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This is the Republican Party

One might ask.. why did college become so expensive?

Surely not because of the huge amount of easily acquireable cheap loans, grants, and other federal monies... a "boatload of cheap money" never drives the prices of anything up..
You are missing half the equation.

College was affordable until consumer demand and employee controlled management drove up costs.

Mom and Dad SAY they want Junior to work his way through school like they did, but in reality, they sent their kids to schools with resort like amenities, as well as cable TV, computer labs and countless other fixed costs that a changing society and evolving campus competitive in recruiting has to provide. Schools that have attempted to control costs and offer traditional college settings have suffered catastrophic tuition losses. TU is in this category until Stead built out the campus.

Faculty, who hijacked administration starting in the 1970’s, began refusing to retire and in some cases also refusing to teach starting in the 1980’s. Now, it’s not unheard of for faculty to teach into their 80’s, some without minimum course loads. They voted themselves absurd salary and employee benefits, particularly for administrators, that remain intact today. If you get sticker shock looking at a college tuition advertisement, mosey over to the faculty recruitment webpage and you’ll see pension benefits far above the private sector. 85% of best 9 month contract for life, 18% employer contribution after 5% employee contribution, etc. It’s harder to find but plenty of schools offering no contribution no deductible $5 co pay health insurance for life etc.

So around 1990, schools had to come up with two massive overhead issues unseen in their centuries long industry before that time. Most handled the change in business model poorly. 1) Build out cable tv for the dorms, modernize the telephone systems, remove the asbestos, build the computer lab, while still funding 12th-20th century functions like the library. 2). Massive increases in employee benefits costs. Health care went up. Pensions went up. Salaries went up. Employees began living and working longer and workplace culture insisted they be retained. With the exception of the computer lab and library, projects that donors would not support. So they got passed on to state legislatures and consumers. As I stated elsewhere recently, the one cardinal rule of government is you never underestimate and never under appreciate the American middle class. So government did what it does to respond to the changes on campus, the changes in consumer expectation. They offered supplemental appropriations and bond issues but you can’t tax and spend your way out of that problem nor is it a good policy even if you could. They made students put skin in the game. So tuition went up, loan thresholds went up, and then the campus saw what the market would yield and went crazy.

To the extent there is blood on the hands of the academy, it is most culpable in tolerating social beliefs that’s some schools are more valuable than others and the quality of education varies widely. For the most part, in the Top 250, it doesn’t. The only variable is student quality and credential perception. The schools have leveraged parental fears over credential perception to make billions and they should be ashamed. The first step in controlling the drunken rager of spending on campus is admitting that any degree is valuable and most are valued roughly the same. And that was true in the bygone era when college was affordable. Anyone with a college education from any institution was a valued asset in the marketplace. We need to get back to that, instead of Cleta sitting in her cubicle doing data entry with a Masters degree thumbtacked to her “wall” spending 30% of her salary paying out post tax dollars back to the federal government in a futile attempt to pay back an uncollectible student loan, all so faculty have plenty of cash to fully fund their viagra.
 
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What are you talking about? George HW Bush sold oil field equipment for $350 a month before forming Zapata Oil with two Midland lawyers just a year or two out of college. Zapata Off Shore made a fortune utilizing innovative oil technology. Zapata eventually merged with Penn Petroleum to form Pennzoil.

And he did all of that before age 40 and after being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for valor in combat. You really should be less reckless in the way you speak about war heroes.
I was talking about W bush….. not HW.
 
I like how the Republicans voted no on the Tik Tok ban in deference to profit sharing. Come invest in buying your own little piece of American owned Tik Tok, buying venture profiteered by trophy wife, Steve Mnuchin. I don't know that the Chinese government will allow them to be sold. That's a lot of money to pass up on a company that may lose money, if it doesn't sell for our business.

It's almost as good as South Dakota governor's infomercial, to get free dental work. I thought using your office's visibility in government while you were in office, was illegal to make money while holding it?. If you are that shamelessly run by money, you might be a prime candidate for a bribe. Next we'll be seeing Stitt doing ads for a BMW dealer in Arkansas.

I just excused George Santo's activities as George being over the top on everything in life, and not caring. But a lot of republicans seem to be shameless grifters. I guess Trump made it fashionable. It's the class of trailer trash he is attracting to office. Glad to see his nepotism is alive and well in the new staff of the RNC.

What I want to know is when are the democrats going to get involved with this rights for grifters movement in the government. I know they like to make money too. At least Bob Menendez is more honest about his crimes.(or more stupid) If convicted he knows he is going to jail.
 
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I like how the Republicans voted no on the Tik Tok ban in deference to profit sharing. Come invest in buying your own little piece of American owned Tik Tok, buying venture profiteered by trophy wife, Steve Mnuchin. I don't know that the Chinese government will allow them to be sold. That's a lot of money to pass up on a company that may lose money, if it doesn't sell for our business.

It's almost as good as South Dakota governor's infomercial, to get free dental work. I thought using your office's visibility in government while you were in office, was illegal to make money while holding it?. If you are that shamelessly run by money, you might be a prime candidate for a bribe. Next we'll be seeing Stitt doing ads for a BMW dealer in Arkansas.

I just excused George Santo's activities as George being over the top on everything in life, and not caring. But alot of republican seem to be shameless grifters. I guess Trump made it fashionable. It's the class of trailer trash he is attracting to office. Glad to see his nepotism is alive and well in the new staff of the RNC.

