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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said legislation that President Barack Obama signed today will let college borrowing costs balloon.
"This legislation is going to make an already bad situation of student indebtedness even worse," said Sanders, a member of the Senate education committee. He said he will fight to make college more affordable when the committee rewrites the Higher Education Act next year.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said legislation that President Barack Obama signed today will let college borrowing costs balloon.
"This legislation is going to make an already bad situation of student indebtedness even worse," said Sanders, a member of the Senate education committee. He said he will fight to make college more affordable when the committee rewrites the Higher Education Act next year.
Under the bill that Obama signed, interest rates are projected to hit 7.25 percent for undergraduate loans in five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Also by 2018, graduate loans would go up to 8.8 percent and parents would be charged 9.8 percent on loans for their children to attend college, according to the analysis by the non-partisan agency that provides economic data for Congress.
The legislation sets a 3.9 percent interest rate for undergraduates taking out subsidized and unsubsidized loans this year. Even that figure is greater than a 3.4 percent cap that was in place for the past two years.
"At a time when the average student is graduating from a four-year college $27,000 in debt, when hundreds of thousands of capable young people no longer see college as an option because of high costs and when the U.S. is falling further and further behind our economic competitors in terms of the percentage of young people graduating from college, this legislation will make college even less affordable than it is today," Sanders said.
Sanders also cited a Congressional Budget Office report that the revenue raised from the steeper loan rates will mean "huge profits" for the federal government totaling some $184 billion over the next decade.
"We have a middle class which is disappearing. The number of Americans living in poverty is near an all-time high. We have millions of families struggling to be able to send their kids to college. So what is the United States government doing? We are helping to balance the budget by saying to middle-class, working families that if you want to borrow money to send your kids to college we are going to make $184 billion in profits off of you. Let me go on record as saying I think that that is a very counterproductive idea. It is a dumb idea," Sanders said at the time the Senate voted on the legislation.
"The insurrection in Brazil can be directly tied to Trump and the Republicans' emboldening of fascism and violent extremism," said one progressive U.S. lawmaker.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates...
Brazil on Sunday faced "its own January 6," one progressive journalist said as thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the presidential offices and the nation's Congress in Brasilia a week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, was sworn in.
Lula was in São Paulo at the time of the attack and Congress was not in session.
The attack followed months of protests by Bolsonaro supporters, who claim the election Lula won in October was stolen. Bolsonaro spent much of his presidential campaign making false claims about the integrity of the country's electoral system. The former right-wing president reluctantly accepted defeat days after the election, but in late November he officially contested Lula's victory, citing an issue with the software used in the voting system, despite independent experts' reports that it had no effect on the election's outcome.
\u201cAll eyes need to be on Brazil right now. Democracy is completely under attack. Bolsonaro supporters are invading Congress, the presidential\npalace, and realms of power in Brazil.\nUnbelievable scenes. \n\n\u201d— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@Dr. Jennifer Cassidy) 1673206656
Although lawmakers in Brasilia were not forced to run and hide from the protesters as American members of Congress were on January 6, 2021 when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol and tried to stop the certification of the presidential election, observers said the scene unfolding on Sunday was "eerily familiar."
\u201cThis footage is so eerily familiar \u2014 main difference is that the transfer of power already happened in Brazil and lawmakers aren\u2019t there fleeing for their lives.\u201d— Kyle Cheney (@Kyle Cheney) 1673206138
The storming of the Brazilian government buildings turned violent as some of the protesters were filmed striking a police officer on horseback and pulling him off his horse. The Metropoles media group also reported that a photojournalist was attacked by the mob, and some of the protesters set a carpet on fire in the Chamber of Deputies, the country's lower house of Congress.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8URGENTE: Bolsonaristas arrancam policial do cavalo, d\u00e3o socos e pontap\u00e9s.\u201d— CHOQUEI (@CHOQUEI) 1673207457
U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said the insurrection underway in Brazil "can be directly tied to Trump and the Republicans' emboldening of fascism and violent extremism."
