Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumButtigieg on Elizabeth Warrens student debt plan
From the CNN town hall
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1904/22/se.05.html
COOPER: I want to follow up. Elizabeth Warren today released a plan that would give loan relief to households making less than $250,000 with $50,000 in loan cancellation for families earning less than $100,000.
Is that something you would support? The funding of it, she says, would come from a 2 percent tax above $50 million for 75,000 Americans.
BUTTIGIEG: Yeah, I still want to do some math around it. I find it pretty appealing. I'm not as certain that I'm comfortable with people of that high an income participating until we have completed the transition to a more progressive tax code, because I think if you're north of $200,000, maybe you're at the point where we could ask you to take care of that on yourself. But the theory of it I think makes a lot of sense.
My thoughts: 1. This is more positive than we need to have a conversation about it . 2. As stated in other interviews, l Pete believes that a wealth tax has a place in the revenue mix.
Other comments:
This is kind of a personal issue for us because Chasten and I live with six-figure student debt. And so I know what you're up against. And in particular, in speaking with students and policymakers here in New Hampshire, I've learned about the extent to which in-state tuition here is actually higher than it would be for you to go out of state to a lot of other states, which of course defeats so much of the purpose of having higher education institutions that are supposed to build up the life of our state, right? It's almost like a big sign saying get out. It makes it that much harder if you're committed to being part of the community or the state that produced you.
So there are several things that we've got to do. One of them that I think is kind of most at stake in the question that you raised is we've got -- through a combination of carrots and sticks, we've got to induce states to carry more of the burden, instead of continuing to pass it on to students. Students are getting squeezed because states are less and less willing to appropriate the funds to make sure that in-state public college tuition is truly affordable.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Lucky Luciano
(11,266 posts)My number 1s (tied) are Sanders/Warren. Ill vote for the one with the momentum when the time comes.
Im watching Pete as well. A brilliant intellectual scores a lot of points with me, but I dont know Petes policy positions - this is nice to hear though.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,123 posts)Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
elleng
(131,253 posts)WOW, a THINKER!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Mr.Bill
(24,346 posts)I'm shocked he didn't do the math in his head right on the spot.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Grins
(7,246 posts)Asking Pete if he would support or oppose Warren's proposal.
I saw the same question in 60-Minutes' questioning of Howard Schultz who dodged the question about college costs and Medicare expansion proposed by other candidates claiming it would not work. Here is what Cooper (and before him, Stahl) should have asked:
"The cost of higher education is crippling families and leaving student graduates burdened with tens of thousands of dollars in education loans. What is your solution to that problem?"
And if he responds with a repeat of the description of the problem, how bad it is, how important education is, that "we need to have a national conversation about it", or hits on the solution of another candidate - Cut him off!! "Thank you. But that was not the question! The question was - what IS YOUR SOLUTION?"
Stahl never did this with Schultz. And neither do other members of the media.
Enough!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
IndyOp
(15,535 posts)She explained redlining and subprime mortgages in an extremely and engaging manner.
Pete has talked about these topics as well - I want to hear more from him on college costs/debt and lifting up families whove been held down.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)how to address it. Whether it's 100% free college or "inducing" states to invest responsibly in the education of their populace by making state colleges affordable are details to work out.
Incredible that a mayor running for president could still have 6-figure student debt, but it's common. In the age of computerized personal teaching, when education should be both far less expensive to provide and far better overall, incredible that this could be.
Incredible that the Republicans have become so corrupted and extreme that they're actually trying to de-educate much of the populace in various ways.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
crazytown
(7,277 posts)Outstanding Student loan debt is estimated at $1.5 trillion.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)on my husband's relatively modest income. Cheap education -- community college, then almost all at "commuter" campuses of the state university system, but it was cheap. Community required no saving at all, $50 plus books and a few fees for a full semester load. State tuition expenses were like back-to-school wardrobes, vacations, or Christmas gifts, an expense we'd have to plan ahead for, but that's all.
That was good and healthy. And I was fortunate to grow up still in the liberal-dominated New Deal era.
So sad that literally almost half our population, over 200 million people, were born after that, after our nation shifted conservative and anti-government, anti-tax, anti-education corruption of what those who came before had built began. People growing up in these mean times and unable to come up with $10-20K for a certificate program in what's really trade school, not college, are dreadfully common.
Who before this could have believed the electorate would allow this to happen?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
crazytown
(7,277 posts)is that on average, graduates enjoy substantially higher incomes. What is not said is the burden of debt means there is a strong incentive for them to abandon their vocation and seek the highest paying jobs. I think 3/4 of teachers leave in to first 2 years.
And then theres Mayor Pete working at McKinsy. With his talent he could have sought stratospheric money, but came back to his home town, chosing public service
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)never achieve. And as you say about Mayor Pete and those like him.
We can and so need to restore teaching to not just a viable career but to the kind of lifestyle choice that once drew and kept many good people who could make far more money in business. Those long summers mostly free that were such a nice perk are gone, but other benefits, including short periods off and respect and admiration for important work, could replace them.
Traditional conservatism at its best once believed in protecting what was proven to work well. We need our conservatives to be their best, not the worst they've been manipulated into. The potential's in them.
Oh, well. Happily, all our more likely candidates are together that this is a problem to be fixed.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden