The University of California’s headquarters hid $175 million from the public and lawmakers in a secret reserve fund while the Office of the President was asking the state for more money

UC raised tuition on in-state students while keeping millions of dollars in a secret reserve…(1/2) #CADeservesBetter https://t.co/fYpUs0eP1K pic.twitter.com/HbfKIWvTUx

— CA Assembly GOP (@AssemblyGOP) April 25, 2017

Breaking: Auditor rips UC for keeping millions in secret fund https://t.co/Iy8fZ3P0W9

— SFGate (@SFGate) April 25, 2017

The office of UC President Janet Napolitano created a secret reservebudget over the course of four years, the audit found. Included in the reserve was $32 million collected from campuses that could have been spent on students.

“These problems indicate that significant change is necessary to strengthen the public’s trust in the University,” Howell wrote in the audit.

Obama’s giant student-loan con: The huge taxpayer bill for buying millennial votes is coming due

Obama’s giant student-loan con: The huge taxpayer bill for buying millennial votes is coming due. https://t.co/jSY2mXeQRb

— WSJ Editorial Page (@WSJopinion) December 2, 2016

Democrats devised the government takeover of student loans as an entitlement that might never be repaid, though they sold it as a money saver. New evidence of this giant con arrives courtesy of a report this week by the Government Accountability Office that estimates the taxpayer losses at $108 billion and counting....

Ironic: Report finds Democratic states have the most student debt

Ironic: Report finds Democratic states have the most student debt https://t.co/hK5ytdhGgO pic.twitter.com/pCjQnUiLvO

— Red Alert Politics (@RedAlert) August 24, 2016

The class of 2016’s student debt has broken the record for the highest ever

ATTENTION: The class of 2016’s student debt has broken the record for the highest ever https://t.co/U1cspkJzXg

— College Republicans (@CRNC) May 25, 2016

"You Know What Makes Student loans expensive? If you don't have a job to pay it off."

"You Know What Makes Student loans expensive? If you don't have a job to pay it off." @tomdelbeccaro #CAcounts pic.twitter.com/HpTx0BjRmr

— Melissa Murray (@SaysMissy) May 11, 2016

The borrowers won’t have to go through the typical application process for receiving a disability discharge, which requires sending in documented proof of their disability

Why Obama is forgiving the student loans of nearly 400,000 people https://t.co/5XCbIbj5bY

— David Amrod (@bendybubble) April 13, 2016

The Department of Education will send letters to 387,000 people they’ve identified as being eligible for a total and permanent disability discharge, a designation that allows federal student loan borrowers who can’t work because of a disability to have their loans forgiven. The borrowers identified by the Department won’t have to go through the typical application process for receiving a disability discharge, which requires sending in documented proof of their disability. Instead, the borrower will simply have to sign and return the completed application enclosed in the letter.

If every borrower identified by the Department decides to have his or her debt forgiven, the government will end up discharging more than $7.7 billion in debt, according to the Department.

“Americans with disabilities have a right to student loan relief,” Ted Mitchell, the undersecretary of education, said in a statement. “And we need to make it easier, not harder, for them to receive the benefits they are due.”

...Eligible borrowers who do decide to take advantage of the discharge option should be aware that the forgiven debt may be considered taxable income. The Obama administration asked Congress in its 2017 budget proposal to get rid of the tax penalties for disability discharges, but meanwhile borrowers may find themselves paying taxes on the forgiven loans.

Student Loan Subsidies Cause Almost All of the Increase in Tuition

Student Loan Subsidies Cause Almost All of the Increase in Tuition | Foundation for Economic Education https://t.co/9Occsnsufu

— College Republicans (@CRNC) December 22, 2015

Neil Cavuto's interview with student who wants free college and has no idea how to pay for it

Scarborough skewers Warren: Take on unions and the real 'people that stop reform'

Scarborough skewers Warren: Take on unions and the real 'people that stop reform' http://t.co/35Q1ceSYRT pic.twitter.com/ArWNFhEOW8

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 28, 2015

Against GOP critics who said taxing 529 plans taxes middle-class families...

