Podcast (attitude): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Part One:
We speak with Marcia Brown, writing fellow at The American Prospect. She works on the magazine’s Day One Project, which identifies 30 meaningful executive actions which a new president will be able to implement on Day One, based on laws and powers that already exist — without having to rely on Congress to pass any new legislation to authorize such actions. Ms. Brown explains how the President of the United States already has the authority to cancel or reduce any or all federal student loan debt.
Trillions of dollars of debt that former students owe to the federal government are preventing 46 million young Americans from buying their first home, starting a family, and embarking on the career that they feel called to pursue. And a hardline approach to collecting every dollar owed fails to recognize the public benefit that education (at all levels) provides.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but the U.S. government already has the statutory authority to “compromise and settle” the debts that former students owe to it. Think about parallels in the non-governmental world: Any creditor has the right to compromise any debt owed to it. Whenever a medical (or other) bill is referred to a debt collector, the amount to be collected falls by 50%, and the debt collector has authority to compromise away even more of the initial obligation. Similarly, after an auto accident, when insurance adjusters inspect the damage to your car, they usually offer something less than 100% of your losses. While you have the option to pursue your full claim through the courts, you usually compromise the amount for practical reasons unrelated to maximizing your financial gain.
Part Two:
We are joined by John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, who is a remarkable teacher. He enlightens us on how the current state of affairs in Washington reflects exactly the concerns that motivated America’s Founders to include the impeachment clauses in the U.S. Constitution. Shortly after rebelling against an abusive King of England, the Founders worried that a democratically elected president might nevertheless use all the powers he [sic] was given in order to enrich himself or to perpetuate his power beyond the term to which he’d been elected. And the charges against Pres. Trump (the facts of which he does not seem to dispute) fall neatly into that classic impeachment scenario.
Nichols cautions us not to fret about the possibility that the Senate will refuse to convict Trump of the charges. No president has ever been removed from office based on a Senate conviction; they have either resigned under pressure or been voted out of office after being impeached by the House. But we must remember that impeachment was a tool that America’s Founders took seriously and fully intended to be used in order to protect our “experiment” in democracy. Jefferson was the first to invoke impeachment — not very long after the Constitution was adopted.
Nichols believes the officials who will participate in the impeachment process will rise to the occasion, fully conscious of their role in history. They will recognize that impeachment is an important part of our Constitution, a bulwark to make sure that our democracy avoids the abuses and excesses of monarchy and self-dealing. Because of this recognition, most of the players in this drama will be motivated — as individuals and as representatives of institutions that provide the checks and balances that democracy needs — to do whatever they can to help steer our country safely through one of its periodic tests.
We hope that Nichols’s optimism turns out to be justified. And we urge everyone to include your children in this learning process – so future generations appreciate the wonders of American democracy and the need to protect it from threats both foreign and domestic.
