Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumRobert Reich-Why the Washington Post's Attack on Bernie Sanders Is Bunk
The Washington Post just ran an attack on Bernie Sanders that distorts not only what he's saying and seeking but also the basic choices that lie before the nation. Sanders, writes the Post's David Fahrenthold, "is not just a big-spending liberal. And his agenda is not just about money. It's also about control."
Fahrenthold claims Sanders's plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean "colleges would run by government rules."
Apparently Fahrenthold is unaware that three-quarters of college students today attend public universities financed largely by state governments. And even those who attend elite private universities benefit from federal tax subsidies flowing to wealthy donors. (Meg Whitman's recent $30 million donation to Princeton, for example, is really $20 million from her plus an estimated $10 million she deducted from her taxable income.) Notwithstanding all this government largesse, colleges aren't "run by government rules."
The real problem is too many young people still can't afford a college education. The move toward free public higher education that began in the 1950s with the G.I. Bill and was extended in the 1960s by leading public universities was reversed starting in the 1980s because of shrinking state budgets. Tuition has skyrocketed in recent years as states slashed education spending. It's time to resurrect that earlier goal.
Besides, the biggest threats to academic freedom these days aren't coming from government. They're coming as conditions attached to funding from billionaires and big corporations that's increasing as public funding drops.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/washington-post-bernie-sanders_b_8232640.html
daleanime
(17,796 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)belches with a satisfied grunt. Sorta like Faux viewers - they don't need no dang fact-checking! And they consider actual fact-checking as "attacks".
merrily
(45,251 posts)The false is flying fast and loose. Gee, I wonder why.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)They've been clumsy at it, and people are noticing and drawing the correct conclusions. It's par for the course when you have such an entitled elite. Merit isn't the factor to success it used to be, and it's now more about having a grasping ambition, and connections. The more ethical, reasonable, and able, workers inside the establishment are being hobbled and held back. This is why they'll lose.
dae
(3,396 posts)and n2doc.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)They just don't want people to know the truth.
Springslips
(533 posts)Scaring Americans about government control of ecucation works when Americans are happy with a system, can afford college, are not drowning in debt, and have good paying jobs after school. It does not work when the system is broken. Fahrenthold lives in a bubble, has no idea what is happening out here; if he could suddenly be with the people, he'd turn around and see how damn dumb his words are!