Should Student Loans Be a Cash Cow for Private Lenders?

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
July 16, 2009 – 10:23 am

student_loanTwenty years ago, I was able to go to college thanks to student loans, Pell Grants, and parents who worked really hard to help me become the first person in our family to go to college.   One of my favorite memories of Washington is the time I got to thank former Senator Clairborne Pell for championing an idea that helped the kids of working class families afford college, too (Pell, by the way, was one of the most decent men to ever serve in Congress).

So, I’ve always viewed with skepticism any plans to alter a college loan system that has helped millions of Americans afford college since the system was instituted in the mid-1960s.  I even questioned the Clinton Administration’s plan to institute a direct-lending program in the 1990s, to bypass banks as middlemen and go directly to students through universities.   Now, of course, Democrats are preparing to finish the job Clinton started and bypass banks altogether.  President Obama first proposed the idea as a candidate more than two years ago, and, as Ed points out, Congressman George Miller is introducing legislation to make direct-lending king.

Ed’s idea that this represents a government takeover of student loans overlooks the minor point that taxpayers already subsidize student loan interest rates and guarantee the loans, whether through direct lending or private firms.  It’s like the people who complain, “Get the government out of my Medicare.”  The reason it is a risk-free cash cow for private lenders is because the government pays 97 percent of the principal and interest should a student default — and lenders are still able to keep up to half of whatever they are able to get from students AFTER being repaid by the government.  Oh, and private lenders also charge higher interest rates than the government.   Read More »

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Student Loans Foreshadowing Health Care?

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 15, 2009 – 9:11 am

I don’t want to scare anyone, but if you really believe President Obama’s government-run health care option is just a benign attempt to inject some competition into the health care system (I’m lookin’ at you, Paul and Robert Reich), take a look at what Congressman George Miller is proposing for the student loan industry.

In today’s Politico, Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, outlines a new bill that would, among other things, end the issuance of federally guaranteed student loans by private banks. All originating would now be done by the federal government, a proposal President Obama made during his campaign.

“Banks,” you may recall, were institutions that developed expertise in lending.

But don’t worry, Miller says. There’s still room for the banks: “Rather than force private industry out of the system, we will forge a new public-private partnership that … allow[s] lenders and nonprofits to keep doing what they do best: service loans.”

In other words: Banks still have a role to play … as government contractors.

What Miller and his colleagues genuinely believe is that if the federal government has access to more money than every other institution, it ought to just provide financing directly. But once you start making that argument, it becomes easier and easier to justify forcing the government to be the financier for pretty much everything – especially big-ticket items like health care.

But don’t worry, even if that comes to pass, doctors, hospitals, and insurers will still have a role to play … as government contractors.

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“A C-Change in Presidential Rhetoric”

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 14, 2009 – 6:56 pm

Ruth Levine of the Center for Global Development (a fabulous organization, for anyone who cares about development issues) offers her take on President Obama’s recent speech in Ghana, and the reasoning he offers for  U.S. support for public health in Africa and beyond:

America will support these efforts through a comprehensive, global health strategy, because in the 21st century, we are called to act by our conscience but also by our common interest, because when a child dies of a preventable disease in Accra, that diminishes us everywhere. And when disease goes unchecked in any corner of the world, we know that it can spread across oceans and continents.
President Obama specifically acknowledged that these efforts would build on “the strong efforts of President Bush.”  At the same time, as Levine points out, he moved the motive for our mission from “compassion” to “conscience” and “common interest.”
Mere wordsmithery, or more?  Here’s Levine’s take:
I’m no hermeneut, but I think the word choice represents a significant shift. Compassion connotes a relationship between individuals, where one is empathetic and voluntarily chooses to ease the suffering of another. Conscience implies a duty, based on knowledge of right and wrong. And common interest clearly balances the notion of a lifeboat, offered for reasons either of compassion or conscience, with an image of us all in the same boat.
Ultimately, though, a real sea-change in America’s development strategy and success will depend on our actions, not words.  It has been discouraging to see USAID left without a leaderfor the first 6+ months of the administration; the word on the street is that the highly experienced Paul Farmer is the candidate of choice, but as Secretary Clinton herself recently lamented, “the clearance and vetting process is a nightmare.”  The Secretary announced last week that the Department would undertake its first ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which may help guide a more strategic approach to development assistance going forward.  Stay tuned for more in her speech tomorrow at the Council on Foreign Relations…
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Sotomayor Hearing: Nothing to See Here

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 13, 2009 – 9:36 pm

Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing began today and the end of the process is about as foregone a conclusion as you’re likely to find in politics.

