College education costs and debt - What's Your Point?

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - This week’s panel:  Wayne Dolcefino – media consultant, Laura Moser – former Democratic congressional candidate, Bob Price – Associate Editor of Breitbart Texas, Carmen Roe – Houston Attorney, Kathleen McKinley – conservative blogger, Antonio Diaz- writer, educator and radio host, join Greg Groogan in a discussion about Elizabeth Warren's college debt elimination plan.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Democrat Elizabeth Warren is proposing the elimination of existing student loan debt for millions of Americans, part of a sweeping set of education funding proposals announced as she and other presidential candidates seek to differentiate themselves in a sprawling field.

The Massachusetts senator says the proposal unveiled Monday would eliminate almost all student loan debt for 42 million Americans, canceling $50,000 in debt for each person with household income under $100,000. According to Warren's description of the plan in a piece to be posted on Medium, the debt cancellation proposal would create a one-time cost to the federal government of $640 billion.

Many in the growing field of Democratic candidates have proposed reforming the nation's student loan programs, including dramatic restructuring of existing refinancing structures, but Warren appears to be the first to propose flat-out debt cancellation. Warren and others in the field, including Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris, are backing the Debt-Free College Act , a bill that would cover all costs for students attending a public college without necessitating loans.

Among Warren's other proposals is elimination of tuition and fees for two- and four-year public college degree programs, as well as a $100 billion investment in Pell Grants, a federal aid program that requires no payback.

Tuition-free higher education was a mainstay of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential run. Warren, Harris and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, another presidential contender, all signed on as co-sponsors of Sanders' 2017 College for All Act , which would have allocated $47 billion annually to states to cover two-thirds of the tuition obligation, leaving states responsible for the rest.

The costs of debt cancellation and universal free college, Warren said, would be "more than covered by my Ultra-Millionaire Tax -- a 2% annual tax on the 75,000 families with $50 million or more in wealth."

Warren's plan would also create a fund with a "minimum of $50 billion" intended to keep per-student spending at historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions comparable to other area colleges.

Warren announced the policy ahead of a CNN town hall in New Hampshire focusing on issues important to young voters. Her slot in the five-hour broadcast Monday comes along with other appearances by Harris, Sanders and Sen. Amy Klobuchar as well as Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Following New Hampshire, Warren this week is making stops in South Carolina, Texas, Iowa and Nevada.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday became the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to make a full-throated call for the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report.

Mueller, who investigated whether Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election and whether the president tried to interfere with the inquiry, found no evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and made no verdict on obstruction of justice. Mueller did find, however, that Trump made numerous attempts to interfere with the investigation but was largely foiled by those around him.

In a series of tweets, Warren said it would be damaging to "ignore a President's repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior" and would give license to future presidents to act in the same way.

"The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States," Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, tweeted.

Other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, while supportive of the idea of impeachment, were more circumspect in their responses.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro said Friday on CNN that it would be "perfectly reasonable for Congress to open up those proceedings."

Both Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said the question of impeachment should not be taken off the table.

Other Democratic candidates, including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, indicated it was too soon to initiate impeachment proceedings.

"We don't have an unredacted version of the report. We don't have the underlying materials that that report was written upon. We haven't had yet an opportunity to have hearings where we interview Mueller," Booker said during a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California was asked Thursday night on MSNBC to comment on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's remarks that impeachment hearings against Trump would not be "worthwhile" because the 2020 election is coming up and voters can decide if they want to keep Trump in office.

"I think that's there definitely a conversation to be had on that subject," Harris said, referring to impeachment, "but first I want to hear from Bob Mueller and really understand what exactly is the evidence that supports the summary that we've been given."

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said the best recourse for Trump's actions as president would be to vote him out.

"If we really want to send Trumpism into the history books, the best thing we can do is defeat it decisively at the ballot box in 2020," Buttigieg said on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers."