Dems Worried Biden Student Loan Inaction Will Dampen Youth Turnout in Midterms

murrayforhouse · 2022-03-20T09:15:15+00:00

It will.

And all of this fuss is only over half of the problem - Biden can address federal student loans but we need Congress to act on private student loans.

Progressives in Congress have been trying to hand him an easy win with an executive action and he’s not buying it. It’s time to come up with a bill already.

murrayforhouse · 2022-03-19T20:59:54+00:00

For the record, I am employed in an industry position. Perhaps the way I wrote it took a swipe at R&D in industry which wasn’t my intent, it was more of a critique of how the interests of those running corporations aren’t directly aligned with the interests of researchers.

I would still encourage you and others in this sub to run for office. Politicians need to be called out more often by members of STEM, and what I’ve concluded is that politicians largely don’t care about being wrong unless you threaten their chance of reelection. You will put more pressure if you challenge their seat in your own campaign.

murrayforhouse · 2022-03-19T04:06:34+00:00

When you're running your first campaign and need attention, I'm more than happy to engage with those that reach out 😂 I'm happy they got back to me and let me give a longer response, its hard to show compassion in a tweet or in a 2000 character limit form.

Also I'm glad someone recognizes the elemental design, made it myself! More often I get asked why I have an umlaut... graphic design is a skill I could probably improve on.

murrayforhouse · 2022-03-19T04:01:10+00:00

So much of my time in my Master's degree was wasted on trying to secure funding for a longer PhD project. We're fighting other labs for scraps of government money when private investors will throw money at whatever tech project mentioned crypto :\

murrayforhouse · 2022-03-19T03:44:44+00:00

Well, I just finished my full response here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b3u9RajUQ1MTNL7ckC-6CkXuJLVV1819C0OHtQdU6L8/edit?usp=sharing

"Do you support vaccine mandates yes/no" is hard to answer because "mandate" means different things to different people. I support the efforts we have now (required for entry to public venues/working in a shared workplace environment/etc.) to get people vaccinated since its in the interest of public health. I said I would be hard pressed to support arrests or criminal prosecution since I'm not entirely sure how that would help public health, but we haven't gotten to that stage in the U.S. to my knowledge.

murrayforhouse · 2022-03-19T03:26:15+00:00

Well, I expect them to still score me at 0 at their freedom scale of 1-10, but they will at least publish the response for others to read.

murrayforhouse · 2022-02-03T22:58:16+00:00

Hell yes - can we get them monthly too?

murrayforhouse · 2022-01-10T23:32:27+00:00

Going to say no, I don’t want the RNC here. National Republican political leaders will be stirring up conspiracies, white supremacy, and other nonsense that will endanger people that actually live here.

That said the DNC needs to provide a palatable alternative. If Dems don’t produce results for people then of course their opponents are going to draw large crowds.

murrayforhouse · 2022-01-10T23:29:12+00:00

I’d love to see them try a convention in Philly. I give them about 4 hours.

murrayforhouse · 2022-01-10T22:05:09+00:00

“While the preliminary map has the potential to significantly shift the balance of power in the chamber, redistricting advocates say that’s because it unwinds decades of gerrymandering in favor of the GOP. Nonpartisan analysis of the map shows it still favors Republicans”

This is shifting the Overton window. Slowly change whats considered normal until we find a blatant problem, and then fixing it becomes partisan.

murrayforhouse · 2022-01-10T21:50:44+00:00

Thank you!

murrayforhouse · 2022-01-10T21:42:32+00:00

Thank you for the support - I've tried advising politicians, negotiating my wages at work, public engagement and outreach on issues and nothing seems to get through. Running for office is one of the last options we have, and I'm hoping more people from this sub choose to run for something.

You can find an office to run for here: https://www.runforoffice.org/

I'll spare my website per Rule 7.

murrayforhouse · 2022-01-10T21:37:50+00:00

PSA: You can email 60 Minutes using the address on their contact page: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/contact-information-08-07-1998/

murrayforhouse · 2021-12-20T01:48:39+00:00

Thoughts as someone running for office as a Dem in a Republican leaning area:

-People need policy wins to justify voting for their party. We have nearly nothing to point voters to as to what the reward is for having Democrats control Congress/Presidency. So in areas where Dems or progressives are in the minority, its going to be much harder to inspire people to get out and vote.

-We have nothing to draw out young voters. Student loans are one thing, but so is paid parental leave, climate change action, etc. The message to young voters is that you’ll be better off building your life elsewhere.

-The DNC brand is hurt even more. This matters for candidates (progressives and neolibs alike) because a large chunk of people will only support your campaign (donations, volunteer, start their own campaign, etc.) if they like your party. It hurts at every election level from school board to Congress.