Which is probably good. Judge Sotomayor has three crucial qualities going for her: (1) The president wants her to be the newest justice of the Supreme Court (and he won the election last November); (2) she is not crazy; (3) she is perfectly well qualified for the job.

Yes, John Roberts and Sam Alito fit all those criteria as well and then-Senator Obama voted against their confirmation. He shouldn’t have. But Republicans have a chance to show more respect for this president’s nominations than he showed for his predecessor’s.

Republicans will fill their roles, of course, asking whether Judge Sotomayor really thinks Latina judges are smarter and more sensible than white dude judges; digging into her comments about Circuit courts being the places where policy is made; and asking what her beef was with the New Haven, Connecticut, firefighters.

Appropriate questions all, and I’m sure she’ll have appropriate and sensible answers to all of them (probably more sensible answers than a white guy would have).

She didn’t get into any of that today, except to say that her “judicial philosophy” is “fidelity to the law” (at which point most of the Senate panel fell asleep).

Beyond that, her statement was largely a paint-by-numbers exercise, Read More »

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Health Care Hyperbole

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 12, 2009 – 11:25 pm

How did we get by without him?

Example number 487, from Sunday’s Politico Playbook by Mike Allen, quoting “senior White House officials” on health reform:

“This is probably the most difficult legislation attempted by anybody, EVER. We’ve never been closer on health care, in 50 years.”

Seriously? Over the last 50 years, the federal government gave birth to Medicare, Medicaid, HIPAA, S-CHIP, a prescription drug enhancement to Medicare — and that’s just stuff I thought of in five seconds. And we haven’t even left the health care arena. Or gotten close to EVER. The Missouri Compromise — that seemed pretty tough, too.

But what fun would it be to think of your health care proposal as just another piece of run-of-the-mill legislation (looking more and more like it’s going to be a lot of sound and fury signifying not much) when it could be the coolest thing EVER? EVER!

Oy.

Someone needs to tell these people that if you keep making everything sound like the most stupendous event in American history, pretty soon the audience tunes you out, or gets tired, or bored, and you lose credibility when something big really does come along.

For a history-making president, Mr. Obama put together a pretty ahistorical staff.

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From Speechwriter to Ambassador

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 11, 2009 – 8:53 pm

benjamin_daniel1A shout out to my friend and former Clinton foreign policy speechwriting colleague Daniel Benjamin, who had his formal swearing-in ceremony last week as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department.

Dan came to the White House in 1994 after serving as a foreign correspondent for TIME magazine and the Wall Street Journal, and brought an experienced journalist’s rigor, style, and smarts to the NSC speechwriting shop.   He went on to work with Richard Clarke as director for counterterrorism in the NSC Office of Transnational Threats, and after leaving government, co-wrote the highly acclaimed The Age of Sacred Terror with Steve Simon, documenting the rise of religiously motivated terrorism and American efforts to fight it.

Dan spent six years as a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where I was privileged to work with him again during my time as a CSIS visiting fellow.  He then went on to direct the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, where he served as a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies until May 2009.   Along the way, he and Steve co-wrote another impressive and important book, The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting it Right.

So this is one Ambassador with the sparkling talent to write his own speeches — if he’s able to find the time!  Rest assured, he’ll devote every measure of his intellect and integrity to the Coordinator for Counterrorism job.

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Finally, the Good Kind of Bipartisanship

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 10, 2009 – 6:16 pm

immigration1A guest post today from my colleague David Litt:

The era of bipartisanship seems to have ended before it began. Republicans want Democrats to own any potential failures. Democrats think that when push comes to shove, Republicans simply don’t believe in compromise. That’s why it was refreshing to see a recent report on immigration reform come from an independent Council on Foreign Relations task force chaired by Thomas F. “Mack”  McLarty, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida.

The report makes three arguments, and makes them well: we need to encourage skilled immigrants to come to the U.S.; we need to create immigration laws that are enforceable, and that keep employers from hiring illegal immigrants; and we need to create an orderly, fair system to allow illegal immigrants to earn the right to remain here legally.

What makes this report worthwhile is not that each co-chair belongs to a different political party. It’s that it embodies the ideals “bipartisanship” is to supposed to be shorthand for. It’s open-minded, it’s pragmatic rather than political, and it’s not concerned with who gets credit for what.

The debate over immigration reform may not have reached full swing in Congress quite yet. But the debate over bipartisanship has, and both parties should use this report as a guide.

Read More »

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A Word About My Partner . . .

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
July 8, 2009 – 10:17 am

vinca-1-photoBefore she met and married her wonderful husband, Dave, my partner Vinca LaFleur was known as Vinca Showalter.  I write because it is a big month in the Showalter family.

