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Broadcast for August 2
Part 1
Arnie Arnesen and Scott Braddock
Short discussion and analysis of the Democratic debates. Both agreed that Julian Castro and Andrew Yang did a good job. Castro showed competence.
Discussion of the southern border with Mexico . The speakers agreed that this is a humanitarian crisis. This is due to the criminalization of border crossing. There should be distinction made between ‘entry without inspection’, which is a civil infraction, and “illegal entry”. Prosecutorial discretion is dependent on who is president. Both Bush II and Obama used enforcement mechanisms to stem immigration. Bush used raids on factories and workplaces. Obama used “ICE audits”, which included inspections of I-9 documents, and forced employers to fire workers whose documents did not meet standards. It was noted that undocumented immigrants contribute $13 billion annually to Social Security, but do not collect. These immigrants also contribute a similar amount in local taxes, so it cannot be said that they only take.
Texas politics.
Currently, there appears to be a scandal brewing. The Texas Speaker of the House has met with a “dark money” group that claims to have recorded the conversation. It is not clear what was discussed or decided during this meeting. However, the group has, in the past, floated stories that were not proven to be true.
Part 2
Arnie Arnesen and Stacy Teichen Khadaroo, who is a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor, and has recently written an article about the problem of older Americans who have student debts.
This is a topic of interest to many in New Hampshire, because New Hampshire has and older population, second oldest in the US. New Hampshire also has the highest student loan debt. New Hampshire is 50th among in state aid to higher education, even though New Hampshire is the 7th richest state.
Student loan debt balances are the fastest growing balances among Americans over 50. This is a five-fold increase since 2004. These are not loans that can be discharged through bankruptcy. Social Security payments can be garnished, and often are. This, despite the problems that exists when these loans are made. Older Americans take on loans to improve their education and raining to improve skills after layoffs from previously held jobs. For-profit schools often deceive students who sign up. Students are tricked into signing loan agreements with no thought of how repayment will be possible, due to lack of consumer protection or consumer education. Though loan forgiveness is possible in some cases, though students are not necessarily informed of these plans. For-profit schools tell students that they will help them with employment after graduation, though this is not usually the case. Students and graduates find themselves looking for jobs that do not pay enough to enable them to repay their debt. Their retirement is affected. This is worse for minority Americans. Of all Americans, 32% of white Americans, 52% of Latino Americans, and 45% of African-Americans depend on Social Security for their retirement income.
Not only directly for themselves, Americans take on student debt, but also on behalf of their children ands sometimes grandchildren. So it may be that some Americans may die with student debt.
With this situation prevalent among the Baby Boomers, the problem will only increase for the Millennials, since their debt burden will be higher.
