The View from Right Field

Biden Is Forgiving Debt for Former Students. He Should Tell Colleges to Cut Tuition for Current Students.

President Biden gave former college students a $10,000 gift ($20,000 in certain cases) if they borrowed money for college and haven’t paid it back.  But he didn’t give anything to current college students, which doesn’t seem fair.  So here’s my idea: For current students, he should force colleges to cut their tuition by $2500/$5000 a year (which is $10,000/$20,000 over four years).  It wouldn’t be that hard for the colleges.  Purdue has kept its in-state tuition at $9,992 for ten years.¹  Colleges can cut their costs – if they want to.  They could reduce the number of administrators; they could get a few teachers to teach an extra class; they could figure out ways to reduce fees.  There’s lots of things they could do.

And if President Biden’s lawyers can come up with a way to claim he has the legal authority to forgive all that student debt, I am sure they can come up with a way he can force colleges, at least any college that gets money from the federal government, which is just about all of them (except, maybe Hillsdale College), to cut their tuition.  And that wouldn’t even cost the federal government $300 billion.
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Note: I hope readers understand this post is a bit of a joke – except for the idea that colleges could cut their tuition.  They could - if they wanted to.  That's not a joke
¹ See here and here.

Questions Re Joe Biden’s Student Loan Bribe

Obviously, President Biden’s student debt cancellation plan is a campaign bribe.  That’s not a question.  My question is: how is it supposed to work?  Is the idea that the people getting the bribe (i.e., getting some part of their student loan forgiven) will vote Democratic in November, as a thank you to the President, when they would have otherwise voted Republican/other?   Or is it that people will come out to vote, once again, as a thank you for the bribe, when they otherwise would not have voted?

Also, I wonder what the expected return is on the bribe.  In other words, what’s the cost of each additional vote, whether from somebody who would have otherwise voted Republican/other or somebody who wouldn’t have voted at all but for the bribe?  Given that the Penn Wharton Budget Model projects that the President’s plan could cost up to $300 billion, it would seem that these could be some pretty expensive votes.   

“US Politics Is a Road Paved in Gold for Consultants”

This is a letter to the editor published in the Financial Times on August 23.  The letter was slightly edited, mostly for the better, except in one case: At the end of the first sentence, instead of “the ignorant”, I would have preferred “those who sound ignorant to them” (or something like that).  Such wording much better reflects my point – and, I think, the point Edward Luce was making in his column.

“I agree with Edward Luce that there is ‘electoral gold’ for the right in the contempt America’s cultural elites show towards the ignorant.  (‘The truth that set Cheney free’, Opinion, August 18)  However, one should not ignore the regular gold.  There is money in electoral outrage, for both candidates and perhaps especially their consultants.

Helping Europe Stand Up to Putin’s Blackmail – Is Helping Us, Too

Chris Giles wrote in the Financial Times last Wednesday on how Europe could withstand a Russian cutoff of natural gas deliveries this winter.¹  Basically, it requires product substitution (products requiring lots of natural gas in their production should be made elsewhere), more coal needs to be used for power in the short run, Germany needs to not shut down their three remaining nuclear power plants, etc.  Starting in January, ships that can liquify liquid natural gas (LNG) for Germany will go online. 

Which got me thinking: What are we doing to help out in this situation?  If LNG can help, what are we doing to increase our exports of LNG?  Obviously, we should have already been doing things like this, but it’s not too late to start now.  We just need to hurry.  We need to not get caught up in permitting delays and environmentalist objections.  This is a war.  We need to do what is necessary to win it.  It won’t take that long.  Maybe a year or two.  We can still meet our environmental goals.  But right now, we need to not let Vladimir Putin get away with blackmail and intimidation – and war.²
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¹ Chris Giles. “Europe can withstand a winter recession,” Financial Times, August 10, 2022.  (Behind the FT paywall.)
² In any case, anybody who thinks Vladimir Putin cares about climate change is silly.

Pelosi, Biden, and Taiwan – Part 2

I wrote here about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.  Among other things I asked whether Secretary Pelosi planned her trip without talking to President Biden, or at least to his people, first? Well, apparently she did – or at least that is what one of the panelists in the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ “World Review with Ivo Daalder” said last Friday.¹  More specifically, they said that Speaker Pelosi (or her people) told President Biden (or his people) that she would not go to Taiwan if he asked her not to.  But here is the kicker: Speaker Pelosi also told the President that if she did not go to Taiwan at his request, she would have to publicly say why she wasn’t going. 

The panelists all sort of passed over this comment, but I think it is pretty big.  It seems to me that Speaker Pelosi was basically threatening the President: If you tell me not to go, you’re going to get all the blame and you are going to look weak to the American people.²

Nancy Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan – and Joe Biden

So, was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan a good idea?  I don’t know,¹ though once the visit was leaked and China objected so vociferously, she had to go.  Still, the visit raises all kinds of questions.  Here is one I had: I find Joe Biden’s comments last month criticizing the trip and saying the Defense Department was worried about the trip, more than a little bizarre.  Speaker Pelosi and President Biden are both Democrats.  I am sure Speaker Pelosi knows how to reach President Biden when she wants to talk to him.  I am sure he picks up the phone when she calls.  Did this mean Secretary Pelosi planned her trip without talking to President Biden, or at least to his people, first?  That would truly be bizarre. 

Democrats for Trump

Back when they had campaign buttons, you would see buttons that said “Republicans for [Democrat]” or “Democrats for [Republican].  In fact, I think we still have some “Democrats for Nixon” buttons in our basement.

If they still had campaign buttons, a lot of Democrats, at least Democratic leaders and Democratic campaign advisers, would be wearing “Democrats for Trump” buttons – or at least they would if they were honest.  Because a lot of Democrats, and a lot of Democratic money, are trying to help pro-Trump Republicans win Republican primaries.  That is what happened here in Illinois.  The Democratic Governors Association kept sending me mail, the old-fashioned kind, via the Post Office, telling me that Darren Bailey was “too conservative” and that he liked Donald Trump too much.  Both of which were true, but both of which were designed to get pro-Trump Republicans to vote for Darren Bailey in the primary, instead of one of the other candidates who might have actually had a chance to beat our Democratic governor, who is running for re-election, in November.

Optimism for November?

Daniel Henninger wrote in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal about “The Conservative Case for Optimism.”  I wish I could be as hopeful as Mr. Henninger with respect to the Republicans’ chances in November.  Unfortunately, the Republicans’ ability to shoot themselves in the foot gives me pause.  When Barack Obama was president, it took the Republicans until 2014 to take the Senate, even though they won the House in 2010, largely because they nominated some terrible candidates in 2010 and 2012.  And they did it even without Donald Trump.

With former President Trump around, the Republicans’ chances to throw away victory in November are even greater.  As always, former President Trump is focused on himself, and his grievances about the “stolen” election of 2020, instead of party or policy – or country. 

Willy’s Not Coming Back, Whether He’s Traded or Not

Yesterday I tweeted:

“The worst way for a company to handle a RIF [i.e., a reduction in force] is to announce it and then tell people that the list of who is being let go will be disclosed in two weeks. Welcome to the  @Cubs at the @MLB #TradeDeadline.”

Yesterday, Willson Contreras said, with respect to today’s off-day and tomorrow’s 5 pm trade deadline: "It's going to be a long day. It's been long, long, long, long week, long, long, month for me. But I'm ready for this to be over, to be honest."