Category: National

‘Like sex and religion, we don’t like to talk about memory’: pianist Angela Hewitt on how she keeps hers in shape

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It happens to all pianists at some point: that terrifying moment when you’re on stage and can’t remember what comes next. My former teacher, Jean-Paul Sévilla, was once playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations when, at the end of Variation 7, he couldn’t remember how Variation 8 began. By the time he got off stage to find his score it came to him, but his evening was ruined. Then there was Vlado Perlemuter who, upon leaving home to go to the concert hall, was asked by his wife if he had forgotten anything. A friend in attendance jokingly said: “The beginning of the concerto!” When, a few hours later, Vlado walked on stage in Paris to perform Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto (which famously begins with a quiet piano solo), he couldn’t find the notes. My own turn came when I was 50 years old, playing Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (all four and a half hours of it) from memory in Stuttgart. It was part of a world tour in which I played that mammoth work 56 times in 26 countries. That night, however, I went wrong in the big A minor fugue from Book 1 and couldn’t find my way out. I had to go and get the score. You feel so ashamed – but we’re only human, and sometimes it happens.
On the whole, I’ve been blessed with an excellent memory – I suppose some would even say prodigious as I’ve performed the complete solo keyboard works of Bach (the exception being The Art of Fugue), the 32 sonatas of Beethoven, and who knows how many millions of other notes from memory over the years. I always thought it would have been a good idea to measure my brain before I memorised all that Bach and then again after to see how it had developed and changed. Too late now. At the age of 64, it’s definitely shrinking, and memorising has become a very conscious, frustrating and time-consuming activity. But I stick at it because memory is a muscle that needs to be constantly used to stay in any sort of shape.
When you’re a young pianist, memory almost comes without thinking. A huge part of it is reflex memory; add to that aural memory (especially if, like me, you had perfect pitch), visual memory (some pianists, like Yvonne Loriod, who was married to Olivier Messiaen, had a piece memorised after looking at it only once) and memory of association, and you have a relatively quick process.
We shouldn’t feel ashamed if our memory is failing, but rather embrace this normal sign of ageing and then do all we can to keep our brains alive.
I say I “had” perfect pitch because that has slipped with age. As a kid, I could instantly name all the notes in even the most complicated chords. Now I need time to think about it. Perfect pitch is related to memory: if one declines, the other does too. Everyone of a certain age who has had it seems to encounter this problem. It makes memorising a much more complicated task.
Memory is a subject we don’t like to talk about – like sex, love and religious beliefs – most likely because we are afraid of losing it. It takes courage to admit even to yourself that your memory is failing. Often friends or family notice it first. We shouldn’t feel ashamed, but rather embrace this normal sign of ageing and then do all we can to keep our brains alive. It upsets me when I can’t remember where I’ve put my boarding pass, as happened this morning at Heathrow (only to find it in the outside compartment of my bag, where I must have put it five minutes previously); when I can’t remember if I’ve taken my daily HRT lozenge (now there’s something that helps older women with memory!); and when I make the same mistake over and over again when learning a new piece.
This past summer, I was chair of the jury of the Bach competition in Leipzig, in which the contestants were allowed to choose whether to play from memory or with the score. (From a score these days means mostly “from an iPad” with a foot pedal to turn the pages on the screen, although one competitor used the app that allows you to make a facial grimace to turn the page – something I found deeply disconcerting). At their age, I would never have dreamed of using the score, even for complicated contemporary pieces. Yet quite a few of them did. Could they not have spent the extra time needed to memorise the music? I know the trend these days is to say it doesn’t matter, but I know myself that when I can get up and perform something securely from memory, it gives me a wonderful sense of freedom and accomplishment.

Angela Hewitt performing at St George’s concert hall in Bristol. Photograph: Stephen Shepherd/The Guardian
One of the most common faults of pianists is that we spend too much time playing the notes and not enough time thinking about what we’re doing. “Think 10 times and then play once” said the wise Franz Liszt, who could rattle off more notes a minute than anybody else (and who, along with Clara Schumann, was the first pianist to perform from memory – an act considered arrogant by the public of the time). In fact, the best memory work is done away from the keyboard – just looking at the score, memorising your fingering, the harmonies, the places where it’s easy to go wrong, the intervals, how many notes there are in a chord, the dynamics, phrasing; nothing is too simple or evident to go unnoticed. You must visualise yourself playing the piece without being at a keyboard. Then go and play and you will be amazed by the progress you have made.