◼ Obama adviser defends proposal to tax college savings plans - Washington Examiner

Obama's proposal, introduced before Tuesday's State of the Union Address, would tax withdrawals from the college savings plans created under section 529 of the tax code, and expand other tax incentives for college-goers.

Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman defended the change in an interview with Bloomberg News Friday, saying that the president's plan as a whole created more tax savings for college than it took away with the section 529 plan.

◼ Tax Benefits of College-Savings Plans Would Be Cut by Obama - Wall St Journal

◼ Obama wants to start taxing 529 college savings withdrawals, but only after exempting his own - Dan Calabrese/Herman Cain

One of the less talked-about proposals President Obama offered this week was to take away the tax-exempt status of 529 college savings plans. These very popular plans allow parents to defer income - before it's taxed - into savings accounts to then be withdrawn, also tax-free, to use for qualified college expenses.

I'll dispense for the moment with the larger question of whether stuff like this represents a wise overall approach to the tax code (it doesn't) and just focus on the particular change Obama wants to make. That is: He wants to start taxing the withdrawals parents make from their 529 accounts when it's time to pay for college, so there would be far less reward for socking that money away in the first place. But the federal government would get to confiscate more capital from the private sector! The Democrat dream is fulfilled every time a dollar goes from private hands to politicians' hands.

But here's the kicker: The Obamas themselves have already put more than $240,000 into a 529 account. So they'll now have to pay the tax, right?

No, sillies. Obama only wants the government to tax withdrawals of funds deposited after the change is made. So those who have already made the deposits - like him - can still withdraw them tax-free. Nice, huh?

YOUTH MISERY INDEX GROWS MORE THAN 50% UNDER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

◼ Young America’s Foundation has released its Youth Misery Index (YMI) numbers for 2014, and it’s a record high of 106.5. The Youth Misery Index (YMI) is calculated by adding youth unemployment, student loan debt, and national debt (per capita) numbers. - Breitbart Big Government

Young people are experiencing hardships like never before under the Obama administration, and this generation is especially suffering the consequences of this administration’s leftist policies.

Youth unemployment in 2014 was 18.1 percent (18.1 on YMI), with almost six million young people between the ages of 16 and 24 not in school or work. Many young people are simply giving up on finding employment....

$1.1 trillion student loan bubble? Not so fast

◼ “Student loans are a total pocketbook issue for our generation,” said Jennifer Wang, the policy director of Young Invincibles, a group formed during the 2009 Obamacare debate to represent millennials. - Washington Examiner

Politicians haven’t ignored that growing student debt is a top concern for younger voters. Democrats, including President Obama and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have made reducing student loan payments one of their top pitches to young voters.

Like any other sum so big, however, $1.1 trillion is difficult to put into perspective.

It has led to alarmist headlines warning that student debt is a bubble that will start a new recession soon, when it bursts. Or that it will slow long-term growth by preventing young people from financing other major life goals, such as buying homes or starting families.

But the real problem with student loans, according to students, experts and loan counselors, is much narrower than the sensationalist reports usually indicate.

The real crisis is one of indebted dropouts. Millions take out loans to pay for a degree that they never obtain and face the burden of repayment without the earning power of a diploma....

Young people are looking for another way – because the economy they’ve experienced for the past 5 years just hasn’t been working.

◼ 8 Graphs Show Why It’s No Surprise Young America is Turning on Obama - IJ Review

Remember the President’s repeated assurances that his bailouts and Obamacare would revive the economy? Those claims probably sound pretty hollow to the President’s one-time supporters, young adults.
These eight graphs, which examine adults under the age of 25 who have moved out of their parents’ home, via PolicyMic, show that this group is suffering the worst from dwindling incomes and long-term unemployment.

1. Annual household income is at shockingly low levels for families headed by someone under the age of 25. Forty percent of these households get by on only $10,000 a year.

2. Compared with older households, under-25 poverty rates are extremely high.

3. Young unemployment is over double the national average. It peaked in spring 2010 at 19.5%, but still remains higher than it was at the onset of the recession.

4. Despite an increase in the national minimum wage in 2009, and several states across the country raising their minimum wages, median hourly wages for people under 25 are lower than they were 10 years ago. Some economists argue that the minimum wage increase actually contributed to these lowered hourly wages and higher unemployment.

