HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Loans Are The Worst Way To Fund College.

Individual student loans are anti-insurance. Rather than spread risk, they concentrate it on the individual – who has to bear all of the downsides if something goes wrong. A student who has educational debt is responsible for paying that debt personally. If he cannot find a job, wants to start a family, or encounters hardship, the burden of paying it back remains entirely on the individual rather than spread and mitigated across a larger pool of people.

The current loan system adds to the concentration of this risk. Student loans, unlike other loans, are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Although they were originally treated similarly to any other borrowed funds, Congress passed legislation first making loans only dischargeable after five years, then seven, and eventually dropping the possibility of discharge altogether. This has led to the various horror stories of retirees still paying off debt and debt collectors hassling cancer patients to pay up before they die. On top of this, private loans now make up nearly 10% of student loan debt. Private loans are notable for having inflexible terms, high rates, co-sign requirements, and evidence of egregious lending practices. In 2012, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report comparing private student loans to the subprime mortgages at the heart of the recent financial crisis.

Indeed. I’d return the loans to dischargeability, and I’d put colleges on the hook for a percentage when they’re discharged.

STEPHEN GREEN: Obamacare: a law so officially settled, it’s inscribed in solid Play-Doh.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Exclusive: Sebelius won’t say whether still fundraising to promote Obamacare. “News last May that Sebelius had asked business executives and nonprofit groups to donate to Enroll America, a nonprofit organization formed to help encourage millions of Americans to sign up for the new Obamacare insurance exchanges, provoked an uproar among Republicans on Capitol Hill. Two GOP-led House Committees launched investigations and several Republican senators called on the Health and Human Services’ inspector general to investigate Sebelius’ fundraising drive, which watchdogs have described as an unethical shakedown for cash. Eight months after the news broke, Sebelius’ spokeswoman last Friday side-stepped questions from the Washington Examiner on whether her boss has continued to solicit funds from outside groups for Enroll America’s efforts.”

AT AMAZON, Presidents’ Day Savings on Snow Gear, Clothing and More.

Also, Deals on Top-Rated Products.

And, today only: Up to 60% Off Gerber Hand Tools. Multitools, knives, flashlights, and more.

AT USA TODAY, an editorial in favor of burying electrical power lines. Well, I’ve argued in favor of hardening infrastructure for years, but that sort of thing might create too many jobs for burly men.

ROGER SIMON: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love ‘Climate Change.’ “The great thing about ‘climate change’ armageddon talk is that no one can prove you wrong, unless you’re like Al Gore and start to make short run predictions. But no one’s likely to make that mistake again.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): CBS News: Food Prices Soar As Incomes Stand Still.

ConvergEx market strategist, Nick Colas, said that mothers could tell the government a lot about inflation.

“Food inflation is far greater than the government thinks it is,” he said.

But the big problem for families: Wages are not budging.

“If my income isn’t going up, how am I going to keep up with inflation?” Singer asked. Median income is up only 1 percent a year. For Singer, that makes it hard to save for college tuition – which has been rising 6 percent to 8 percent every year for five decades.

“The price of college is terrifying and so we’re looking at cheaper schools or scholarships, I hope,” she said. “You know, ‘Run faster in track.’ That will really help me out a lot.”

Many are concerned that while economists paint a benign picture, middle-class families are quietly struggling.

You know who’s not concerned? President Obama, who cranks the thermostat, eats Wagyu beef, and golfs on private courses while moms like Jen Singer turn the heat down and only buy bacon when it’s on sale.

FAKE RAPE CHARGES SHOULD BE REGARDED AS A HATE CRIME: Florida woman faked rape after skipping work: authorities. “Alexandra Westover’s harrowing tale of a rush hour assault on the side of a Florida turnpike was a hoax, Palm Beach County Sheriff says. The 21-year-old Boca Raton woman reportedly needed an excuse to explain why she didn’t show up at her job.”

“AH, YOU’RE ONE OF THOSE BILLIONAIRE WANNABES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.” SFPD starting an undeclared war against tech workers? Sowing the wind of class warfare, reaping the whirlwind.

SMART DIPLOMACY: The Syria Debacle: Slaughter in the Cities, Ineffectual Mumbling in the White House.

The President can only count his one remaining blessing: the press is still busy trying to shield itself from understanding the full damage this administration’s painfully inept Syria policy has done. Our Syria response has harmed America’s position, our alliances in the Middle East, and our relationships around the world — to say nothing of the humanitarian disaster we’ve implicated ourselves in.

