Four More Years?

One of the great satirical magazines of all time – MAD- once spoofed then-President Nixon’s historic visit to China with a bubble quote over the former chief executive’s head thinking “I’ve got to do something to take the country’s mind off high unemployment, inflation, Vietnam...etc.”

Fast forward roughly 40 years or so and now Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, perhaps the only 2016 candidate that may yet be the subject of an FBI probe, similarly has to do something to revive her sagging poll numbers, and thus she has unveiled a $350 billion plan to make college more affordable and reducing the escalating amount of student debt.

Okay, with one daughter out of college and the other two years away from graduation, I won’t let her remarkable record of non-accomplishment first as a New York Senator and then later as Secretary of State cloud my judgment.

Each month I receive the invoices for student loan repayments, so of course, I’ll listen.

Her proposal unveiled at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire centers on a $200 billion federal incentive system aimed at encouraging states to expand their investments in higher education and cut student costs. States that guarantee "no-loan" tuition at four-year public schools and free tuition at community colleges will be eligible to receive federal funds.

The cost of Clinton's plan would be offset by capping itemized tax deductions for wealthy families at 28 percent. That proposal would raise more than $600 billion in the next decade, according to analysts the Treasury Department.

However before any celebrations, she would be wise to recall that the current President’s $60 billion initiative for free community college has gained precious little traction in Congress.

The affordability of attending college in the 21^st century has become a hot button issue for the 2016 campaign and with good reason. National student debt is near $1.3 trillion (yes, with a T) and the average price for in-state students at public four-year universities is 42 percent higher than it was than just 10 years ago.

Call me cynical but I find it no coincidence that her platform was announced just as the first wave of college students have begun to return for the fall semester. She has also struggled to attract younger voters and this might be the jumpstart she badly needs to help galvanize a voting base more familiar with Demi Lovato than Lawrence Welk.

I’ll let far brighter minds than that sort any proposal that will leave me a little more discretionary income at the end of each month. But I can’t help thinking that her setting up residence in the Oval Office might be far scarier than any college tuition.