That may be true for their supporters, who continue to delude themselves into voting for people who never really have the interest in mind of those they supposedly represent. But for the people who hold office, I think ottnot has the right idea.
It also helps that they have endless supplies of money to fund “think tanks” and other means of promoting their nonsense.
I think it goes both ways. Tom Price, Ryan Zinke and Scott Pruitt are clearly in it for the monies, but people like DeVos are independently wealthy and she is very much a true believer. The book seems a bit quaint now, but John Dean’s Conservatives without Conscience described research being done on “Right Wing Authoritarianism” and listed three general categories. There are the general RWAs that make up the rank-and-file and there are the the Social Dominators who don’t actually believe in RWA, but they adopt whatever belief system they feel will benefit them the most (Trump, Price, Zinke and Pruitt all fit this descriptor in my mind) and finally there are the people that take on aspects of both (so-called Double-Highs).
DeVos and her brother feel like DHs to me. They fully buy-in to the RWA mind-set, while also maneuvering to position themselves most advantageously within the framework of RWA beliefs to cash in on it.
Here’s a lady who feels free to give herself a new yacht every few years - and she wants to financially punish students. Man she must hate herself a LOT cause she is transferring a lot of guilt onto them…
I have seen a lot of American administrations but I don’t think I have ever seen one before that has that actively tried to harm the American people. Trump’s is the first administration where the policy is to harm the environment, harm our health, damage our economy, deny us an energy future, destroy our foreign policy and turn our students into slaves of a predatory lending industry. A veritable axis of evil unburdened by any need to even pretend to do anything good for the average American. Betsy DeVos is a perfect Trump administrator. A real life Cruella De Vil.
I have come to believe that the Trumpers are right. There really is a deep state and that deep state is doing everything possible to protect us from Trump and his minions. God bless and keep them.
Betsy DeVos is a toilet witch.
I’d settle for a piano dropped from a reasonable height
yes, it’s christmas, that would be more festive than an anvil
But DeVos said the rules made it too
easyhard for students toshirk their debtbe ripped off by predatory rich people, and lefttaxpayers on the hookpredatory rich people with a few less yachts.
There we go.
DeVos has continued to oppose the rule, calling it “bad policy,” and says she still plans to write new rules that will protect
borrowersrich people and screw over taxpayers.
Another lie corrected. I’m not sure how she thinks forgiving debt hurts taxpayers. It’s federal education loans, sure, but if you just don’t pay the criminal grifters back, then it costs the taxpayers nothing. And oh yeah - students or graduates with loans are taxpayers, too.
They do need to make discharging loans easier, especially in situations like this or in the case of disability. However, the problem with discharging them is that the discharged amount is treated as income, so you get sent a tax bill. They need to figure out how to fix this. If you’re disabled and can’t pay the loans off what makes the government think you can pay the tax bill?
Another lesson in the virtues of Supply-side socialism vs versus evils of Demand-side socialism. Tax-breaks for wealthy tax-dodgers are good investments in a strong American economy. Loan relief for future tax-payers working to get higher paying jobs that net higher income taxes is a drain on our economy.
This doesn’t quite jibe with historical economic outcomes, but it feels sooooooo good.
Oh dear , Ms DeVious will NOT get her commission on the deal . ( What would it have been Betsy - $20Million ? )
Shocking but true. It’s as if Trump, having gained power by hook or crook, opened the gates of Government to every miscreant he could find in order to fuck the people who elected him. “Only the best people” was really code for grifting criminals just like him.
On a certain level, I think he did it as a form of protective colorization – as if he found it necessary to be surrounded by criminals in order to make his own insatiable greed and corruption (somehow) less obvious. Of course, the scale of his own degeneracy made that a vain hope. But I remain convinced there was actual malice in his appointments, especially as regards environmental crime and public health.
Or perhaps, a house?
I have been joking (only partially joking) for some time that the reason he hadn’t appointed a new Commissioner for Social Security was because his ideal pick was Mr. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life, and no one had found the courage to tell him that Mr. Potter was a fictional character, and thus technically ineligible.
My thoughts exactly. $$$$$$$ is her god and she is pizzed big time that she did not get herself and “friends” the goods.
Her feet would certainly curl up
I read Dean’s book during the W years. It’s a great read.
With luck, after Zinke it will be DeVops and Carson!
Betsy DeVos desperately trying to protect for-profit education fraudsters. Geez, I wonder why.