Congresswoman Virginia Foxx is the chairwoman of the Higher Education & Workforce Training Subcommittee. So she's well-versed on the complicated issue of the current student loan bubble, correct? Actually, no. It turns out that Virginia Foxx knows about as much about the specifics behind the student loan crisis as Red Foxx, who is dead. 
Foxx, a congresswoman for North Carolina's 5th Congressional District and, let me repeat, chairwoman of the Higher Education & Workforce Training Subcommittee did not say this:
"I was the first woman to ever pay for college. I don't know why students never get jobs anymore. Why do students think college is free? Why don't students work? If you want an education that will make you out of touch with current social issues, you need to shut up and rub my feet."
She did not say that. What she did say was this:
I went through school. I worked my way through. It took me seven years; I never borrowed a dime of money. ... I have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt.
• Virginia Foxx went to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1968, back when multiplayer gaming meant carrying around a burlap sack full of sheep knuckles. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 1968, the average yearly cost for tuition, room, and board for a public university was $1,245. In today's words, that is one thousand two hundred and forty-five dollars for a year's worth of college. For today's average college student, that dollar amount is roughly equivalent to the cost of a textbook and a garbage bag.
• According to Rebuild the Dream, in 1968, seven years at UNC Chapel Hill, adjusted for inflation, cost $46,100. That same education now would cost more than $140,000. Rebuild the Dream also notes that minimum wage was 38 percent higher in 1968 than it is now, adjusted for inflation. Just some facts and numbers and stuff to throw out there ... sometimes those are good things to consider.
• According to Opensecrets.org, some of Virginia Foxx's biggest donators are PACs such as Education Management Corporation, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, as well as the esteemed, for-profit, Keiser University (Home of the Fightin' Sozes).
Jokes aside, here's the only thing that matters:
Social policies in our country are being dictated by individuals who are make their decisions based on who donates to their campaigns, therefore rendering those policy-makers completely out of touch with their voter base. These people are completely oblivious to the current state of affairs, and yet, they are in charge of creating "solutions" to today's problems. People who operate in this manner are not thoughtful problem solvers full of meaningful analysis, they are corporate shills.
Looking down the barrel of the impending student-loan bubble and saying, "I have little tolerance for those with student loan debts..." is akin to telling blind people that they should just open their eyes wider if they want to see. Foxx's comments completely expose her as someone who has absolutely no concept of today's higher education landscape. Good thing she's the CHAIRWOMAN OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION & WORKFORCE TRAINING SUBCOMMITTEE.
How do people like this get elected and appointed to such positions? I have no idea. But I do know that only public service and direct action can save this country now. It's up to every single person in that state who had to take out student loans in order to subsidize skyrocketing education costs to work to make sure that someone as clueless as Virginia Foxx is no longer allowed to create social policy. The only other option is to educate Virginia Foxx, get her to admit how oblivious she was, and have her dedicate her position to making public education accessible to American citizens. The latter is highly unlikely absent several thousands of dollars in donations to her office. Maybe if our children don't take out student loans, they'll be able to support politicians who are trying to keep people powerless and uneducated.
Change has to come through educating voters, and from direct action by grassroots organizations. Occupy North Carolina, Occupy Chapel Hill, Occupy Tobacco Road, this one is on you. Best of luck. I trust that y'all have little tolerance for letting the rest of us get screwed.
Follow Edward Murray on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WeCanBeatEczema
LearnVest: How I Paid Off My Student Loan in Only Three and a Half Years
Ida V. Eskamani: A Less Bright Future: Florida Is Breaking Its Promise to Students
Jason Stanford: The College Debt Bubble
With Obama stirring the pot again, raising class envy tensions and dislike of the system, there are two things that you need to consider:
One is "Why is he doing this?" (Distract from his failed presidency)
Why doesn't he tell the students he's whipping into a frenzy that he, and his predecessors, have hung twice that amount of debt on them... and with nothing to show for it.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
I spent $1,400 for TWO classes and books at my local community college. I have ZERO tolerance for selfish people like Foxx who receive blessings and then don't want young people to have the same blessings.
Because you are a Millennial Generation product, you have been spared some of the harsh realities of life. Like our president, you got a trophy by just saying "present." It isn't your fault, but once recognized, the balance belongs to you.
What Ms Foxx is saying is that "individual responsibility" is paramount.
Those 2 classes for $1400? Did you pay for them or borrow the money? If you borrowed the money, you have already stepped in it. Get a job. Earn the $1400 and take 2 more classes.
Ms Foxx has undoubtedly received blessings. She didn't pay for college with them though. She paid for it with a pay check.
By the way the price of higher education will never stop escalating until the federal government stops giving unlimited loans to students.
The better we do at educating the younger generations and providing them the opportunity, the more successful and more competetive our country will be with the rest of the world. The more difficult we make higher education, the less people will become educated.
The costs of higher education have far out-stripped inflation... why?
Check out the endowments ant the most expensive schools... what is that for?
How about salaries and retirrement plans?
I think you'll find many of the 1% have the title of professor.
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/newsgraphics/2012/0115-one-percent-occupations/index.html
Didn't you graduate with Frederick J. Flintstone and Bernard Rubble?
Get the "Mister Falcon" off your high horse.
Elisabeth Motsinger for Congress (nc5th)
Yeah, you almost had me...almost.
How about the “murder” that was reported for days on Fox News; it turned out later that the murder was 4 blocks away! Can you believe it!!!! A murder in New York City?!?!?
Stop watching Fox News for a while and see what REALLY going on in the world!
http://act.rebuildthedream.com/sign/denounce-foxx
Plz favorite this to keep it at the top o' the comments!
The Student Lending system has long been a phantom industry, and only now and very late in the game is some light finally being cast on its inner workings.
Perhaps my new Post will help, and you can read about my student loan debt cautionary tale/ horror story if you go to my blog at: www.esqpainting.blogspot.com