Republicans like Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa don’t like facing their constituents. This is mostly the result of their inability to explain why they vote for policies their electorate do not like and against legislation the majority of Americans would prefer became law. Sen. Ernst has a harrowing history with Town Hall meetings, including fleeing one 2017 town hall meeting to chants of “Do your job,” and getting laughed at in another for attempting to defend Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
However, politicians like Ernst want to at least give the appearance that they represent more than just a bank account and a wire transfer, so how do you make appearances without citizens demanding real answers? One way to handle it is to schedule a town hall last second and hope very few people show up, and more importantly, mostly older, retired, citizens with the time to make it to a last minute town hall and are historically more conservative.
This is what Sen. Joni Ernst did for her appearance on Friday, at St. Ambrose University, in Iowa. Sen. Ernst has tried to make these recent town halls conspiracy theory-laden events surrounding shadowy figures trying to persecute Donald Trump by way of the Mueller investigation. But on Friday she walked right into a single mother who had some basic questions about how and what Senator Ernst was doing in regards to student loan debt and affordable higher education. After joking about the questioner’s daughters potential major‚ marine biology—Ernest went into a very bipartisan bit of politicking—she basically explained the meager subsidies that have long been in place, many of which the Republican Party have whittled away over the past couple of decades—and then remarked:
Sen. Ernst: That is a really good question because paying for education and job training, probably top of mind with a lot of voters out there. So we have the Pell Grant structure—supportive of the Pell Grants for those that will qualify. Other types of grants that exist as well, we want to be supportive of those and make sure that those dollars are available to those that need them.
A real nothing burger of an answer. But hey, that’s Joni Ernst. The single mother who asked the question quickly followed up that useless bit of information by asking if there was any increase in that Pell Grant budget. SPOILER ALERT: There isn’t. That money went into tax breaks for the rich.
Sen. Ernst: So sure, so that is part of the discussion. And then making sure that the availability of low-interest student loans, so that was a discussion we had the other day. It came up at another town hall as well.
This little side move is called stalling. But it serves two purposes, it adds some time to your answer and it gives the impression that you are just walking around Iowa all day long listening to citizens.
Ernst Cont.: Visiting with some of the students, we had some high school students at Waverly-Shellrock the other day, when I was able to visit, and that was one of their concerns. So making sure that perhaps we have a way of renegotiating some of those loans to bring, you know, when you see a lower interest rate, be able to take advantage of that opportunity.
Does that burger taste fattening? It shouldn’t because it’s made with zero calories and ZERO ingredients! But here’s the place where Sen. Ernst finally unveils her—and fellow worthless person Sen. Chuck Grassley’s—upcoming “bipartisan legislation.”
Ernst: So that's what we want to see. There's the number of other bills that we are working on as well. I’m co-sponsoring one with Senator Grassley. It is a bipartisan bill—Know Before You Owe—because what we see is a lot of young people are borrowing more than what they need for their education.
Yup. That’s the problem. Kids are borrowing $100,000 but only spending a few thousand dollars on their actual education. If they only KNEW better. Unless the entire text of the bill is “It’s a scam,” I don’t believe this legislation is going to help prospective students. But listen, Sen. Ernst has a totally believable example from her very real personal life that illustrates what the real issue with unregulated predatory loan practices is.
Ernst: I'll give an example, that when I was going to school at Iowa State. A friend of mine—and we receive checks in the mail, back then, for student loans, and when he received his student loan check he said ‘Oh great, Joni. I got my student loan check in the mail now I can go pay my girlfriend's rent.” Okay that's not what the student loan is for.
Yes. Most of these kids, who are prayed upon by companies with unethical and sometimes illegal profit boosting practices, are taking too much money out for college loans and using that money to buy TV sets and pay off high school sweethearts’ rents, and probably buying lots of fast food. The only way I believe that story is if that “friend” was her “boyfriend,” and she had scammed him into paying her rent, so she could invest her student loan money into fossil fuel stocks.