What I want to know is when are the democrats going to get involved with this rights for grifters movement in the government. I know they like to make money too. At least Bob Menendez is more honest about his crimes.(or more stupid) If convicted he knows he is going to jail.
Hard for Dems to go on the offensive as long as Nancy Pelosi is wheeling and dealing on inside information. Maybe when she retires we can get some legislation regarding Congress and market trading
 
Hard for Dems to go on the offensive as long as Nancy Pelosi is wheeling and dealing on inside information. Maybe when she retires we can get some legislation regarding Congress and market trading
Trump is competing awfully hard for Nancy's title.
 
Trump is competing awfully hard for Nancy's title.
No doubt. Just pointing out that both sides financially benefit from their elected positions and thus have no incentive to fix what many of us see as corruption. It is what it is. We bitch and moan but keep electing them.

NY Congressmen Brian Higgins (D) had a 239% return last year in the stock market fwiw.
 
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It’s a grift. And they are all grifting one way or another.

Higgins resigned to work for a museum after his trading record was revealed btw.
 
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It’s a grift. And they are all grifting one way or another.
Its been that way since before the Roman Empire... people seek position in public office because its the easiest way for an idiots with big egos to make a fortune without working for it.
 
Americans refuse to accept the fact that they must fund elections year to year. Any system that depends upon lowest possible dollar budget principles and depends upon armies of low cost or no cost poll workers and registrants who are poorly trained and seasonal in nature is inherently vulnerable. I have no opinion about whether these folks are guilty, but election integrity in this country is vulnerable by design to a myriad of bad actors across the political spectrum and across the globe. It’s how you get a plausible argument from one political party that elections fraud doesn’t exist because there is no evidence of manipulation, except in 2016 when Moscow fixed the election in states where their nominee didn’t campaign. It’s how we all casually accept that dead people have voted in countless past elections, but they certainly don’t now. Or the tap dance that incumbents that must smile through as they prepare to answer whether they left the barn door open to fraud, or they are unfairly cracking down on their opponents inside and outside of their party, or my elections were 100% secure and fraud doesn’t exist in a country like America.
 
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Two unpopular positions of House Republicans: Socialial Security reduction and abortion. I'm all for addressing Social Security by either delaying full entitlement or raising the payroll tax or a mix, but not for a total ban on abortion. Ignoring Social Security is irresponsible. An abortion ban will cost Republicans dearly in elections.
 
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Two unpopular position of House Republicans: Socialial Security reduction and abortion. I'm all for addressing Social Security by either delaying full entitlement or raising the payroll tax or a mix, but not for a total ban on abortion. Ignoring Social Security is irresponsible. An abortion ban will cost Republicans dearly in elections.
what can congress do? I thought the Supreme Court sent jurisdiction back to the states.

I don't think we need legislation either way. It's an individual decision based on medical, religious and personal advice.
 
And more election fraud. This guy gets a Trump pardon for election fraud and then get convicted for yet another election fraud. Amazing.

so you don't think that there was atleast one illegal ballot, one ineligible voter voted, no uncounted ballots, no double counts, no miscounts, no unvalidated ballots, ...
 
so you don't think that there was atleast one illegal ballot, one ineligible voter voted, no uncounted ballots, no double counts, no miscounts, no unvalidated ballots, ...
No election in the world can make that claim. But there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. No evidence of widespread voter fraud doesn't mean that there were no miscounted ballots, etc. It means exactly what it says. We could audit every county in America, count it and recount it three times in every audit, and waste our money to prove once again that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
 
Kari Lake joins Rudy G: Ok I lied and defamed about elections, how much do I owe?

"
The latest big news is Lake’s declining to defend her statements about Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R), whom she repeatedly accused of deliberately sabotaging her narrow 2022 loss for Arizona governor. (Courts have repeatedly rejected that argument and upheld Lake’s defeat.)

As The Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Maegan Vazquez reported Tuesday, lawyers for Lake, her campaign and an affiliated nonprofit group have asked the judge to move directly to the damages phase — determining whether Lake owes Richer money, and if so, how much.

The situation is strikingly reminiscent of Giuliani’s defamation case eight months ago. Facing an arduous and expensive discovery process — during which Giuliani’s legal team had to produce evidence — Giuliani ultimately simply granted that his statements about Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were false and even defamatory, before the huge judgment against him.
 
Kari Lake joins Rudy G: Ok I lied and defamed about elections, how much do I owe?

"
The latest big news is Lake’s declining to defend her statements about Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R), whom she repeatedly accused of deliberately sabotaging her narrow 2022 loss for Arizona governor. (Courts have repeatedly rejected that argument and upheld Lake’s defeat.)

As The Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Maegan Vazquez reported Tuesday, lawyers for Lake, her campaign and an affiliated nonprofit group have asked the judge to move directly to the damages phase — determining whether Lake owes Richer money, and if so, how much.

The situation is strikingly reminiscent of Giuliani’s defamation case eight months ago. Facing an arduous and expensive discovery process — during which Giuliani’s legal team had to produce evidence — Giuliani ultimately simply granted that his statements about Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were false and even defamatory, before the huge judgment against him.
judges threw out claims because No one came forward to claim that their vote was not counted.
 
judges threw out claims because No one came forward to claim that their vote was not counted.
I have a question for you, how would you know whether your vote was counted or not? Do they notify you when it is counted? Does it have your name on it when it is dropped in the ballot box? I'd make a smart remark about your sarcasm, but I have my doubts about the existence of it.
 
I have a question for you, how would you know whether your vote was counted or not? Do they notify you when it is counted? Does it have your name on it when it is dropped in the ballot box? I'd make a smart remark about your sarcasm, but I have my doubts about the existence of it.
exactly!
 
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