5. Almost 90% of under-25 households rent, as oppose to own their living space. This lowers their equity and oftentimes their credit scores.

MORE, at the link...

If the government, who controls the student loan industry now, gives you a ‘free’ education, you will be in bondage to the government for the rest of your life. And this is how they plan to meet the demands socialized medicine creates. This is their answer to the problem they are creating with Obamacare.

◼ What is Charlie Rangel really saying when he says ‘no reason a young person should have to pay for college’? - The Right Scoop

...So basically what he’s saying is that if America needs more doctors and nurses, the American taxpayer should subsidize their education as an incentive. Yeah. Because with all the doctors and nurses leaving over Obamacare, we are going to need more doctors and nurses....

This is why they took over the student loan industry.

◼ OBAMA’S HIGHER ED PLAN — A POWER GRAB, NOT A SHAKE-UP - Paul Mirengoff/Powerline

President Obama has announced a plan that he claims will make “college more affordable, tackle rising costs, and improve value for students and their families.” The key elements of his plan are (1) a federal college-rating system that will evaluate colleges on measures such as graduation rates, the number of low-income students served (i.e., the percentage of Pell Grant recipients), graduate earnings, and affordability and (2) the tying of federal student aid to this federal rating system by giving larger Pell Grants and lower student-loan interest rates to students who enroll in colleges that fare well on the federal scorecard....

President Obama has announced a plan that he claims will make “college more affordable, tackle rising costs, and improve value for students and their families.” The key elements of his plan are (1) a federal college-rating system that will evaluate colleges on measures such as graduation rates, the number of low-income students served (i.e., the percentage of Pell Grant recipients), graduate earnings, and affordability and (2) the tying of federal student aid to this federal rating system by giving larger Pell Grants and lower student-loan interest rates to students who enroll in colleges that fare well on the federal scorecard....

While the first elements of Obama’s plan is merely unnecessary, the second element — tying federal assistance to the federal rating system — strikes me as pernicious. First, I doubt the federal government’s ability to rate colleges with sufficient accuracy to justify attaching monetary consequences to its ratings.

Second, Obama’s plan will increase the federal government’s ability to coerce colleges into embracing even more fully a left-wing agenda — e.g., discriminating against whites in admissions and hiring, unfairly disciplining male students based on flimsy allegations of sexual harassment, and so forth....

Finally, I see little reason to believe that Obama’s plan would meet its alleged purpose of reining in college costs. Obama is not talking about reducing federal subsidies to colleges and universities as a whole; he’s talking, it appears, about redistributing them.

◼ Federal College Scorecards: A Step in the Wrong Direction - National Review

◼ Richard Vedder: The Real Reason College Costs So Much - Allysia Finley/Wall St. Journal

◼ Obama State University: The President blames colleges for the result of government subsidies. - Wall St. Journal Editorial

"We've got a crisis in terms of college affordability and student debt," said Mr. Obama, without a trace of irony at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The same man who three years ago forced through a plan to add $1 trillion in student loans to the federal balance sheet over a decade said on Thursday, "Our economy can't afford the trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt, much of which may not get repaid because students don't have the capacity to pay it."

Naturally, the President blamed somebody else and demanded more authority over higher education.

Students Wish Republicans Dead Over Democrat Student Loan Interest Rate Hike

◼ link - RUSH

By the way, these students don't know what the hell is going on. This is all programmed in part of the campaign strategery of the Democrats. They've got these students pretending to be just, you know, run-of-the-mill, don't know what's going on. They've been told their student loan interest rate's gonna double, "Oh, my God, that's outrageous, how'd that happen?" "The Republicans are doing it." It's all made up. It's all trumped up, but the students are running around like they're really genuinely agitated, like they just learned about this, and now they're blaming the Republicans for it.

Turns out that the official "savings" for taxpayers of $184 billion over the next decade really add up to $95 billion in losses.

◼ Washington's $279 Billion Fraud - Wall St. Journal

If you think the federal student-loan program looks like a bad deal for taxpayers, imagine how it would look with honest accounting. And now you don't need to imagine thanks to a new report that's receiving far too little attention. Turns out that the official "savings" for taxpayers of $184 billion over the next decade really add up to $95 billion in losses.

