The Politico

Time To End Waste At the Pentagon

Ron Tang — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:54:00 -0400

As Congress prepares to consider the annual Department of Defense authorization bill and other military spending legislation totaling more than $700 billion, the need for more aggressive scrutiny is abundantly clear. At a time when we have a $9.3 trillion national debt and large unmet social needs, oversight of these enormous and ever-increasing sums has failed to keep up.

The Pentagon’s procurement and budgeting processes are rife with problems. For example, the Government Accountability Office has identified $295 billion in cost overruns on 72 major weapons systems, even as the Pentagon can’t balance its books or keep track of its vast… more

Obama's Adversity Creates Opportunity

Ron Tang — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:47:00 -0400

After months of bruising political battles, the matchup for the November election is now almost set. It’s clear that one of the two presumptive nominees has been badly hurt by his party’s nominating fight. Barack Obama?

No. John McCain.

Certainly, Obama has faced the tougher primary battle. But in adversity has come opportunity. The presumptive Democratic nominee has been able to confront difficult questions about his candidacy that would normally arise during the general election. And he was able to test out an affirmative message of change with independent voters in nearly every state of the country.

McCain, on the other hand, won… more

It's No Longer 1968 For Dems

Ron Tang — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:58:00 -0400

In May 2004, as the presidential campaign was beginning to gather steam, an unnamed senior Bush administration official was asked to comment on the dilemma John F. Kerry faced in criticizing the handling of the war in Iraq. His response: “It’s never stopped being 1968” for Democrats.

A more telling description of Democratic vulnerability on national security issues is difficult to imagine. The year 1968 is shorthand for the 40-year political caricature of Democrats as “soft” and “weak” on military affairs. In the late ’60s, Democrats were “dirty hippies”; in the ’70s, they were peacenik McGovernites; in 1984, they were “blame… more

Michael Dannenberg in Politico on the Department of Education

Communications — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:47:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Taking up an issue that could resonate with young voters, Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) presidential campaign blasted the Education Department for allowing student loan recipients to over-pay the loans and not get the money back. In a sharply worded statement Monday, Dodd pounced on a Washington Post article from Saturday in which Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings admitted that her department "had some responsibility" for "confusion" over regulations that allowed the excess payments to occur.

"At a time when it's clear that a college education is becoming more and more necessary, it's unconscionable that the Department of Education is allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to go unaccounted for, increasing the cost burden of a college education for all Americans," Dodd said in the press release.

In January 2007, the Department of Education reached a settlement with the Nelnet corporation whereby the company agreed it would no longer make use of an accounting technique to claim a government subsidized 9.5 percent interest rate on a class of student loans issued at the beginning of the decade — an interest rate more than double the prevailing market rate at the time. But, as part of the agreement, the company would keep $278 million in past payments already made by the Department. Spellings justified that decision in an interview with the Post, saying, “We had legal risk, in my view, and the prudent course of action was to, once and for all, end this practice and provide certainty in the industry that that was not allowable. While it cost us $278 million to make that final call, it also saved us potentially a billion dollars had we lost the litigation.”

But some higher education experts, like Michael Dannenberg at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, think the lenders are getting an unusually sweet deal. “The Department of Education makes the tiniest high poverty school districts get an act of Congress passed to forgive overpayments in the thousands of dollars, but it has no problem letting student loan companies like Nelnet walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars.” Dannenberg argues that it’s the Justice Department’s job to assess the threat of litigation. ...

For the complete article, please visit Politico.com.

Baby Bonds Pay Bipartisan Dividends

Articles — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:33:00 -0400

At a recent campaign stop with the Congressional Black Caucus, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account.”

That was enough to generate a few headlines and some right-wing outrage. The Drudge Report was quick to tweak one of its favorite targets and drive some Internet traffic with a bold banner, “A Bond for Every Bassinet.”

The conservative Washington Times and New York Post blasted the idea within 24 hours, and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani called it “pandering” and promptly incorporated it into his next fundraising appeal.

But… more

The Politico Quotes Michael Dannenberg on Student Loan Subsidies

Communications — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:06:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The student loan industry is about to go up against its own customers.

Lenders and student advocacy groups are preparing to fight each other on Capitol Hill over how much the government subsidizes school loans.

Student loan subsidies were designed originally to encourage lenders and guarantors to participate in the program. Student groups...want to see the subsidies reduced, arguing that those federal dollars would be better spent on increasing Pell Grants to $5,100 from $4,050...

Reducing subsidies could drive some lenders out of the business entirely, industry members contend. And fewer lenders means fewer options for loan-shopping students...

If recent history is an indicator, the lenders are facing an uphill fight. At the close of the 109th Congress, federal subsidies for loans were cut $20 billion as part of the Deficit Reduction Act...

They are also grappling with fallout from scandal. One firm, Nelnet, is being scrutinized for some $278 million in subsidies that an audit claimed improper. And Sallie Mae raised eyebrows recently when Chairman Albert Lord sold more than $18 million in stock three days before Bush proposed the subsidy cut, causing the company's stock to drop 9 percent.

"The banks have been triangulated by the president," said Michael Dannenberg, director of education policy at the New America Foundation. "He has made common cause with congressional Democrats..."

For the complete article, please visit The Politico website.

The Politico Profiles Steve Clemons and The Washington Note

Communications — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:50:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Steve Clemons and his super blog TheWashingtonNote.com have become classic testament to what a few hundred words a day can do.

A Beltway insider and foreign policy expert, he surveys the world's hot spots, nags U.N. officials, even gets members of Congress to occasionally change course.

In other words, he's kind of a big deal.

Clemons, a driving force behind the New America Foundation, a progressive think tank, uses his political blog to extol those he likes (the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad) and chasten those he doesn't (Khalilzad's predecessor, John Bolton) -- all of which he delivers with matter-of-fact commentary, top-secret sources, public policy theories and pictures of his new puppy, Annie.

And his access to insiders has attracted plenty of notice.

"The Washington Note is one of the better blogs coming out of the Capital right now," e-mailed Helene Cooper, who covers the State Department for The New York Times. "Steve has been first to report a number of scoops, particularly on the diplomatic beat, where he seems to know just about everybody..."

For the complete article, please visit The Politico website.