Barack Obama – Georgia Tech: Analysis

On March 10, 2015, President Barack Obama visited Georgia Tech to speak about college affordability. A student from the university, Tiffany Davis, wrote a letter to the President about student loans, which he referenced throughout the speech.

After a string of opening remarks, Obama started the main content of his speech by expressing that “higher education…is one of the best investments that anybody can make in their future.” His “thesis,” if you will, was this: “And the message I want to deliver today, not just to you but to the entire country, is the entire nation has to treat it as a priority.”

He said that the economy is growing steadily. According to a Wall Street Journal chart, the fiscal deficit is growing. In Oct. 2009, the spending was up to over 24 percent, while revenue was down to 14 percent. From then until Oct. 2013, revenue steadily went up while spending steadily went down. The deficit gap was narrowed; though it’s still a massive problem, it’s significantly changed from what it was seven years ago.

He also said that the economy is creating new jobs. According to a Wall Street Journal chart, Obama’s administration has added millions of jobs since he took office – but jobs didn’t start rising until after 12 months in office. In fact, the numbers didn’t get above 0 until after 36 months in office. He’s only added 6.4 million jobs. This isn’t the worst number, but compared to Bill Clinton, who added 22.9 jobs, it’s not that impressive of a number, especially considering how long it took to just break even. “You’re going to be going into a job market that’s much better than the one that existed when I came into office six years ago,” he said. Based on the numbers just examined, this is absolutely true.

Then he said that our country has created 12 million jobs. As seen by the WSJ information, this is not true. FactCheck.org does reports on Obama’s statistical record every quarter. According to the latest data (January 2015), it’s still only 6.4 million new jobs. Not sure where the 12 million comes from.

He cites that the average debt for college graduates is around $28,000. This is correct, according to The Project on Student Debt. In their study of the class of 2013, the average debt of college graduates was $28,400. Obama joked about that number being just the average and that some students have much more. This is true because the Project of Student Debt only looked at public and non-profit colleges. They also broke down each state. State averages ranged from $18,656 to $32,794.

Appealing to his audience, he said that Georgia Tech has been proved to be one of the best deals around. Compared to private school prices, the school seems to be a great bargain. In-state tuition is $21,828, and the average debt for the class of 2013 was $25,027, according to collegedata.com.

He then turned to talking about the need for America to be a place where anyone could have access to a college education. He said: “My grandfather had a change to go to college because this country decided that when veterans returned home from World War II, they should be able to go to college.”

Obama actually got into some hot water in June 2008 when he gave a speech at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and said that his father fought in World War II. This was an instance when people accused him of lying, because his father was three years old at the time of World War II. It was later revealed that he was talking about his maternal grandfather, who was the most influential fatherly figure in his life, which may have been the cause for the mistake.

It’s good to see that he’s got his story straight now by being more intentional in what title he uses for this man. According to a quote from Obama’s own biography, referenced in a Huffington Post article, Stanley Dunham did use the GI Bill to enroll in Berkeley, but he did not finish a degree there. Obama did not mention that in his speech.

He then stated that it took him 10 years to pay off his student loans. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991 and said he paid them off in 2004 when he signed a book deal. First of all, his “10 years” comment is wrong because it took him 13 years. Second of all, News Max did an investigation into his financial disclosures that found that there were no college loans all the way back to 2000. News Max said that because of Senate ethics rules, Obama was supposed to disclose loans and debts. But he did not list any in 2004 or any time after. A campaign spokesman said the loans were repaid during his candidacy for the Senate so it didn’t have to be reported.

Obama criticized the Republican Party for their education proposals as they prepare to reveal their budget. According to the Washington Times, the Republican Party has proposed an education bill that would replace No Child Left Behind. The measure would allow states to decide what to do with failing schools instead of allowing the federal government to do it for them. They want to use public money to help get low-income kids to newer schools. Obama said that this plan would allow states to move education money away from education, or send more money to better schools.

Near the end of the speech, he promoted his new Student Aid Bill of Rights, which he encouraged everyone to sign. This bill of rights can be vague and unnecessary. According to Forbes contributor Jeffrey Dorfman, the bill is on the wrong track because most of the rights are actually shifting responsibility of payment to others. He suggests that it would be much more efficient to teach students about options to pay for college “without moving the costs unto somebody else.”

Obama had a lot of good things to say to these students, but it is concerning that some facts were not accurate.

Processed Marriage

money.cnn.com

Coming soon to grocery shelves near you: Ketchup-flavored mac and cheese.

Though that product doesn’t exist, it may soon because the parents of those products are coming together in a marriage made in processed food heaven. Heinz and Kraft are merging into what will be the world’s fifth largest food company with a value of $36 billion.

USA Today says that the challenge for these two companies is figuring out how to appeal to customers who are more interested in fresh and healthy foods as opposed to processed ones. But despite the healthy trend, these companies are still earning lots and lots of money.

According to the USA Today article, at least one Kraft product is in 98 percent of households in America. Heinz, not surprisingly, is the world’s top ketchup brand.

The merger caused a huge jump in stock prices for Kraft on Wednesday from $21.83 per share to $83.15.

It will be interesting to see if this merger brings about any healthy change in the processed products. In the meantime, enjoy your mac.

Read more here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/03/25/heinz-kraft-merger-announced/70417340/

 

Millions spent to read some emails

Getty Images/The Hill

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called out the Republican party this week, saying that they are not concerned with emails as much as they are with finding dirt to use against Hillary Clinton in her anticipated run for president.