Vinca’s mom, Elaine Showalter, is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, a leading writer on social and cultural issues, a former television critic for People magazine, and a professor emerita at Princeton University.  Her latest book, called “A Jury of Her Peers:  American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx,” is the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to 2000.  It was recently released to glowing reviews, which you can read here, here and here.  You can also see her interviewed about the book here; and buy it here.

Vinca’s brother, Michael Showalter, is a well-known comedian, writer, actor, and director.  He is best known as one third of the sketch comedy trio Stella, and was a cast member on MTV’s The State, interviewed here.  He is the co-star of a new show on Comedy Central, called Michael and Michael, which premieres on Wednesday, July 15th, at 10:30 p.m.  Take a peek here and here.   He is the co-creator of the show with his longtime friend and comedy partner Michael Ian Black, seen most recently on the CW hit, Reaper.

So, if you are looking for a book to read or a show to watch this summer — or if you happen to need a world-class speech for a global stage near you — the Showalters have you covered.

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Barack, Bringer of Light, Embodiment of Justice

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 7, 2009 – 8:50 pm

Interesting that Vinca and Julia picked up on that workout metaphor offered by President Obama last week. I also noticed it, and it got under my skin – not because it’s sporty, but because it’s condescending.

“This is a town where there was just a belief that nothing could get done…. Folks have been sitting on the couch for awhile.”

Really?

In the eight years before Barack Obama became president, Congress and the former president passed a major education overhaul, added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, created an entirely new department of the federal government, realigned America’s security services, waged two wars in separate theaters, launched a massive federal intervention in the financial sector, and grappled with the most ferocious civil liberties questions since the Civil War.

In the eight years before that, Congress and the president revolutionized welfare, designed a children’s health insurance program, passed multiple balanced budgets, clawed out peace in the Balkans and Northern Ireland, and handled the first impeachment hearing since the middle of the 19th century.

Not bad for government work. Read More »

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Women are Way More Interesting on Palin Than Men

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
July 7, 2009 – 4:00 pm

palin-red1By this point, America is probably about Sarah-Palined out, at least for this round.  Everyone has an opinion on her announcement, and her future.   I find the most interesting pieces over the past few days have come from women — like  Ruth Marcus and Amanda Fortini — while wishing Peggy Noonan had weighed in, as well as Nancy Gibbs, whose piece on Governor Palin last September was one of the most thoughtful pieces out there.  Most of the commentary coming from men are muscular attempts to determine what this all means for her political future — women have taken a much longer and insightful look at the story behind the story.  

The person I found myself agreeing with the most was the host of NPR’s Tell Me More, Michel Martin, who came up with this gem at the end of a recent show.   Martin is probably best known for the work she did alongside Ted Koppel on ABC’s Nightline.  Today, through her daily one-hour show, she brings one of the most unique and nuanced voices to our national media. What I like most about Martin is that she gives everyone a chance — unlike many journalists whose impartiality comes into question whenever they adopt a “pundit voice,” her pieces are never reflexively ideological.  Her commentaries tend not to circulate as broadly after they air–she just does her job well and posts the results on her website.  I, for one, would like to see her out there more.  She’s always thoughtful, always very smart, and has dedicated her show to bringing new voices to our national debate.

This won’t be the last word on Governor Palin.  But so far, it’s one of the smartest.

My own sense about Governor Palin is that she will be the Rudy Giuliani of 2012.  There’s just something about her:  the more people get to know her, like Rudy, the less they seem to like her.

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Good Sports

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 6, 2009 – 4:40 pm

I recently remarked on Sarah Palin’s use of a basketball analogy, since I can’t think of many female politicians who regularly drop sports references into their speeches (though as Wash Post columnist Ruth Marcus has aptly pointed out, after the point guard passes, does she typically walk off the court?).

But speaking of sports analogies in political rhetoric, here are several other recent examples, courtesy of my West Wing colleague Julia Lam:

President Obama offered a workout metaphor to describe Washington politics during a June 28 energy roundtable (after Energy Secretary Steven Chu casually dropped a Wayne Gretzky reference):

“Look, I just think that what we’ve been doing over the last six months is getting people back into fighting trim. This is a town where there was just a belief that nothing could get done. Steve used the Gretzky metaphor, and I’ll use just the workout metaphor, and that is, you know, when you start training again and you’re pushing your body a little bit harder, sometimes it hurts. But if you keep on at it, after a while your body adjusts. And I think that’s what’s happening to politics in Washington. Folks have been sitting on the couch for a while, and now they’re starting to feel like, hey, you know what, I can run. And that’s why we’re getting stuff done.”

