Get Government Out Of Student-debt Business

us capitol building SC Get government out of student debt business

As millions of students and their parents are preparing for life after commencement, they’re also preparing to deal with massive student loans. Increasingly, people are concerned about the student debt situation brewing on college campuses. The present state of student debt is not a pretty picture.

According to a report published by the New York Federal Reserve Bank, college students are borrowing more than ever and debt delinquency is on the rise. Student debt almost tripled between 2004 and 2012 and is now just over $1 trillion. In fact, student debt is the only kind of household debt to rise during the Great Recession and is now second only to mortgage debt in magnitude. At the same time, for all age groups the share of borrowers who are more than 90 days delinquent on their student loan repayment has almost doubled.

Some, like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, claim that student debt is not inflating a higher education bubble that will cause a financial crisis, because the vast majority of student loans are backed by the U.S. government. The taxpayers are on the hook and not the banks, so banks will not be in financial distress if students default.

Bernanke’s claim is revealing. It’s clear that he thinks that the financial system is the economy. It seems that if the financial system is afloat, everything is okay. Such reasoning ignores that what helps people achieve their ends is not money per se but the actual producer and consumer goods that are produced throughout the social economy.

Alas, investment made possible by subsidized loans of newly created money contributes to an unproductive use of resources. Thus the economic problem with government-guaranteed student loans. Consider:

Read More at OfficialWire . By Dr. Shawn Ritenour.

Baptist Newspaper Said IRS Targeted Them

Cross SC Baptist Newspaper Said IRS Targeted Them

A 180-year-old Baptist newspaper said on Thursday that it was targeted by the Internal Revenue Service for extra scrutiny.

The Biblical Recorder, published by the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, said it was singled out by the agency in March, Fox News reports.

Last summer, the Recorder gained national attention after Allan Blume, its editor, published an interview with Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy.

In the interview, Cathy said that he was “guilty as charged” in his support of traditional family values.

The Recorder also published ads from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — which also was targeted by the IRS — that backed North Carolina’s marriage amendment.

Read More at Newsmax . By Todd Beamon.

Photo Credit: John H. Wright (Creative Commons)

The First Big Step Toward Obama’s Impeachment

Impeach Obama SC The First Big Step Toward Obamas Impeachment

Over the last few days, I’ve heard the word “impeachment” from more of my sources on Capitol Hill than in the last six years combined.

One member of Congress told me to look at the Richard M. Nixon articles of impeachment and just change the name to Barack Obama.

That member believes that many of the arguments about the Watergate cover-up apply to the current Benghazi cover-up scandal, the IRS Tea Party scandal, and the AP telephone records scandal.

Here’s how article one against Nixon laid out the charges:

  • making false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States
  • withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States

Or how about this one:

  • making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States into believing that a thorough and complete investigation had been conducted with respect to allegations of misconduct on the part of personnel of the executive branch of the United States

Seems to me all of these charges would apply to Obama’s situation, yet they are direct quotes from the articles condemning Tricky Dick.

It’s too early to say if Barack Obama will be impeached. But mark my words… before the first day of summer, at least one member of Congress will introduce articles of impeachment accusing Barack Obama of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Just in the last week, the public statements about potential impeachment have been astounding. Former Governor Mike Huckabee said, “I believe that before it’s all over, this president will not fill out his full term… I remind you, as bad as Watergate was, because it broke the trust between the president and the people, no one died. This is more serious because four Americans did in fact die.”

I know Mike personally, and he‘s not prone to hyperbole and over-the-top statements.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said Benghazi is the “most egregious cover-up in American history… People may be starting to use the I-word before too long.”

Chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Congressman Darrell Issa, said of Benghazi: “This is a failure. We need to be investigating.”

When the Salt Lake Tribune asked Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah about impeachment, he said, “It’s certainly a possibility.”

Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas started the year talking about impeachment. As the White House prepared gun control proposals, Obama announced he would carry out a lot of his ideas through executive orders. Stockman, a strong defender of the Constitution, responded to Obama’s comments by saying:

I will consider speaking with my colleagues and filing articles of impeachment… Impeachment is not something to be taken lightly. It is a grave and serious undertaking that should only be initiated in a sober and serious manner. It should be reserved only for most egregious of trespasses by the president. I would consider using executive orders to engage in attacks on a constitutionally-protected right and violating his sworn oath of office to be such a trespass.

Stockman continued, “The president cannot issue executive orders depriving the people of full access to an enumerated constitutional right. I do not think it will come to that. The president is not an absolute ruler, and his actions and orders can be checked and balanced by the Congress and the courts – if the Congress is willing.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert, also of Texas, told NewsMax at the same time that Obama has “already abused the law enough times that it’s just been staggering… It’s not a president who steps up and says: ‘You know what? Previous Congresses have passed the law — and it’s been signed into law, and I disagree with it, so I’m just going to create new law — and as I speak, so shall it be,’” Gohmert concluded.

While these are just a few voices, I believe the chorus for impeachment will grow in the weeks ahead. Obama has made a series of highly questionable mistakes, and he refuses to take responsibility for the problems. Expect to hear much more about these scandals before the long, hot summer is over.

