New America Foundation
Director of the Federal Education Budget Project at the New America Foundation; informal higher education advisor to Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign; former senior analyst on the Republican staff of the US Senate Budget Committee
How will Clinton and Trump deal with college debt? With the presidential campaign now focused on personalities and family histories, how is a voter to know how either candidate might actually govern? This is the first of a five-part series exploring issues that could be critical for people trying to make up their minds. Hillary Clinton is a known “policy wonk” with detailed plans for “college affordability” and how to pay for it. That invites both support and criticism. Donald Trump has just made a few statements — leaving supporters and critics to speculate about what he might try to do.
Student Loans: Does Public Money Need Private Administration? The big news on Sunday was House passage of healthcare reform and the so-called " reconciliation " bill that now goes to the Senate. Hardly noticed was that "reconciliation" also included the biggest change in the student loan program since 1965.
Student Loans: Does Public Money Need Private Administration? The scenario is all too familiar: increased demand and rising costs; diminishing revenues during a major recession. It's not healthcare, it's higher education. Yet -- almost without notice -- the two were packaged together in the reconciliation bill passed by the House on Sunday. The biggest student-loan change in 45 years would eliminate private middlemen in favor of government lending directly to struggling students. Some, but not all, of $61 billion in savings would go to Pell Grants for the neediest. Not one Republican voted for it. We hear the pros and cons.
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.