Clinton has been under the spotlight for the last few weeks after it was revealed that she used a personal email account during her time in the State Department. This might not be as big of a deal because she has willingly handed over all the work-related emails; but House Speaker John Boehner can’t seem to let it go, especially after finding out that she deleted 30,000 emails.

Instead of giving up on a wild goose chase that might lead to emails that would supposedly help them tear down Clinton’s reputation (maybe), Boehner is insisting on a full investigation. And investigations aren’t cheap. According to Politicus USA, the Republicans spend $14 million on the Benghazi investigations.

Funds for these investigations come straight from the pockets of tax-paying Americans. Pelosi called this a “partisan” investigation that is a waste of money.

Seriously though. It seems like a waste of time and money to focus on a few emails. Are they really going to find anything that’s going to help them out so much that they win the election? Highly doubtful. Why not use that money to make some posters or something?

Read more here.

Oh, Canada.

Canada denied asylum to an alleged Wikileaks middleman this week, earning harsh comments from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

“Canada’s actions are shameful. It may as well not have a border,” Assange said in a statement on the National Post.

Matt DeHart was handed over to the U.S. by the Canada Border Patrol Sunday. DeHart used to be in the Air National Guard. He’s also an alleged Anonymous hacker, and has child pornography charges. He believes that the charges are a ruse.

“While the U.S. government has yet to file an indictment under the Espionage Act in this case, it is obvious that the flimsy child pornography charges are a pretext to punish DeHart and force him to return to the U.S.,” Jesselyn Radack, a U.S. national security and human rights attorney said.

Apparently, he was tortured when he was in the U.S.

This is a bizarre case, but even stranger that Canada would be so mean to someone! Even someone with the track record of this guy. I think the strangest part of this story is that Canada did not show mercy to this man and sent him into the hands of the United States. He must have been too much for them to handle.

Read more here: http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/02/canada-shameful-for-denying-asylum-to-alleged-anonymous-hacker-matthew-dehart-wikileaks-founder/

Amateur bus rider navigates first journey

Photo/Kaity Bergquist

I’d never been on a bus before.

But finally, at the age of 21, on Feb. 20, 2015, I stepped on a bus, took a two-hour journey, and arrived home safely. It’s something that people all over the world do every single day, but I’d managed to avoid the experience until now. My biggest takeaway was that it is a very manageable process. It’s not the greatest form of transportation, but it is a good option to have.

My friend Kimberlee and I started our journey by planning out where we wanted to go. Using Google Maps, we decided to take the bus to Cal Poly Pomona, which was supposed to take an hour from Azusa Pacific University.

On the appointed day, we arrived at the bus stop, barely missing the 2:15 bus. I did not expect to be waiting a while, but we ended up waiting almost 30 minutes for the next bus. It wasn’t until right before the bus arrived that a few other passengers appeared.

A mostly empty bus. Photo/Kaity Bergquist

I talked to one rider, Rebecca Allen, who said she doesn’t usually take the bus because she has a car. Her dad was working on the engine of her car that day, so she had to take the bus to get to her job in West Covina. She said that she doesn’t like taking the bus because it gets her to work either 20 minutes early or 15 minutes late.

Finally, our journey got an official start when the bus arrived. One of the first sensations I had as I settled in was that the bus smelled good. It was clean, not crowded, and quiet.

We traveled about 20 minutes, then got off to wait for our second bus. It took quite a while to get there, but when we got on, I found the kind of bus driver I had been expecting – a loud, dynamic, opinionated woman. As we got on the bus, she asked us, “do you know where you’re going?” I replied that I thought so, and that led to her ranting about how most passengers think the bus drivers should know exactly where each of them wants to go.

Our destination: Cal Poly Pomona! Photo/Kaity Bergquist

Not long after, we arrived at Cal Poly Pomona. We walked into one of the parking lots before deciding that we’d better figure out to how get back before we wandered too far. However, I pointed out that it was so convenient that we didn’t have to pay for parking. If we had been actually visiting the campus, we would not have had to worry about paying for parking.

We figured out how to get back, but then we also had to figure out which of the multiple bus stops in the area was the right one. We quickly realized how confusing the bus system could be.

As we waited at the stop, I talked to Elizabeth Towers, who told me that she did not like riding the bus, but she lost her car years ago, and has to take the bus out of necessity. Her main complaints about the bus system is the lack of bathrooms and how long it takes to get anywhere.

“It’s cool if you’re a student ‘cause you can read or write a list or something,” she said.

Sometimes she gets lost.

“I do know where I’m going, but I don’t know where I am,” she said.

Our first return bus finally arrived, and we got on board. This one was more crowded. I talked to Gary Billingsley and mentioned that I go to Azusa Pacific University. He said that he wanted to send his daughter there. Here’s something that I found funny: our trip did not take us far from Azusa. But because of the time spent on the bus, it felt like we had strayed far from Azusa. Cal Poly Pomona is a 20-minute drive from APU. But it took us just over two hours to get there and back by bus.

Bypassing traffic on the other side of the highway = a win. Photo/Kaity Bergquist

That’s what seemed to be the biggest complaint from the people we talked to: the bus takes a long time. Not only is it slow on the roads, but you have to wait a while for it to arrive. We experienced this ourselves at the multiple stops we had to take.

Billingsley is still trying to learn the ropes of how the bus system works. He believes that the bus drivers should be able to give him directions. When we confirmed with the bus driver that the bus was going to Azusa, Billingsley said to us, “You guys committed the cardinal sin – listening to the bus driver’s instructions.”

Overall, it was cheap and convenient alternative to using my own gas and having to worry about parking. The time factor is a huge deterrent for me. But it’s crazy to think that some people have no choice.