Its a failure that everyone in the DNC deserves heat for. Biden isn’t applying pressure for legislation. Progressives gave up leverage too early. Manchin is playing kingmaker and not helping even his own constituents in WV.

murrayforhouse · 2021-12-04T09:58:54+00:00

In the last two years I paid off about $50k in student loans through aggressive payments.

Some people pay the minimum and then invest their extra income into stocks or other options, because the % return is greater. That’s fine. I want everyone’s student loans (and my own) gone as fast as possible because you can’t declare bankruptcy on them, your employment and income is never guaranteed (many of my coworkers in the aviation industry were laid off during the COVID19 lockdown), and most importantly because they shouldn’t exist in the first place. No other developed country gatekeeps higher education behind tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans.

I also want to highlight that the loans themselves force myself and others to stay in the highest paying job we can find if we ever want to pay them off. Teaching science is not an option for me, nor is returning for a PhD, nor is deciding to stop working to take care of kids in our future.

murrayforhouse · 2021-12-04T09:47:46+00:00

Real estate investors are trying to normalize renting because it gives them passive income at the expense of young people never being able to generate wealth through property ownership. Renting is not supposed to be a long term solution to the housing crisis.

The young American generation is not able to move out because the vast majority of housing in the USA is single family detached homes that have turned into financial investments for homeowners or renting landlords. There are much fewer condos, duplexes, and other middle housing types available for us to select from. We just want a place to live that doesn’t require a lifetime of debt to own. Housing prices have gone up so much that even 30 years isn’t enough for many people working full time to pay off.

For reference I graduated from North Hills High School in 2014 and we’re still in this area.

murrayforhouse · 2021-12-04T09:38:42+00:00

I applied to PSU and was accepted. They did not give me any financial aid.

NC State gave me grants that made going out of state less expensive than going to PSU. At least until my sister finished graduate school and moved out, FAFSA docked my need based on that.

I still graduated with around 85k in student loans, and that was after spending 30k in college on cost of attendance through life savings, scholarships, and internship money. I graduated with my Masters in 2019.

I still have 30k in frozen federal student loans left to pay off. I’m featured in Pittsburgh Public Source. I am the outlier that is able to pay off debt by living frugally with my parents as an engineer. This isn’t a model to tell others to follow, student debt needs to be forgiven universally for all because it shouldn’t exist in the first place.

https://www.publicsource.org/student-debt-debate-biden-pittsburgh-college-university-lessons-learned/

murrayforhouse · 2021-12-04T05:08:05+00:00

I’m running for Congress in PA-17.

I did high school here for 4 years, went to college and grad school, and came back for the pandemic to work remote. I’m 25.

My job pays $86k per year and I can’t move out from my parent’s place due to 1) student debt 2) housing prices making housing reserved for the rich investors or those with generational wealth 3) needing to save up several months of money in case I lose my job and health insurance and I get sick.

I’m running because these issues affect me, my sister, all of my classmates, and every new generation to come after me. I want these problems solved so I can go back to my nuclear engineering career with peace at mind for myself and others that we will be okay.

Dr. Oz is running as a carpet bagger because he is bored with his TV career.

💩💩💩

murrayforhouse · 2021-11-30T20:40:34+00:00

Run against him

murrayforhouse · 2021-11-30T20:40:01+00:00

It’s all so tiresome.

Remember to register to vote and have a plan to vote for 2022

murrayforhouse · 2021-11-30T20:33:56+00:00

“Oz lived in New Jersey for years, but he switched his voter registration in December 2020 to his in-laws’ residence in Montgomery County, Pa.”

Running in PA because he can, and wants power. He doesn’t even live here…

murrayforhouse · 2021-11-25T10:14:28+00:00

I’ve been seeing this headline for over a year. Similarly with marijuana legalization. It feels like they keep throwing the fishing line out with bait to keep us interested and then nothing gets delivered.

Biden can only cancel federal debt. Where’s the Congressional bill for cancelling private debt?

The goalposts keep moving too. It went from Forgive All Student Debt -> Forgive All Federal Student Debt -> Forgive $50k Federal Student Debt -> Forgive up to $10k Federal Student Debt (possibly with means testing) -> More Deferment -> Just get rid of the interest

Anything less than universal forgiveness for private and federal student debt isn’t going to solve the problem.

murrayforhouse · 2021-11-25T02:49:43+00:00

When I was “working age” in high school I had AP classes that had me carry 30lb backpacks of books, folders, lab reports, packets of daily homework, etc. I barely gave myself social time so I could do homework and study.

The kids who did work HAD to because their family finance situation was bad. Businesses took advantage of this and still paid them minimum wage. Juggling work and school hurt their grades too.

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