Dear Commons Community,

Senate Republicans today blocked a bill that would have frozen  student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent before they are set to double on July 1, 2012.  In a partisan vote of 52 to 45, the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed to begin debate on the Democratic bill.

The Huffington Post is quoting Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and a former U.S. Secretary of Education:

“In a show of just how much politics is driving the debate, Alexander repeatedly said that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney supports keeping the interest rate on student loans at 3.4 percent.  “We agree with President Obama, we agree with Gov. Romney, we agree with the House of Representatives that it should stay at 3.4 percent,” he said. “The only difference is how we pay for it. They want to raise taxes on people who are creating jobs, while we’re still in the midst of the greatest recession since the Great Depression.”

How Sad!  Millionaires First – Needy Students Second!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

David Brooks in his column in today’s New York Times promotes correcting  the structural problems with the American economy.  The essence of his argument is that the American economy no longer can sustain itself with quick or short-term fixes.  He comments that the economy is not simply in a downturn or in a down cycle  that will recover if and when good times return (cyclicalist view) but has major structural problems including a growing and eventually devastating amount of debt ($1 trillion per year).

Brooks makes a number of other important observations about globalization, education, and employment opportunities.

He concludes:

“In the United States, there are almost no politicians willing to embrace the cyclicalist agenda, which would mean much larger deficits. Structuralists don’t have a perfect champion either. President Obama is too minimalist. He doesn’t seem to believe America’s structural problems are that big, making his reform ideas small. Mitt Romney and Representative Paul Ryan understand the size of the structural problems, but their reform plans are constrained by the Republican Party’s single-minded devotion to tax cuts.”

Sobering commentary!

Tony