MORNING MESSAGE: Student Debt Crisis Runs Deeper Than Rate Debate
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Interest rates for student loans will double on July 1 unless Congress acts. That's outrageous - but the fiscal abuse of our nation's young people runs far deeper than that. An entire generation has been trapped into debt servitude and joblessness by the implacable machinery of Wall Street greed ... Jobless or overextended college graduates aren't even allowed to declare bankruptcy - a privilege that's extended to every reckless investor and mismanaged corporation in the nation. Once they finally find work, college graduates face years of garnished wages to repay the loans that funded their often-overpriced educations. If they haven't repaid that debt by the time they grow old - a very real possibility at the cost of a college education today - they'll even be forced to surrender part of their Social Security benefits. That's indentured servitude." CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION.
GOP Offers Disingenuous Student Loan Bill
Speaker Boehner shifts, offers bill to stop student loan rate hike ... by cutting health care. The Hill: "Taking funds from the preventative healthcare fund ensures the law will not make it to Obama’s desk, but it is likely to get through the House and would give Republicans leverage in a final fight with Democrats over extending the loan rates that is likely to center on how to pay for its cost. The decision to move the student loan measure was so last-minute that GOP lawmakers filing onto the House floor for a vote at 4:45 p.m. had no idea that a student loan bill was even under consideration."
GOP Sen. Roy Blunt actually blames "ObamaCare" for high student loan rates. ThinkProgress debunks: " In fact, the rate was set back in 2007, when President Bush signed a Democratic-backed law to lower the rate from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. That law expires on July 1 of this year, and the lower rates end along with it. The Affordable Care Act and President Obama are entirely irrelevant. Blunt is likely thinking of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), a bill that was attached to the Affordable Care Act. And while it did not affect loan rates, it did remove banker middlemen from the student loan process, which will save taxpayers millions of dollars."
GOP Offers Disingenuous Violence Against Women Act Bill
House GOP tries to block Violence Against Women Act without admitting it. W. Post: "The Senate appears likely to approve a measure Thursday to reauthorize the 18-year-old Violence Against Women Act ... Republicans have shifted their attention to the House, where a group of Republican women announced Wednesday that they will introduce an alternative version of the legislation ... Senate Democrats note their legislation was written in consultation with victims advocates and was introduced with the support of a filibuster-proof 61 senators, including eight Republicans ... Three provisions have proven controversial with some Republicans. One would add new language barring discrimination in programs funded through the act on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. Another would allow law enforcement to issue as many as 5,000 more visas annually to illegal immigrants who cooperate in prosecutions of major crimes. Another section of the law would give federal courts new authority over non-Native American men who abuse Native American women on tribal reservations..."
More from Roll Call: "Differences between the two bills will have to be reconciled in a conference, which could delay enactment of a measure complicated by political considerations. Of course, the fact that a conference committee is even being contemplated could bode well for an eventual compromise. ... The House bill, which should be fully drafted by the end of the week, could be considered by the House Judiciary Committee the week of May 7 and on the House floor the following week ..."
Dems Consider Disingenuousness of Rubio DREAM Act Proposal
GOP Sen. Marco Rubio's sketchy proposal for a DREAM Act compromise gets uncertain response. W. Post: "...ome of the activists say they are open to Rubio’s effort — even though it would stop short of a provision in the Democratic-backed Dream Act to create a path to citizenship — because it would at least provide some relief to people at risk of being deported ... Democrats are reluctant to see Rubio’s efforts as anything other than a political gambit to repair his party’s tarnished image with Hispanics ... [A WH] official said that the president welcomed any serious effort from Republicans to forge a bipartisan approach but that it was impossible to fully judge Rubio’s plan until it appears in writing as a bill."
Rubio meets with trio of Dems. HuffPost: "[Rep. Luis] Gutierrez said in an email that he left the meeting 'feeling optimistic' that Rubio and Democrats will continue to talk, adding that details of the senator's plan are fluid."
Supreme Court signals it will uphold key part of AZ anti-immigrant law. LAT: "U.S. Supreme Court justices strongly suggested they would uphold a provision in Arizona's tough immigration law that tells police to check whether people they stop for some other reason are in this country legally. But several justices also suggested they were troubled by parts of the law that would make it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work or not to carry immigration documents."
Bernanke V. Krugman
Bernanke rejects Krugman call for higher inflation target to create more jobs. W. Post quotes: "The question is, does it make sense to actively seek a higher inflation rate in order to achieve a slightly increased pace of reduction in the unemployment rate? That would be very reckless.”
Krugman responds: "It’s basically an assertion that we’re doing all right, maybe could do a bit better, but not worth endangering the Fed’s reputation — oh, and as long as we don’t have actual deflation, no problem. This is not at all the tone of Bernanke’s Japan analysis; remember, Japan had nowhere near as high unemployment as we do, and his analysis back then was not simply focused on ending deflation. Disappointing stuff."
Austerity Backlash Grows In Europe
Faced with outcry over double-dip recession, Britain PM Cameron doubles down on austerity. NYT quotes: "More debt and more spending is what got us into this problem. It can’t be the solution of the problem.”
European Central Bank prez rejects calls for stimulus. NYT quotes: "This is a source of pain, [but] we must persevere."
Likely new French president calls for new European fiscal treaty. NYT: "...Mr. Hollande said that he would propose four modifications to the European Union treaty, favored by Germany and approved in March but not yet ratified. Most significant, perhaps, he called for the creation of collective euro bonds, but to be used to finance industrial infrastructure projects, not to consolidate debt, which the Germans oppose. He said he would also call for a financial transaction tax, as his rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy has done, and for loosening up regulations to allow unused European Union structural funds to be spent on growth. Finally, he urged the European Investment Bank to place a greater emphasis on job creation in its allocation of financing."
House Appropriations Cmte puts Congress on path for another shutdown showdown. Politico: "...the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a set of Republican-backed spending targets that break with the August debt accords ... leading to what could be another government shutdown fight Oct. 1 when a new fiscal year begins and the GOP must come to terms with the White House and Democratic Senate."
