the summer, but school is best mastered when you do it. If you take three months off every year, you lose some of what you’ve learned. As for curriculum, I think what needs to be done is a totally non-biased curriculum that doesn’t pander to race, gender, sex, or nationality. There would be no Critical Race Theory because while we haven’t always been a nation that’s shined at handling race issues, it’s not about tearing anyone or anything down. School is about building up your mind. Period. It’s not there to indoctrinate you to some liberal idiot’s way of thinking. It’s to teach you a) how to think and b) open your eyes to the facts of the world. What they need to do is go back to the “3R’s” of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Need proof? Go watch any YouTube video on people trying to answer questions like, “How many stars are on an American flag”, or “Where is the United States Capital?” Be prepared to be shocked at how dumb some people are!

Teachers should be better compensated. Teachers should be better respected. But they’ll never get there with School Boards that tell parents that they are terrorists because they disagree with the curriculum that is being doled out on a daily basis. Teachers’ unions may have had a reason for being in the past, but nowadays it’s all about making more money. I say let each individual teacher be judged on his or her merit and compensated accordingly. You don’t need a union setting that standard. The good teachers are ALWAYS underpaid, and the bad ones are always overpaid.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

This Is What We Do To Fix Higher Education…

This whole thing with Biden “forgiving” the school debt for most of the people that have college debt has hit a nerve in the country. Yes, I will admit that there is a HUGE number of people that took out college loans, got degrees in fields where the prospects of landing a job are pretty much zero, and then can’t afford to pay their loans back. But I have one nagging question.

Why should I be responsible for paying back someone else’s loan?

The obvious answer is, I shouldn’t be. There are several things wrong with Biden’s plan… which pretty much follows his modus operandi throughout his presidency. First and foremost, you are teaching our kids that it’s OK to welch on a loan. And yes, I understand some of these kids can’t pay it off because they don’t have the money. That’s called a lesson. When my kids got into credit card debt when they went off to college, did I pay it back? Nope. They did. They both got extra jobs just to pay it off. They figured their own way out of it, because they were the ones that put themselves into debt. I’m happy to report that lesson was learned and they are both doing wonderfully well financially now.

The second problem is that Biden may have kept a campaign promise on “forgiving” debt, but he also broke a promise that taxes wouldn’t go up for anyone making under $400,000 a year. EVERYONE is getting a tax increase on this one to repay the debt. Debt, as Peter Doocy points out, doesn’t just disappear. It has to be reassigned.

Then there is the obvious problem of adding to the inflationary spiral. I don’t care how the Biden administration spins it, it is going to raise the inflation rate. It pumps more money into the economy and that’s what caused the inflation in the first place.

So, how to fix the problem?

First of all, I would place the impetus on colleges and universities. Tuition should be set no higher than what can be paid back in a set period of time. If historically, a college’s mean income of graduates after their second year out is $100,000, then they can charge $25,000 a year for their tuition. If it’s $40,000, then they can charge $10,000 a year. Most colleges and universities I’m familiar with have endowments that have billions of dollars in them. Harvard can afford to pay for 100% of student’s tuition for the next 200 years! If a college or university doesn’t adhere to this rule, they are taxed at nominal corporate tax rates for the total amount of revenue produced.

Second, professors at state affiliated universities, or private schools that accept federal college loans can make as much as they want from secondary pursuits such as speaking tours, expert witness programs, books, and publications, but their salary can be topped out at $100,000, and be increased annually at 25% of the inflation rate. They are a major part of the problem here.

Third, if a university accepts federal student loans, they are not allowed to solicit funds from their alumni. This is an incredible source of income for these institutions. If they violate this in any way, they are not allowed to raise their tuitions for 10 years.

Universities can only raise tuitions once every five years and no more than the fifth year’s inflation rate. Failure to adhere to this means they must keep tuition the same for 10 years.

That would be a start. If you really want to get crazy with it, we would need to get rid of degrees in programs that could not produce enough jobs to employ those graduation. I’m looking at art history, Egyptology, women’s studies, and the like. Those are areas that frankly don’t have a future in this country and need to be withdrawn from curriculum.

There you go! And if you really feel that I’ve done a great job here, you can all chip in and pay my share of paying for all of these deadbeats’ student loans that they got themselves into. No lesson learned there, that’s for sure!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Biden Is About To Step In It Again

For a guy that can boast a half century of public service at the national level, Joe Biden really doesn’t get it. He has been a part of a lot of history in the past fifty years or so. He’s seen an awful lot. And in that time, he’s gotten a lot wrong. Robert Gates, the former Defense Secretary in the Obama Administration echoed that sentiment. He’s a friggin’ Democrat. You would figure he’d at least have Biden’s back when it came to stuff like that. But that’s not all Biden has messed up.