\u201cThe insurrection in Brazil can be directly tied to Trump and the Republicans' emboldening of fascism and violent extremism. Any Republican member who condemns this, but refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election is a hypocrite. \n\nI condemn this brazen attack on democracy.\u201d— Raul M. Grijalva (@Raul M. Grijalva) 1673210842
Lula announced he would sign an emergency order allowing the federal government to intervene in the attack, and said Bolsonaro's rhetoric "stimulated" the siege.
"President Lula's election was a victory for economic justice and multiracial democracy over right-wing authoritarianism," said the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the United States. "Just as we did on January 6, we must all denounce this attack, political violence, and those encouraging it."
Although Lula has already been sworn in, unlike U.S. President Joe Biden on the January 6 attack, Brian Winter of Americas Quarterlyposited that Bolsonaro's supporters are likely hoping the Brazilian military will intervene and then "take protesters' side and ultimately install Bolsonaro again as president." For months they have been calling on the armed forces to take control of the government and stop Lula from taking office.
Brian Klaas, a global politics professor at University College London, said the apparent attempted insurrection in Brazil is an example of "authoritarian learning."
\u201cPolitical scientists have a name for what\u2019s happening in Brazil: \u201cauthoritarian learning.\u201d It\u2019s when autocratic playbooks spread across borders. Trump taught the world how to do January 6th. Brazil won\u2019t be the last one.\u201d— Brian Klaas (@Brian Klaas) 1673211669
"Trump taught the world how to do January 6," said Klaas. "Brazil won't be the last one."
"We can see right now many laws being advocated for against LGBTQ, against Palestinians, against larger minorities in Israel," said one organizer.
Carrying signs reading, "Together against fascism and apartheid" and "Democracy in danger," thousands of Israelis on Saturday marched in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition government, which less than a week after being sworn in has already threatened to strip the country's judiciary of power and announced punitive measures against Palestinian people and leaders.
According toHaaretz, about 20,000 people attended two different marches—one organized by the grassroots group Standing Together and calling for equality and partnership between Palestinians and Israelis, and another focusing on Netanyahu's threats to the Israeli justice system.
The protests came days after Netanyahu's new national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, angered Palestinians and the Israeli opposition by entering the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, which was seen as a provocation and an escalation of Israel's attacks on Palestine.
"Extremists are starting to deploy their forces and it's not the majority," a protester named Omer toldFrance24 at a march in Tel Aviv.
\u201cThousands of Israeli citizens marched in Tel Aviv today to protest Israel's new extremist government (Photo credit: Yair Palti)\u201d— Ori Nir | \u0627\u0648\u0631\u064a \u0646\u064a\u0631 | \u05d0\u05d5\u05b9\u05e8\u05d9 \u05e0\u05d9\u05e8 (@Ori Nir | \u0627\u0648\u0631\u064a \u0646\u064a\u0631 | \u05d0\u05d5\u05b9\u05e8\u05d9 \u05e0\u05d9\u05e8) 1673132516
Netanyahu's government, which has been called the most right-wing in Israel's history, also announced that it would expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. The prime minister's office indicated on Friday the punitive measures are being taken in retaliation for Palestinians' call for the International Court of Justice to render a legal opinion on Israeli's policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Despite the opposition of Israel and the U.S., the United Nations General Assembly voted last week in favor of a resolution calling for an opinion.
One U.S.-based observer noted that language describing Israeli's violent anti-Palestinian policies as "apartheid" was prevalent at Saturday's demonstration. The term has long been rejected by supporters of Israel and used by human rights advocates and experts.
\u201cWhat was surprising\u2014in a good way\u2014about the protest in Tel-Aviv was the amount of people who said the word #Apartheid to describe #Israel, and acknowledged the frightening place we are in in history, see photo:\u201d— Guy Ben-Aharon (@Guy Ben-Aharon) 1673130274
The protests were held days after Netanyahu's newly appointed justice minister, Yariv Levin, announced reforms that would allow lawmakers to override Supreme Court decisions. Members of Netanyahu's Cabinet have also made derogatory claims about LGBTQ+ people and reportedly plan to roll back laws allowing gay couples to adopt children.