Photo credit: katerkate (Creative Commons)

Video: CBS: Obama Not In Control Of His Administration

Charlie Rose and Bob Schieffer discuss how Obama Is not in control of his own Administration

A Filmmaker On Obama’s Enemies List?

Barack Obama 6 SC A Filmmaker on Obama’s Enemies List?

The revelations about the IRS targeting voices opposed to Barack Obama’s political agenda came of no surprise to filmmaker Joel Gilbert. His private financial accounts were hacked into, and the information was used by a George Soros-linked journalist (Seth Rosenfeld) before the presidential election. Gilbert wants to know who provided Rosenfeld with his private bank records. Was it someone at the IRS?  Or at the White House?

Gilbert directed the blockbuster film “Dreams from My Real Father,” which was heavily criticized by the left before the November 2012 presidential election because of the Obama campaign’s fear it could alert voters to Obama’s communist connections and Marxist philosophy. The film featured evidence that Obama’s real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party USA operative who indoctrinated Obama into a Marxist ideology during his formative years in Hawaii.

Gilbert was interviewed extensively on radio and television, as well as by major newspapers such as The New York Times, which apparently feared the film would have an impact on the election outcome. His announcement of a promotional campaign to send millions of DVDs for free to various states was of major concern to Obama’s backers in the media.

We noted in our pre-election story, Last Minute Anti-Romney Dirty Tricks Target Filmmaker, that the invasion of Gilbert’s privacy seemed to be an attack on donors to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, since some of them had also contributed to the distribution of Gilbert’s film.

In addition to the scrutiny of his donors, Gilbert tells AIM that in early 2012, the IRS reopened his 2009 tax return and simply denied all of his business expenses, even though they were well-documented. “My accountant said he had never seen anything like it in 30 years of experience with the IRS,” he told AIM. “To resolve the issue, my accountant met the IRS auditor in Los Angeles, and reported that she had a print-out of the home page of the ‘Dreams from My Real Father’ official film website on her desk. Despite the re-submission of the 2009 expenses, the IRS has still not closed the case, and my accountant continues to meet with them every few months. The next meeting is set for May 19th.”

He says, “I believe I have been illegally targeted by the IRS because my films and interviews have run contrary to President Obama’s official narrative of who he is and what his policies really are for America. The fact that the IRS targeted me indicates they were afraid of me and the information in my film.”

It was in late October of 2012 that the scrutiny of his customers came to light. He says, “…unknown parties illegally acquired private company bank information, and it was passed on to left-wing journalist Seth Rosenfeld, who began targeting my customers who purchased large quantities of the “Dreams from My Real Father” DVD, as well as a limited partner.”

Rosenfeld works for the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), funded by the pro-Marxist billionaire George Soros. Accuracy in Media named the CIR as being among an extensive network of Soros-supported media organizations in our 2004 report, The Hidden Soros Agenda: Drugs, Money, the Media, and Political Power.

Rosenfeld denied that he engaged in any improper or illegal conduct.

But Gilbert says, “The bank information could only be accessed by the IRS or from my corporate bank account with a confidential user ID and password. On October 26th, Seth Rosenfeld called me directly and began citing bank deposit amounts that he purported to be bank wire transfers received in my company bank account, and asked what they were used for. I was so shocked that he claimed to have confidential bank information, I asked him to send an email and hung up, but no email was received.”

Gilbert goes on: “Next, Rosenfeld called a company limited partner on his private number and fraudulently introduced himself as being with the Romney campaign and asked for a donation. When the partner said he wasn’t interested, Rosenfeld admitted to being a reporter and began citing the partner’s confidential bank wiring history. The partner hung up. Next, Rosenfeld called the elderly mother of a customer who had purchased a large quantity of DVDs by check. Rosenfeld tricked the woman into giving out her son’s home phone number by pretending to be an old friend. When Rosenfeld called the customer, Rosenfeld cited the amount of the check, and asked about his political beliefs, and asked by name whether he knew others who made purchases from my company.”

Finally, Gilbert says that a major buyer of DVDs was contacted by Rosenfeld on his private unlisted cell phone number. “Again, Rosenfeld cited the customer’s transfer amount to  my company, asked what it was for, and asked him to detail his political opinions and any donations to Republican campaigns, including Romney’s,” he says. “Finally, Rosenfeld called my DVD replicator on her private number, but she hung up, as I had forewarned her that Rosenfeld’s campaign might be coming her way.”

“Dreams from My Real Father” was Gilbert’s most recent film on Obama. He also produced the 2010 award winning “Atomic Jihad: Ahmadinejad’s Coming War and Obama’s Politics of Defeat.”

Based on the evidence in his and other cases coming to light, Gilbert says he believes there is a “criminal conspiracy” that used the IRS “to target the First Amendment rights of Americans,” and that President Obama and other high-level officials should be targets of the investigation into the admitted wrongdoing.

 

This article originally appeared at AIM.org and is reprinted here with permission.