Barack Obama, Money, Politics, Student Loans

Disgruntled Law Grad Brings Student Loan Woes to Obama's Attention

By  
on

Yesterday President Obama held a town hall meeting with those affected by the terrible economy. But the New York Times reports that the televised meeting “turned into a therapy session for disillusioned Obama supporters.”

A lawyer was among the disillusioned. Thanks to his question, Obama is now on notice that student debt is crushing the hope and change out of many people in this country. Here’s the Washington Post’s summary:

Then a 30-year-old law school graduate said he’s no longer able to make the interest payments on his educational loans, much less able to have a mortgage or a family. He said he had been inspired by Obama’s campaign. But now, “that inspiration is dying away,” he said. “I really want to know: Is the American dream dead?

If Bill Clinton had been asked that question, he would have said “I feel your pain,” molested the questioner, and said “I will not, let, student debt continue to bang you in the ass.”

So what did President Obama say to the debt-laden lawyer?

Nothing but trite “America, Woohoo” rhetoric. President Obama, easily one of the most eloquent politicians in a generation, answered the lawyer’s question in a flat, uninspiring manner that almost entirely missed the point:

Sponsored

“Absolutely not. … There is not a country in the world that would want to change places with us,” Obama responded. “We are still the country that billions of people in the world look to and aspire to.”

Sigh. Has Obama spent so much time defending himself from the Tea Party minority that he thinks platitudes about America’s awesomeness are going to mean something to the rest of us? In the America populated by the worldly and educated, telling us that every country in the world wants to be us (a patently false statement, by the way) isn’t going to make anybody feel any better about the tough times we are going through.

And Obama’s “the American Dream is alive” answer kind of flies in the face of the lawyer in front of him who was trying to tell him, “My American Dream is dying.” I don’t think that lawyer so much cares that the American Dream is allegedly alive for millions of people he doesn’t know.

Most disappointingly, Obama once again missed an opportunity to get his mind around the very real problem of exorbitant student debt. I highlighted tackling student debt as an election issue 18 months ago. In an open letter to the president, I pointed out that this student debt issue is a crucial one to the young, educated “elites” who are partially responsible for putting Obama in office. If the GOP is going to corner the market on anti-intellectual Americans who are obsessed with fear and “cling to their guns and their religion,” then Obama needs to capture the Americans who can spell well enough to know that “education” isn’t a four-letter word.

Maybe you only need to wave a flag (and make wild claims about the exoticism of the President) to get the Tea Party people. But if you want to tap into the energy of the young intellectuals in this country, you’re going to have to give them something real. Education is like kryptonite to dump political platitudes.

Sponsored

There is nothing more real than jobs, and clearly nobody has a plan for making those. Even if Obama’s stimulus and infrastructure plans might eventually create jobs, they’re not going to be the kinds of jobs that the very well-educated are looking for. People can get a road repair jobs without carrying six figures of educational debt.

But if Obama could find some way to relieve the pressure of educational debt, that would be a real change that could energize young people that Obama needs on his side. And that doesn’t even get into the fact that when young people are not servicing enormous amounts of debt, they tend to consume things. A 50-year-old with a sweet tax break might hoard the profits. A 25-year-old with no debt to pay is going to “reinvest” that money (in models and bottles). Raise your hand if you think the American economy could benefit from a few more consumers.

Obama could have addressed a number of these concerns yesterday. He could have said: “Your American Dream is not dead, but it is being stunted because your educational debt grossly outstrips the market value of your degree. Our universities have allowed tuition to get out of control, and we’re going to do something about that.” Instead, he gave us some tripe about how the people of the world would gladly buy an American lottery ticket.

I’m sure they would. But if education has as much chance of paying off as a lotto ticket, then it should cost a dollar, not a hundred thousand dollars. Obama seems to have a blind spot when it comes to what educational debts are doing to young people in this country.

Maybe next time Obama can host a town hall meeting on how to write a best-selling book. That’s the only student loan repayment program he seems to understand.

Disappointed Supporters Question Obama [New York Times]
At CNBC town hall, Obama is asked: ‘Is the American dream dead?’ [Washington Post]

Earlier: Student Loan Bailout. Just Do It.
In Defense of Going to Law School

Topics

, , , ,