HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Ben Barton: Nothing Exciting Yet about the (Mostly) Online J.D. from Syracuse.

IT’S ALMOST AS IF THE GOVERNMENT WANTS MOST PEOPLE TO BE IN DEBT AND DEPENDENT: A Complex Tax System Prevents Americans From Saving.

Unfortunately, as taxes and onerous regulation continue to increase, the U.S. personal savings rate has decreased to 5.5 percent. Our savings rate was two to three times higher than that in the 1970s and 1980s, with a peak of 17 percent in 1975.

Today, many lack the recommended savings level of three to six months of income. In fact, according to a recent Federal Reserve survey, only 53 percent of adults would be able to cover an emergency expense of $400 without selling an asset or borrowing.

Part of the problem is the tax code being too complex, making it difficult for people to understand their options to invest and save for the future. A more streamlined and flexible saving account to enable and encourage savings is needed. To that end, we have introduced the Universal Savings Account Act, legislation that will empower all individuals to set aside money for all of life’s challenges and opportunities.

Similar to Roth Individual Retirement Accounts, the Universal Savings Accounts established in our bill are designed to offer tax-free earnings and distributions without the restrictions, confusion, and penalties associated with other tax-advantaged accounts. With these accounts, any American adult could save and invest up to $5,500 per year of post-tax income without being burdened by additional taxes when those investments grow.

Or we could just abolish the Income Tax, and replace it with consumption taxes.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY HAS ITS OWN MELISSA CLICK: Journalist Hassled Outside of American University Protest: ‘We’re Providing a Safe Space.’

AT AMAZON, fresh deals on bestselling products, updated every hour.

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EMINENCE FRONT – IT’S A PUT-ON: Trump Team to GOP: The Donald is ‘Projecting an Image.’

MATTIS: What, Me Run For President? Are You Kidding? Best bit:

Following his lecture on the Middle East and Iranian aggression, Mattis, the former four-star commander of U.S. Central Command and a current fellow at the Hoover Institution in California, implied he was mystified by the buzz surrounding his hypothetical candidacy.

“It’s been going on for 15 months. Since coming back from overseas, this is more of a foreign country than the places overseas,” he said. “I don’t understand it. It’s like America has lost faith in rational thought.”

To be fair, that started about 7 1/2 years ago.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: State legislator to sue the federal government.

A Georgia lawmaker is suing the federal government on behalf of taxpayers for what he calls “illegal and unconstitutional directives” from the Education Department.

Republican State Rep. Earl Ehrhart, who chairs the influential Georgia House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education, filed the lawsuit along with his wife, alleging the federal government violated the Administrative Procedure Act when they issued a “guidance document” that included onerous new regulations for schools to follow. If schools fail to abide by the Department’s Office for Civil Rights’ ever-changing guidance, they risk losing federal funding.

Ehrhart has been a vocal critic of the Department’s “Dear Colleague” letters, which began forcing colleges to spend more and more money to adjudicate felonies in 2011. In January, Ehrhart told school administrators: “If you don’t protect the students of this state with due process, don’t come looking for money.” It was the strongest statement yet on the issue from a legislator.

In his lawsuit, Ehrhart claims the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter imposed “unnecessary costs and expenses that flow directly to both Federal and Georgia Taxpayers, including Plaintiffs, under the threat of Federal funding being revoked for the schools’ failure to comply.”

Stay tuned.

UNEXPECTEDLY. Up in smoke: Alleged Whole Foods ‘hate cake’ hoaxer’s Twitter account has vanished.

UNEXPECTEDLY. Donald Trump: My Position On Transgendered Bathrooms Is as Complex as Nuanced as My Position On Abortion and I Could Not Possibly Explain My Philosophical Position On Them In One Statement.

YEAH, THAT’S PRETTY MUCH HIS SCHTICK: Kasich Impresses by Bashing GOP: WaPo editorial board likes him because he doesn’t like his party.

THE ARCTIC SUICIDES: IT’S NOT THE DARK THAT KILLS YOU.

TRANSPARENCY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Clinton doubling down on transcripts.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is doubling down on a strategy of not releasing transcripts of speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs and other investment banks.

Clinton has refused to release any of the transcripts in the face of a pressure campaign from rival candidate Bernie Sanders, who has relentlessly attacked the Democratic front-runner as being too closely tied to Wall Street.

“She’s not going to basically create a standard that isn’t applied to anyone else in this race,” said one longtime Clinton ally and confidante of her position on releasing the transcripts.

The issue has been an effective line of attack from Sanders, who has closed the gap with Clinton in national polls.

It also appears to have hurt Clinton, who has seen her favorability rating in polls drop below 50 percent. Just as bad, Clinton has seen her marks fall with Americans when they are asked whether they trust her or see her as honest.

If she were a Republican, they would have mysteriously “leaked” by now.

AS GEORGE ORWELL ONCE WROTE, IN A TIME OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT, TELLING THE TRUTH IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE TENNESSEE LEGISLATURE: Hall Tax Repeal Passed.

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Report: Freedom of the press fades in face of ‘new era of propaganda.’

IT COULD HAPPEN TO US: Venezuela’s Pathetic Decline Continues.  We should sent all Berniacs to Venezuela.

OUR GAUCHE PRESIDENT:Obama infuriates the Brits as he threatens to send UK ‘to the back of the queue’ if they vote to leave the European Union.

DEMS LIED, PEOPLE DIED: Massive Amounts of WMDs Were Found in Iraq.

MORE WHAT I EXPECTED OF THE 21st CENTURY: NASA’s ‘impossible’ EM Drive works: German researcher confirms and it can take us to the moon in just 4 HOURS.

THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I EXPECTED: Ozzy Osbourne genome sequenced,

THE ENGINE IS BROKEN:  Corrupt Feedback Loops: Public Employee Unions.

A VERY PARTIAL LIST: The Stuff Greens Keep Getting Wrong.

WHAT DAY? Happy Human Diaspora Day,

JERRY POURNELLE: “Trump is a pragmatic populist. I can live with that.”

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: The Tools of Campus Activists Are Being Turned Against Them.

Those people who say you can’t take down the master’s house with the master’s tools never used a Tiger Saw.