Here's the scam: Lawmakers peddle what is a massive subsidy for universities while claiming that student loans generate a windfall for the taxpayer. This phony windfall is conjured by creative accounting that politicians mandated via the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990. Specifically, the law requires a deliberate under-counting of the cost of defaults.

This is partly how a Democratic Congress and President Obama managed to enact ObamaCare in 2010 while claiming that their big entitlement expansion would reduce costs. The health plan was paired with legislation that made the U.S. Department of Education the originator of roughly 90% of all student loans, which in turn generated billions in imaginary budget "savings."

To its credit, the Congressional Budget Office has noted on various occasions that while the law forces it to use this Beltway math, CBO knows it's not accurate under fair-value accounting. And in a new report on the costs of student loans made in the decade ending in 2023, CBO quantifies the size of this discrepancy at $279 billion. CBO adds with its typically wry understatement that Washington's mandated accounting method "does not consider some costs borne by the government."

Interest rates on student loans doubled today

◼ link - John Boehner

Speaker Boehner said, "Republicans have passed common-sense legislation mirroring the president’s plan to stop student loans from doubling and make college more affordable. It’s disappointing that Senate Democrats left town without taking action on behalf of students and their families."

◼ Change: Democrats Double Student Loan Rates, Use the Money to Fund Obamacare - Rush

...RUSH: About 15 months ago Obama as in Iowa City, Iowa. By the way, I went back to my website and I now am fully up to speed. The Democrats wrote this student loan bill so that the rate would double as a campaign issue in an election year. Details coming up. I want you to hear Obama, though, April 25th, 2012, in Iowa City. He's at the University of Iowa talking about student loan program.

OBAMA 2012: Now is not the time to double the interest rates on our student loans. Now is not the time to double interest rates. Now is the time to double down on start investments that build a strong and security middle class. Now is the time to double down on building an America that's built to last.

RUSH: Okay, so that's during last year's presidential campaign, April 25th in Iowa City. "Now is not the time to double interest rates." They were scheduled to double today, and they were using this as a campaign issue. Guess what? Interest rates doubled. Obama won reelection so it doesn't matter. They need the money for Obamacare. ....

Weekly Republican Address 6/8/13: Student Loans

Obama's Student Loan Rate Proposal Saves Average Borrower 25¢ Per Day...

◼ Despite tweets from the White House that seem to suggest the savings are annual ("Last year, President Obama helped students save an average of $1,000 on their college loans"), the footnote to the chart explains that the savings assumes the borrower "repays the loans over the expected period of 12 years." A savings of $1,126 over twelve years is $94 per year, or about 25¢ a day. - Weekly Standard

If ever there will be a blatant, inescapable demonstration of what really drives federal aid policy, it will be the event we are likely to witness tomorrow.

◼ Let’s hope the public will get the right message: Politicians aren’t primarily driven by a desire to make college affordable. They’re driven by a desire for political gain. And that’s why we need them to get out of the student aid business. - CATO INSTITUTE

Tomorrow, the President will host what sounds like will be a textbook, campaign-style event featuring lots of no doubt somber – but oh-so-grateful-to-the-President – looking college students. With the photo-op thus set up, Mr. Obama will demand that Congress do something to stop the impending doubling of interest rates on subsidized federal loans from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

But the GOP-led House has done something, and it is largely along the lines of what the President has called for. Last week, the House passed legislation that would peg student loan interest rates to 10-year Treasury bills, and would even cap rates at 8.5 percent or 10.5 percent, depending on the type of loan. It’s not exactly what the President wants – rates will vary over the life of the loan rather than being set at the origination rate, and the add-on to T-bill rates is higher – but the plans are still pretty close.

At this point, you’d think the President would be negotiating, not grandstanding. But then you wouldn’t understand federal student aid (or, really, almost anything government does). It is first and foremost about politicians – who are normal, self-interested people – getting what they need: political support, not sane college prices. And you get a lot of that support by appearing to want to “help people” more than the other guys.