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| A true patriot speaking - and she does not need any phony flag prop to wrap herself in to prove it, folks. |
Strib on Franken's co-sponsorship; here. A campus rally, possibly with voter registration help tables and such.
Think Progress, here, this opening excerpt:
Elizabeth Warren: Let’s Tax Millionaires To Allow Students To Refinance Their Debt
By Mason Atkins March 6, 2014
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) laid out a new plan that would tax millionaires and use that revenue to help students refinance their student loans.
Delivering the keynote address at the Higher Ed Not Debt Campaign launch event on Thursday at the Center For American Progress, Warren argued that America faces a choice: “Do we invest in students, or millionaires?” Warren plans to introduce a bill that would create an “America that invests in those who get an education” by revising the tax code and enacting the Buffet rule. Watch it:
[not embedded, go to the Think Progress item, or open this video link]
The Buffet rule is named after billionaire Warren Buffet and would establish a minimum tax on income in excess of $1 million. The measure, which never got out of Congress, raises approximately $50 billion in revenue and ensures that millionaires do not pay lower tax rates than middle-class families.
Congress acted to lower the federal unsubsidized student loan interest rate to 3.86 percent for undergraduates for the 2012-2013 academic school year. But unless it acts again, the $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt will continue to grow.
Warren’s plan would allow students with outstanding student loans to refinance at lower rates. The cost of the change would be covered by a “dollar for dollar” effort where for “every dollar the Buffet rule brings in, we use that dollar to refinance student loan debt,” she explained. [...]
[links in original]
Well taxing millionaires, it is a cordial idea and my ox surely isn't getting gored.
I wonder what millionaire Tax Payer League Chairman Bow-Wow thinks of such a progressive proposal.
Doubtlessly sympathy for "job creator" plight will intervene between his ears on this hummer. Causing smoke to emit from those ears over (in part) a dislike of plans to tax him. No Buffet, this man.
Whelan, her ox would not be gored either, for sure, so does she camp with Chairman Bow-Wow on this, or is the plight of students of greater impact on her mind than a consequent plight on millionaires, should the bill become law?
Good question.
An answer is due, indeed, if not issued soon, it will be conspiciously OVERDUE.
MORE LINKS: Warren's senate website has a pdf factoid sheet on the proposal, here.
MassLive here: HuffPo here; Politico here; belittlement on a common theme here and here; that theme neglecting that this November there will be an election where House control could shift with such a bill; on the table during the election, having an enhancing effect upon that election, where a feasible chance of passage might exist post-election, should a welcomed House control shift occur.
Indeed, there might not be a better time to launch the idea than now. Let it gestate and grow in importance as we approach November and new young voter registration happens.
Student loan relief surely beats any pontificating about Liberty from Rand/Ron, which was rumored in mainstream media last election as inspiring to youth.
Words are fine Rand/Ron, but put money on the table because these are not dumbass kids. They are college educated [except for those incurring a loan burden within Col. Kline's phony school-for-profit huckster ranks - but even they have the big-debt millstone tied about their necks].
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In closing, a tad more thought for Ms. Whelan to chew on. Surely she will have answers - such as cut taxes for the job creators. That sort of a knee-jerk proposal has to be expected, after all she is a Republican; but the nub of interest will be what beyond that old saying this GOP candidate has to offer us; about debt burden - be it student, credit card, mortgage, you name it.
Suffering under debt burden is something Ramsey and Anoka people face and about which they seek political policy answers beyond trite pablum stories of mythologically tragically stressed "job creators," strong as Atlas but who will wilt and wither or go on strike if taxed a bit more.
UPDATE: This is too important, and informative, to not assure readers see it - it's the page Warren has on her Senate website, posted here as an image - click it to enlarge and read:
Can you imagine the apoplectic fits our Republican friends, especially those closest to ALEC and the Koch brothers, will have in reading it and then going and seeing actual bill text?
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That web doc is like a one page manifesto for moving to rational and compassionate government. The GOP poobahs of excessive wealth and irresponsibility need that shot across their bow, before they are sunk for not paying close attention. Instead, you have the Koch brothers, perpetrating the climate change denial hoax, against the sane principle we should burn less stuff, as a nation and worldwide, because burning great amounts of stuff causes effects and the sutff will run out. Renewable energy is a composite term of two simple words, and it says let the solar system and planet off at an equilibrium point instead of going hellbent to Koch profits. They make and made money - wealth, power accumulation - by burning stuff, to distill stuff for others to burn profligately. The more profligate, the better the cash flow to Koch pockets. Tell them the earth and atmosphere are finite and we should be kind and respectful of the planet, they say, "Frac it." And then, people of no great wealth, the Kiffmeyers, are dumb enough to be allies of this stuff from Koch-ALEC. The fellow travelers are more dangerous because of their numbers and irrationality; making it harder to force to check the kings of global environmental destruction.
Something like that. Go drive your pick-up and vote for Emmer. The worse consequences will not be visited on the planet and its people in your lifetime. So, that said, who cares? Watch NASCAR.
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Looking out a few years from now, Elizabeth IS a good teacher, and Hilary would be just more of the same. If gender boundaries need to be breached, as they appear to, do it with quality and not more of the same.
photo credit - Reuters