To bluster heroically about how ‘Assad must go’, then do nothing as he stays; to epically proclaim grandiose red lines and make military threats that fall humiliatingly flat; to grasp with pathetic eagerness an obviously bogus Russian negotiating ploy; to sputter ineffectually as the talks collapse…it is rare that American diplomacy is conducted this poorly for so long a period of time.

To some degree we sympathize with those in the mainstream media who turn their eyes from the sight. It’s not just the decomposing corpse of Obama’s Syria/Russia policy that’s stinking up the joint. The comforting assumptions and diplomatic ideas of a whole generation of ambitious Washington foreign policy wonks are being discredited. They thought to build a new Democratic consensus foreign policy on the tomb of George W. Bush’s failures, but “smart diplomacy” turns out to be deeply flawed. The left is moving toward the kind of meltdown moment that many neocons had as the Bush foreign policy went off the rails.

Bush rallied with the Surge, and left Iraq in good shape for Obama. Obama then blew the status of forces negotiations there and it’s gone downhill. I’m discerning a theme, here.

Related: John McCain wants Obama to ‘acknowledge failure’ in Syria. Who says Obama thinks he’s failed?

RESTRICTED ACCESS: Clinton Foundation keeps tight leash on papers from Bill Clinton’s tenure as governor. “An extensive collection of papers related to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s years in the Arkansas governor’s mansion remains under tight control at a public library in Little Rock, with access restricted by the Clinton Foundation. . . . The documents could provide new insight into the early chapter of the Clintons’ political careers, as reporters take a second look at Hillary Clinton’s past in light of the information contained in the public materials of the Diane Blair collection.” That’s why they’re keeping them locked up.

MONTANA GOV. TO HARRY REID: ‘None of Your Damn Business’ Who I Appoint to Senate. The defiance was all for show, though.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Joel Kotkin: The U.S. Middle Class Is Turning Proletarian.

The decline has less to do with the power of the “one percent” per se than with the drying up of opportunity amid what is seen on Wall Street and in the White House as a sustained recovery. Despite President Obama’s rhetorical devotion to reducing inequality, it has widened significantly under his watch. Not only did the income of the middle 60% of households drop between 2010 and 2012 while that of the top 20% rose, the income of the middle 60% declined by a greater percentage than the poorest quintile. The middle 60% of earners’ share of the national pie has fallen from 53% in 1970 to 45% in 2012.

This group, what I call the yeoman class — the small business owners, the suburban homeowners , the family farmers or skilled construction tradespeople– is increasingly endangered. Once the dominant class in America, it is clearly shrinking.

Since the 1960s, the progressives have waged war against “middle class morality.” What better way to undermine it than to get rid of the middle class?

GOING DOWN: In first, Minnesota poll finds Obama unpopular.

Half of the residents of Minnesota now disapprove of President Obama’s performance, according to a new poll.

Results of The Star Tribune survey represent the first time that his approval rating has turned negative in the state since the president took office in 2009.

Obama’s job approval rating in the poll has fallen to 43 percent.

Men had an especially unfavorable opinion of the president. According to the poll, 60 percent of Minnesotan men disapproved of his job performance, compared to 40 percent of women in the state.

People under 34 had the highest approval rating for Obama, with 59 percent saying they thought he was doing a good job in office.

Of course, they were easier to poll since they’re living in their parents’ basements.

THE STATE OF OUR REPUBLIC: Yes, we have more bananas!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I AM THE LAW. When a man says “I am the law,” what he’s really saying is “I’m lawless.”

TRAINWRECK UPDATE: The Guinea Pig State: Oregon’s quarter-century of failed liberal health care experiments.

On December 20, Cover Oregon—one of 14 state-based Obamacare insurance exchanges—began robocalling all Oregonians who had attempted to get health coverage through the state’s new marketplace. “If you haven’t heard from us by December 23, it is unlikely your application will be processed for January 1 insurance coverage,” said the prerecorded call. “If you want to be sure you have insurance coverage starting January 1, you have other options.” For months, an expensive ad campaign promoting the exchange had blanketed the airwaves with a twee folk song, “Long Live Oregon,” promising coverage for the state’s “loggers .  .  . stay-at-home dads .  .  . and indie rock bands”—among other very Oregon vocations—yet now the exchange was so broken it had managed to sign up only 44 people in its first two months. The state was essentially telling thousands of Oregonians who had lost their health insurance under Obamacare, “Save yourselves!”

One day before the calls started going out, Carolyn Lawson, the chief information officer for Cover Oregon who was responsible for building Cover Oregon’s nonfunctioning website, resigned for “personal reasons.” Following Lawson’s departure, on January 1, Rocky King, the executive director of Cover Oregon, resigned citing “medical reasons.”

I wonder if he had insurance.