Real question on student loans

When it comes to all the wrangling over federal student loan rates, both the Democrats and the GOP have got it all wrong. The debate seems to be revolving around the disaster of allowing the rate for future loans to rise from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, and if it isn’t increased, how is this lost revenue going to be funded?

The real question to be addressed is, should federal funds, taxpayers’ money, be used to support citizens’ educational pursuits? Where in the Constitution is this permissible? I can answer that question: nowhere.

If you want to go to college, you have many options. Get a scholarship (for the academically gifted), go to a less expensive school (if you can’t afford a prestigious one), get a part-time or full-time job (self-explanatory), obtain a loan from a commercial institution (if you’re qualified), ask your family to fund it (if they can afford to or wish to), etc.

Since most aspiring college students are young, this issue can be used as an early life, pre-college lesson. They will learn that life ain’t fair and the taxpayers don’t owe you anything. Get used to it.

Thomas P. Hanley

Post Falls

Continue the progress in CdA

I look at all the wonderful projects that have happened in Coeur d’Alene over the last few years (Kroc Center, library, Education Corridor and Cherry Hill) and consider how very lucky we are to have a forward-looking City Council with Mayor Sandi Bloem, Woody McEvers, Mike Kennedy and Deanna Goodlander to serve our community by continuing to improve our city.

As I live close to McEuen Park, I see every day how underused it is. The new plan will make it much more user-friendly to a very wide spectrum of our citizens.

Please just check the facts and think hard before you sign a petition to recall these terrific public servants. Let’s continue to move our city forward, not backward.

I will continue to support these council members and urge you to do the same.

Gary Johnson

Coeur d’Alene

Can’t trust Obama’s word

President Barack Obama has finally announced his support for elevating gay relationships to co-equal status with traditional marriage. But among those who follow politics, few actually believed the president’s previous position opposing gay marriage. Thus, Obama was never attacked in the same manner as other supporters of the traditional relationship because it was known he was lying.

There is in the Democratic Party the view that the American people are vicious and stupid or, stated in its Marxian form, that people lack the proper consciousness. In either case, it becomes quite acceptable to lie to obtain power, and then use that power to impose the “proper” policies.

The most obvious prior examples were the southern Democrats, such as Al Gore Sr., who ran on racist platforms, or the many Democrats who abandoned their pro-life stances when they aspired to high national office.

The president has told us many things about who he is, what he believes, how he feels about the country. He was also recently overheard conveying to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that, after the next election, he would have more “flexibility.” Putting all this together, is there anything President Obama says in which we can place trust?

Bill Manuel

Spokane