And he’s about to do it again.

Biden has told the world that he’s still considering forgiving student loan debt. There are several problems with this, but Biden sees it as a way to get some of the youth vote. The problem is it won’t work on several fronts.

First of all, during the campaign, Biden promised to get rid of up to $50,000 in student loan debt. He’s basically put a hold on repayment during COVID, and wants to extend it through September, but now, he’s looking at actually forgiving debt. Not $50,000 per loan, but more like $10,000. There are problems galore with that.

First of all, students (millennials all) will not be happy with just getting $10k taken off what they owe. They were promised $50k to be forgiven. This is akin to Biden promising Georgians that if they voted for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock for the Senate, he’d make sure that the $2,000 checks would “go out in the mail tomorrow”. Well, it wasn’t $2,000, it was $1,400, and it took two months to get it done. Call it a semi-broken promise with the stimi checks, and it’ll be a semi-broken promise with the student loan forgiveness.

Second, it is going to cost the government $321 billion to remove that much student debt from the books. Basically, the government is going to write the check to the banks who granted the loans in the first place. That is just like the government printing more money. Do you know what that leads to? Inflation! At a time when Democrats in Congress are wracking their brains trying figure out how to slow down the inflation train that seems to be in runaway mode, Biden is trying to speed it up.

Third, while the forgiving student debt may be popular among today’s college crowd, and those with the debt, it’s not popular with people who have gone through the college loan dance and paid theirs off. It’s been asked multiple times if THEY would also get some sort of break on what they had to repay, and the answer repeatedly comes back as “NO!”. People that are out there working, dealing with 8.7% inflation, and gas prices at historic highs are not real keen on helping out college kids…especially those that majored in Women’s Studies, or Philosophy, and can’t find a job that pays more than minimum wage.

Finally, in case you’ve missed it, the economy in this country is not doing well. The GDP dropped 1.4% in the first quarter. That’s not a good sign. And when the government is going to step up and spend $321 billion that they don’t have to spend, it’s going to cause even further ripples. Remember…a recession is defined as two straight quarters of decline of the GDP. Well, we’ve had one. And traditionally when the Fed decides to raise interest rates, it doesn’t help the GDP a bit. The Fed has hinted they are going to raise interest rates seven times this year. And we are going to be looking at a recession next year for sure.

In short, the country cannot afford to tackle student loan debt today, or in the future. As someone that paid off my wife’s student loans back in the day, I’d be the first to say, if you took out $100,000 in student loans to study a major like Art History, or something that there aren’t any jobs in, you’ve made a bad life choice. You need to realize that. Rather than ask the rest of America to bail you out, I’d suggest you get another job, maybe one that allows you to make a real living, and stop working at McDonalds!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Forgiving Student Loan Debt?

Oh, it’s still on the table. That’s according to “Circle Back” Psaki, who said at her daily press briefing at the end of last week that yes, trying to extend the period of not penalizing those students who have racked up huge student loans any further interest or penalties for not paying them is still on the table.

It’s a HUGE mistake to do that.

Here’s why. There are several reasons why if Biden and his cronies decide to forgive student loans, they are making one of the biggest mistakes in American history, and that’s not just me trying to be flippant. It’s an out and out fact.

First of all, if you decide you’re going to forgive student loans, and let them expire without being repaid, what are you teaching those that took them out? You are sending them a message that if you happen to get in over your head financially, there are no consequences. Someone in government will “rescue” you. Someone will bail you out. It’s the exact same reason I was against the bank bailout of 2008, and the auto bailout of 2009. When you get in over your head, you have to figure a way to get out of it. The biggest lesson to learn is, don’t get in over your head in the first place. For instance, if you go off to a school like Yale, or Northwestern, or Stanford, and you’re not on scholarship, don’t major in something like art history or women’s studies. Those are dead end degrees. You will NEVER get your money back from majoring in those degrees regardless how much you may love them and agree with them.

The average student loan these days is a shade under $29,000. Over half of all students, whether attending public or private institutions have student debt. That’s the second caveat that these kids need to learn. If you are going to take out a student loan, you need to understand finances to the point where you can determine whether this is going to help you out or not. And to be honest, $29,000 isn’t that much student loan debt! The average “liberal arts degree” earns about $30,000 a year. That means you’re going to sacrifice about a year’s salary just to go to college. Is it worth it? Unless you’ve got a degree in business, the answer is probably no (unless you’re going to a post-university degree like an MBA or PhD).

