By Mike Huckabee
September 17, 2019
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Rep. Ilhan Omar has once again made comments about the leader of Israel that would be denounced as anti-Semitic, eliminationist hate speech if they came from President Trump or his supporters. But you might have noticed that they didn’t, and never do. Stuff like this comes from her an awful lot, though.
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With the Democrat candidates for President on video promising on their first day in office to raise taxes, bloat government, confiscate guns, spend umpteen trillions of dollars on things like free health care for illegal immigrants, and shut down the domestic oil and gas industries, I can’t wait to see the campaign ads Trump and the RNC will be running. But those ads don’t have to be all negative. Trump can point to successes at crushing ISIS, renegotiating trade deals, standing up to China and Iran, and especially the record low unemployment numbers and booming economy. At the link, Dick Morris spotlights another statistic that I haven’t heard anyone else point out yet:
https://www.westernjournal.com/dick-morris-us-sees-big-jump-personal-income/
Between 2014 and 2018, inflation-adjusted median household income has risen from $55,913 to $63,179. Despite the brazen lies by Democrats amplified by the media until many Americans actually believed them, the benefits of this economy are not all going to the wealthy and corporations while middle-class Americans are doing worse and paying higher taxes. In fact, Census figures show that the average American family has $7,266 more in their pockets per year than in 2014. Since 1999, inflation-adjusted median household income had risen by just 2.7%, but in the past four years, it’s risen by 13%.
Of course, I can already hear the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) responding, “That’s because Trump inherited the booming Obama economy!” All right, here are a few of the reasons why household income has jumped:
The 2017 tax cut put more money in consumer’s pockets and gave companies more money to expand and hire…Renegotiated trade deals and tariffs on China reduced imports and goosed American manufacturing…Taking the chains off domestic energy production kept fuel costs low and supplies stable…Increased border security and immigration enforcement discouraged the hiring of cheap illegal labor, boosting job opportunities and pay for American workers.
Okay, pop quiz: Which of those policies are carryovers from the Obama Administration?
Anyone?...Anyone?...Bueller?...
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that not only should Congress forgive all student loan debt, but at the same time, they should pass a bill making college tuition-free for everyone.
I can be generous, too, so I’ll grant that she has a kernel of truth buried in her rationale. She said if you don’t make college free after forgiving all student loan debt, “then you do recreate the problem. Then it's just kind of a one-swoop forgiveness, but then the costs continue to mount for people, so that's why tuition-free public colleges and universities are really important to pass at the same time as student loan forgiveness.”
So she’s correct that if you keep charging tuition, future students will still have to keep paying, and likely borrowing money because college is so unaffordable. But why has tuition risen at a rate over three times that of inflation and nearly 8 times faster than wages?
There are a number of factors, some of which are explained here:
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-high-and-rising.html
Chief among them are higher spending on things that have nothing to do with teaching, such as amenities meant to attract students; high pay for name professors (regular teachers’ salaries have been reasonably flat); an explosion of administrators who have nothing to do with teaching but handle everything from government paperwork to policing “diversity;” and paying for money-losing sports programs to balance out the popular sports programs as mandated by Title IX (note how many of these things are a result of government meddling in education.) Also, the costs have kept rising for years because of access to more and more government money (costs always expand to fit the available budget.) But the burden fell more on students after the 2009 meltdown forced state governments to shift funds to cover expensive entitlement programs like Medicaid (which AOC wants to give to EVERYBODY, including illegal immigrants.)
Here’s where I have to let her in on a depressing secret: nothing about college will ever be “free.” Even if college is “tuition-free,” someone still has to pay for it. Pushing some of the cost onto government only encouraged colleges to make it more expensive, so you can imagine what the bills will look like if government picks up the entire tab.
And where will all that money come from? From big trees that grow in the shade of all the windmills that will provide 100% of our future energy needs? No, from taxpayers, and not just “the richest 1%.” Even if you took 100% of their wealth, it wouldn’t pay for all the Democrats’ spending schemes for more than a few weeks. It will come from all of us.
“Tuition-free college” would cost as much if not more than ever, except even people who don’t go to college would have to give up more of their hard-earned pay in taxes to cover the cost of people who do go. This is how AOC defines “fairness,” and if you complain about having to pay for other people’s expensive lifestyle decisions, you’re selfish.
So I think student loan forgiveness and “tuition-free college” are unworkable, unaffordable and unfair pie-in-the-sky ideas, but I’m willing to compromise with her. How about a bill requiring that everyone who got an economics degree from Boston University should get a full tuition refund?
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