"We can see right now many laws being advocated for against LGBTQ, against Palestinians, against larger minorities in Israel," Rula Daood of Standing Together toldABC News. "We are here to say loud and clear that all of us, Arabs and Jews and different various communities inside of Israel, demand peace, equality, and justice."
In addition to the expansion of illegal settlements, Netanyahu's government announced last week that it would withhold $39 million from the Palestinian Authority and use the funds to compensate the families of Israeli victims of the conflict and said on Sunday that it had revoked Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki's travel permit.
The proposal has little chance of passing in the Senate, but could be used as leverage by the GOP later this year when Congress is expected to debate raising the debt ceiling.
Soon after the U.S. House reconvenes Monday to vote on the rules package containing many of the concessions House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made to secure to votes of far-right Republicans, the party is also expected to introduce what the new leader said early Saturday would be its "very first bill": a proposal repealing new Internal Revenue Service funding meant to help audit the wealthiest Americans.
About $80 billion was included in the Inflation Reduction Act last year, with IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig saying the funding would only be used to increase audits of households making $400,000 per year or more.
"The resources in the reconciliation package will get us back to historical norms in areas of challenge for the agency—large corporate and global high-net-worth taxpayers," Rettig wrote in a letter to the Senate in August.
The funding is supported by two-thirds of Americans, according to a 2021 University of Maryland poll, but McCarthy and his fellow Republicans have lambasted the Democrats' effort to better equip the IRS to confront tax evasion by those with the highest incomes, falsely claiming President Joe Biden has provided the agency with an "army of 87,000 new IRS agents" who "will be coming for you—with 710,000 new audits for Americans who earn less than $75,000."
McCarthy's plan to repeal the funding, said ACLU communications strategist Gillian Branstetter on Saturday, would actually "incentivize the agency to target poor people," for whom audits are less expensive for the federal government because they lack the resources to engage in a legal battle with the IRS.
\u201cPoor taxpayers are cheaper to target than rich taxpayers (who tend to throw a lot of lawyers and schemes at an audit) so when you cut the IRS budget you make it harder to target rich people and incentivize the agency to target poor people\u201d— Gillian Branstetter (@Gillian Branstetter) 1673133824
The new House rules package McCarthy agreed to guarantees that the Republicans will introduce legislation "making it easier for rich people to cheat on their taxes," said political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.
MSNBC host Touré noted the proposed repeal has little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, calling the McCarthy's plan "pure posturing" for the farthest-right Republicans, but the proposal is one of several that could be used as leverage by the GOP later this year when Congress is expected to debate raising the nation's debt limit.
Social Security and Medicare have also been named as programs that the Republicans could push to significantly cut as the government seeks to raise the debt ceiling and pay for its existing obligations.
Addressing the House early Saturday after winning the speakership on the 15th vote, McCarthy also indicated his party will prioritize fighting so-called "woke indoctrination" in U.S. schools, fully embracing attacks on LGBTQ+ students, families, and teachers that have ramped up in state legislatures in recent years and efforts to stop educators from discussing institutional racism in the United States.
\u201cI know it is bluster but I\u2019m curious what authority Speaker McCarthy thinks Congress has to tackle \u201cwoke indoctrination\u201d in schools. And if he actually wants to do something, the country would be best served by Congress investing in civics education. https://t.co/T2A2Wgo8G2\u201d— Derek W. Black (@Derek W. Black) 1673129943
Soon after McCarthy was sworn in as House Speaker, the House Accountability War Room said that in the coming days, numerous "secret, backroom deals he made to secure the gavel" will become clear.
"Regardless of what else emerges from the smoke-filled rooms, one thing is clear," said senior adviser Zac Petkanas. "The MAGA extremists who want to cut Social Security, raise prescription drug costs, pass a national abortion ban, tank the economy over the debt ceiling, and retaliate against the Biden administration with political stunt investigations are running the show."