Here is a good read: “Clinton’s Argument That Free College is Bad Because Rich Kids Can Take Advantage of It Makes No Sense.” By Adam Johnson, Alternet.org, February 25, 2016. A couple of excerpts:
At a town hall on CNN Tuesday night, Clinton reaffirmed her opposition to Bernie Sanders' plan to make all public universities tuition-free. In doing so, she repeated a somewhat bizarre talking point the media has allowed her to push almost entirely without challenge.
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The argument that free public college is bad because rich people could take advantage of it is dubious because this logic could apply to any general public good: parks, K-12 education, roads, public works, NEA, public television, etc. Moreover, any benefits provided to the wealthy under Sanders' free college plan are more than offset by the fact that the wealthy, on his watch, would be paying meaningfully higher taxes. The idea that billionaires like Trump could somehow game the system by sending their children to these sexy, free public colleges—all the while paying much higherincome, estate and capital gains taxes—doesn’t stand up to review.
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Sanders' plan is an attempt to decommodify education for the working and middle class and turn it into a public good. Clinton’s solution, like Obamacare, is an attempt to maintain the neoliberal, for-profit order while promising “debt-free college.” This maintains the status quo while the government, in theory, under rides the cost. Clinton’s plan, however, has work requirements for poor students, which is something she doesn’t mention much these days.
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Clinton’s opposition comes back to her go-to argument for almost everything "universal" Sanders proposes: that it’s about feasibility, not whether the idea is theoretically a good one. If that’s the case, if Clinton honestly thinks getting free college past Congress is virtually impossible, that’s a respectable position. She should make that argument in good faith, rather than taking the normative progressive stance of universal, free education and dragging it through the mud in the interest of a nice-sounding talking point.
In previous elections, Hillary Clinton proudly ran as a moderate. Calling herself a progressive now, with all the verbal gymnastics required, should fool no one. Clearly, Bernie Sanders message is resonating and winning the day.