Student Loan Debt Has Surprassed Both Credit Card and Auto Loan Debt

Not to burst everyone's bubble this morning, but student debt just surpassed credit card and auto loan debt by a sizeable margin and the future doesn't look too bright either.  Unless President Obama, Elizabeth Warren and the GOP can find a solution...

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

If you're one of the 37 million Americans with student loan debt, you're in for a real treat come July 1. That's when interest rates on federal student loans are set to rise to 6.8 percent—double the current rate of 3.4 percent. That deadline has lawmakers scrambling for a fix. There are a bunch of proposals out there, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's call for students to be allowed to pay the low, low rate that big banks pay for short-term borrowing; a plan President Barack Obama laid out in his budget in April; and the GOP plan that just passed the House—a plan Obama hates.

Whatever lawmakers and the president ultimately decide matters a lot. Over the past 25 years, the cost of going to college has spiked 440 percent. Since 2004, student loan debt in this country has tripled, and now stands close to $1 trillion. Check it out here.

Are the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisks Violating the Constitution?

This week, New York City is defending itself against a lawsuit that claims its controversial "stop and frisk" policy is used to illegally detain and search people on the basis of race. The subject of an ongoing trial, the suit also argues that the weak justifications given by NYPD officers for most stop-and-frisks fail to meet the constitutional burden for search and seizure. We put together this explainer and some charts to help you make sense of what's going on. - Mother Jones

Why Does The Military Love Ron Paul?

Think most military service members are donating to Mitt Romney, New Gingrich, and Rick Santorum?  Think again, they're giving their money to Ron Paul.  And why, you ask?  I imagine service members are tired of fighting endless wars.  Or maybe it has something to do with coming back home to no jobs?  Democrats say cut defense spending, Republicans scream back, "you're a terrorist".  Seriously?

The 2012 presidential race tells a different story: The lion's share of political contributions by servicemembers and defense industry workers is going to anti-war, "soft on Israel," also-ran candidate Ron Paul. In fact, the battle for their dollars isn't even close: Paul has raised at least $282,868 from individual active-duty servicemembers and Pentagon employees—more than four times what the other three Republican presidential candidates have raised, combined. (President Obama has fared slightly better, drawing $123,644 from that group, but still less than half of Paul's total. Full Story Here.

Presidential Campaign Costs Since President Abraham Lincoln

Barack Obama spent $730 million getting to the White House in 2008—twice as much as George W. Bush spent 4 years earlier and more than 260 times what Abraham Lincoln spent in his first election (as measured in 2011 dollars). Looking at the total costs of presidential elections over the past 150 years, it would seem that the White House is the ultimate recession-proof commodity. Full Story here

Pandering To The Rich

This chart, courtesy of Mother Jones is really cool.  Only because it actually shows how much these Republican candidates are pandering to the rich.  And conservatives are right not to believe Romney, he lowers them the least.

According to the article, "The Tax Policy Center hasn't yet tried to score plans from Santorum, Huntsman, or Paul."  Which is okay, we don't need any more proof to know who these guys are catering to.

As the chart [above] shows, conservatives are right to believe that Romney isn’t to be trusted. Sure, he lowers tax rates on millionaires by 9 percentage points, and you may think that’s a pretty sweet deal for the rich. But come on. Newt Gingrich would lower them by 24 percentage points. (No, that’s not a typo.) Rick Perry lowers them by 20 percentage points. Herman Cain lowers them by 15 points. Frankly, Romney is hardly even trying here.

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