And embattled California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger throws down mountain-climbing, slalom-navigating, and weightlifting allegories in a New York Times magazine article this past weekend: Read More »

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Just for Fun

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 4, 2009 – 1:10 pm

Word lovers, check out the results of the Washington Post’s Style Invitational from Week 820, with guest judge Dave Barry.  The contest invited readers to submit Q and A to and from Mister Language Person, “the great grammarian who appeared in numerous Dave Barry columns back in the day when newspapers had ads and subscriptions and Dave Barry.”  As funny as the submissions are Barry’s notations, to wit:

Q. Please demonstrate how to use euphemisms.

A: Correct: “Our hamster Mr. Buttons became rabid, so we had to put him down.”

Incorrect: “Our hamster Mr. Buttons became rabid, so we had to put him down the toilet.” (Kevin Dopart, Washington)

Mister Language Person explains: This beautifully illustrates the First Principle of Humor, as defined by Aristotle: “It should have a hamster, and it should have a toilet.”

Read More »

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Crazy Like a Fox?

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 4, 2009 – 12:13 am

Sarah Palin’s decision to resign as governor of Alaska initially was hard to comprehend. Why would a woman who has huge (if not fully understood) potential within the Republican Party, but whose biggest liability is her lack of experience, leave her executive office?

Her statement Friday wasn’t so much rambling as unorthodox. I thought it had a solid structure. Governor Palin started by talking about how great Alaska is, went on to tout the state’s importance to the rest of the country, continued with a list of her accomplishments in office, concluded that list with the assertion that she’s plowed through her four-year agenda in just two, and then got personal, explaining that she doesn’t want to be a lame duck, that she’s tired of the endless questioning of her motivations and her family situation, and that she thinks she can still do a lot of good for the state and for her larger political causes outside government.

All in all, not a bad statement.

Yet the presentation probably threw some people, including me. When I read the statement to which Vinca linked — complete with its exclamation points and occasionally odd capitalization (“Outsider,” for instance) — I wondered if that’s how the governor’s office released it. It was.

Most transcripts are scrubbed a bit before they’re released to the public, but this seems to have been the governor’s actual reading copy, with verbal cues mixed in, which can come off as a bit odd.

Then there are the little phrases no other politician can get away with, like: “It’s energy! God gave us energy.”

Indeed. God made Sarah Palin a force of nature.

As for the message itself, it’s more skillful than it sounds at first. Read More »

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Advancing in Another Direction?

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 3, 2009 – 8:18 pm

Republican FundraiserMuch chatter today about Governor Palin’s surprise announcement to step down.  Is this a move to further her presidential aspirations, or does it reflect a desire to step out of the national limelight?  Was she trying to protect her kids, whom she invoked repeatedly — and if so, if it was a purely personal decision, then why did she keep repeating the line, “No more politics as usual”?  Was holding the press conference right before the 4th of July an effort to make news or to bury it?  More theories and queries all over the blogosphere.  Here’s a good place to start.

It was hard to figure out, in part because the statement itself was so rambling.  But we’ll have a fuller story soon enough.

In the meantime, I was struck by the passage below.  Not sure what national full-court press she has in mind here, or what it’s picking away at (is the implication from the end of the paragraph that the Obama administration is picking away at national security and freedom?), but it’s not often you hear women leaders invoking basketball analogies:

Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me – sports… basketball. I use it because you’re naïve if you don’t see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I’m doing that – keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory.

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Bringing Sexy Back

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 1, 2009 – 10:50 pm

The last several posts on Robert Reich and Sarah Palin brought to mind one thought: sex appeal.

But before anyone protests the direction of our family-friendly blog, it turns out www.whitehouse.gov is working blue, too.

Speaking with Energy Secy Steven Chu about “new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting” in the federal government, President Obama deployed the s-bomb to jazz things up: “Now I know lightbulbs may not seem sexy….”

Depends on what you’re into, I suppose. But when I saw the word “sexy” in a presidential transcript, I thought it’s likely to be a rare occurrence.

Not wanting to do much research, I wrote off the 18th and 19th centuries.  Calvin Coolidge was likely silent on the matter, too. And despite his being known as Tricky Dick, I don’t think anyone got a sexy vibe from President Nixon.

Looking for sex references in the Clinton years just feels like a long walk down a bad street. So I went to the more abstemious Bush Administration for confirmation that “sexy” isn’t generally part of the presidential lexicon.

It’s not. But Dick Cheney (indeed!) did use the term pretty frequently in 2004 — all in reference to John Edwards Read More »

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