Students have had it drilled into them since I was in high school, that to make a good living, you need to go to college. While the average college graduate makes about $18,000 a year more than the average high school graduate, that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to afford going to college. There are plenty of jobs out there that don’t require a college education, and can make you good scratch. Become an electrician or some other field in the trades. You have to join a union, but you will definitely make good money, and won’t have huge debt.

And while, I’m sure Bernie Sanders is doing nothing than trying to get the young people’s votes when it comes to telling them that he’s going to make college free, we’ve reached the point in our society where college has become enormously expensive. Not everyone needs it any more. Bill Gates never graduated college. Mark Zuckerberg never graduated from college. Those two seem to be doing OK. But if you are going to be a CPA, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or need a degree passed a bachelors’ degree, you need to go to post-secondary schooling. There is a cost for that. And no, you shouldn’t be dependent on the federal government to foot the bill. It’s simply an investment in your future. You just need to make sure that you are choosing the right avenue to get educated in.

I’ve got a niece through marriage that got a PhD in women’s studies. How exciting is that? She was unemployed forever after graduating (which took over a decade), and now teaches in a community college. She’s not at Harvard or Yale, or even Ball State or Creighton. She’s at a little community college. She will never make back in salary what she put forth in educational fees and expenses. That is the problem with choosing a bad major. THAT is what today’s high school students need to be educated in!

So, should the Biden administration follow Bernie Sander’s lead and forgive student loan debt? Absolutely not! If you take out a debt of any kind you need to learn to pay it back. If not, you’ve failed as a member of our society. We already have enough failures. They are called Democrats.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is It Time For Reeducation?

Oh, I’m sure this is going to upset some of you because of the word “reeducation”. It’s basically used in places like China and Russia where if you’re not following their political protocol, you get sent to a brainwashing camp and come out as a robot for the government. And in the strictest sense of the word, yeah…that’s kind of what I’m talking about here.

And is it time for us to do the same thing in the United States?

I mean, the left has had a reeducation program going on for the last forty years. It’s called public education. The NEA and the AFT unions have gotten control of the educational curriculum in this country and have bastardized it in such a way that they’ve poisoned the minds of pretty much every single person that’s graduated high school whether they have learned something or not.

Think I’m wrong?
Do something I refuse to do. Go sign up for TikTok and take a look at the posts. There you will find some of the most bodacious and idiotic creatures God has put on this planet. They are the ones that want to change their pronouns of how they describe themselves. They are the ones that think there are 102 different genders (hey…either you have an “outie” or you have an “innie”. That’s all you get!). They are the ones with nose rings and pink and purple hair. And I don’t have a problem with either of those last two. It is just that these people have a problem understanding reality. And they are all on display for the world to see.

By the way, in case you didn’t know (and I’m sure all of you folks to), TikTok is owned by the Chinese government. And these folks in China need to be looking at these posts and shaking their head in amazement. It’s a wonder these people posting stuff on there can get out of bed in the morning.

And how would I institute this “reeducation program”? Simple. I’d start by making these people learn the Constitution to the United States. They need to realize what rights are. They need to understand that rights are not man-derived, but are divine in nature and God-given. Now, that will shock several of them who have never once thought about a higher power. From there, we will jump into basic civics and government classes that teach them about how our government works, why it works so well (or at least used to), and what’s gone wrong with it today. And we will approach everything with a rather archaic stance. We’re going to look at America not as a place to protest and burn things, but to build things, be creative, and win. That’s the “great” America that Donald Trump talked about. What we saw in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, and other snowflake run cities over the past couple of years is not America. That’s what you get when socialism prevails, and these people need to be reeducated that socialist governments don’t work, never have worked, and never will work.

They should also learn that unless you’re printing money, putting an army together to defend your nation, or building infrastructure, private enterprise is always a better way to go than to have government in charge. Governmental solutions will cost more money, take more time, and provide you with a lesser quality finished product than if you let the private sector come up with the solution. And no…the private sector doesn’t need a grant from the government to do it. If they can see a way to making a profit on it, they will be happy to invest the money in research & development. Think I’m wrong? Look at the pharmaceutical industry. That’s all they do. They spend more money on R&D than anything else except marketing.

No, it’s time we reeducate the under 40 crowd out there. We need to pull back the reins of socialism before we become socialist. It won’t happen this year. But trust me, staying on this path…it WILL happen!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!