Your concentration has to get you through, no matter what happens. I once had a beetle slowly climbing up my bare arm during a Bach fugue.
Even when you are concentrating very hard, the brain is constantly assailed by extraneous and often silly thoughts. As a pianist playing from memory, you train yourself to deal with this. I call it double concentration mode. Coughing from the audience (do people realise that just one cough in the wrong place can easily upset the whole apple cart?); the inevitable mobile phone (I go on as though nothing has happened, otherwise it makes things worse); even once I had a beetle slowly climbing up my bare arm during a Bach fugue. You have to be able to count on your concentration to get you through, no matter what happens.
You must also train yourself to think ahead – even if just by a split second. As the brain ages, this becomes even more difficult but necessary. I think that’s why older pianists on the whole (Martha Argerich being the exception) tend to play slower than the young ones, to whom speed often seems the ultimate goal. It’s also why, as an audience member, we are more disturbed by fast playing as we age. It’s just too much for our slower brains to process.
In my 20s, I lived in an artist’s studio above a branch of the Banque Nationale de Paris for two years. The staff knew I was the one playing above, practising away, and they professed not to mind except when I “played the same thing over and over again”. To steal an observation from the actor Roger Allam, the French word for rehearsal is “répétition”, and that’s what you need to do. Get yourself a silent piano if it drives your family or neighbours crazy; I often have one in hotel rooms when I’m on tour.
Performing with the Aurora Orchestra in London’s Kings Place. Photograph: www.kingsplace.co.uk/kplayer
Another thing you can train the brain to do is to think of several things at once. You can practise this by being in a crowded restaurant and listening to two or more conversations simultaneously. You’ll need that if you’re playing a Bach fugue, which can have up to five voices, each one as important as the other. When I walk out on stage, I remind myself to “sing” every note; indeed, when I practise I am constantly singing away, trying to imitate the human voice on an instrument whose sounds are produced by hammers hitting strings. By singing, I engage my concentration and my emotions, as well as my memory. Unlike my compatriot Glenn Gould, once I am on stage or in a recording studio I do this silently.
If this all sounds very tiring then, believe me, it is. Take breaks when you feel your brain has had it and make sure it gets all the nutrients it needs. Alcohol and sleeping pills don’t help – which is why I mostly avoid the former and refuse to use the latter. Backstage in concert halls I have my brain foods at the ready: tinned sardines, avocados, peanut butter, rye crackers, blueberries, bananas and lots of water.
So often I hear people say they can’t memorise anything any more. Yes, but have you really tried? If you’re not a musician, take a poem, a recipe or the phone numbers of your best friends. Above all, don’t just give up. Get to know your brain and work on it.
I always say I couldn’t have memorised the complete works of Bach and had four kids. That would have been impossible; I don’t even have one. But I’ve had a wonderful life in the company of some of the greatest minds that have ever existed, and to them, and to my musician parents who put me in front of a toy piano at the age of two, I am for ever grateful.
Angela Hewitt is performing in Biggar on 26 April, Cambridge on 28 April, Oxford on 17 May and London’s Wigmore Hall on 25 May. Full details and more dates at angelahewitt.com/performances. Her latest recording, of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas K279-284 and 309, is out now on Hyperion.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
‘I have an invisible disability myself’: Edward Enninful and Sinéad Burke on their fashion revolution

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The May issue of British Vogue, titled Reframing Fashion, features 19 disabled people from fashion, sport, activism and the arts. Five of them are cover stars: the actor Selma Blair, who has multiple sclerosis; Sinéad Burke, a disability activist and consulting editor for the issue; the models Ellie Goldstein and Aaron Rose Philip; and the American Sign Language performer Justina Miles. Since Edward Enninful was appointed editor in 2017, Vogue has performed a 180-degree turn: from the pronounced, even defiant, homogeneity that was once its hallmark to a magazine at the frontier of what representation and diversity in fashion can look like.
Burke, meanwhile, came at fashion from the citizen side, writing a blog about the industry’s accessibility and
the visibility of disabled people within it. Over the past five years, it has turned into a global consultancy, Tilting the Lens.
Enninful and Burke’s mission with Reframing Fashion goes back to first principles and asks: what would a fashion shoot – or an image, or a magazine, or an industry, or society – look like if it were designed not for disabled people, but with them? “We have this notion that disability is invisible disabilities or physical disabilities,” says Burke. “The reality is, we live in an ageing society. We’ll all be disabled at some point in our lives. This is not about us. This is about all of us.”
Tell me your fashion origin stories. How did it all start?
Edward Enninful: I’ve been in the fashion press since I was 16 years old. I started as a model, but I knew that, as an industry, it was getting left behind. When I started here, so many people I knew said: “We don’t look at Vogue, we don’t see ourselves in it.” That was all I needed to hear. My work has always been about diversity in all its shapes; women of different sizes, ages, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds.
Sinéad Burke: I was training to be a primary school teacher and they asked us to create a blog. I created one about fashion. As someone with a physical disability and as a little person, I was hungry, always ravenous, for information. What does change look like? What do sustainability and accessibility look like, not as values, but as business initiatives? Through that, I got the opportunity to attend fashion shows. Disabled people have a skill set that is shaped by their experience. I have always been organised and articulate and tried to be considerate. Those are skills that I’ve had to harness for my own independence.
L-R: Sinéad Burke on the cover, and Aaron Rose Philip in the May 2023 edition of Vogue. Composite: Adama Jalloh/Condé Nast
What inspired you to create Reframing Fashion?
Enninful: I met Sinéad when I started here, in 2018. We sat next to each other at the Burberry show and, from that minute, I just knew we were going to work together. I said: “I’m going to take your lead, because you’ve lived it. And you continue to change people’s perspectives on disability.”

Burke: I sat next to him, tugged on his sleeve and said: “Hi, I think what you’re doing at British Vogue is incredible, but have you ever thought about disability?” Knowing that, of course, based on his own lived experience, that was always going to be part of the conversation. So, in 2019, I was the first little person to be on the cover of any Vogue.

Why this issue now?
Burke: The pandemic was a mass disabling event. We all had a touchpoint to disability in a way we never had before. And yet, in the first cohort of deaths, six out of 10 people were disabled. We used language like “vulnerable” and “underlying conditions”, as if it was easier to accept those deaths. So, while our lived experience became much closer to disability, our awareness and empathy were unchallenged.
Where do you think representation of disability has got to?
Enninful: From my point of view, we are not doing enough in the fashion industry. I want to emphasise that I’m also learning. I have an invisible disability myself: I’ve had five retinal detachments, I’m partially blind and my hearing is less than 50% – I’m wearing hearing aids now. It’s never stopped me, but there are so many people with invisible disabilities who never talk about it, because it might hinder them. I’ve never had that fear. When I’m reading, it’s still difficult; when I’m doing interviews, I have to ask people to talk at a certain level. But these are things that are me, these are things that I’ve embraced. We always talk about diversity and inclusivity, but that also has to extend to our disabled brothers and sisters.
Burke: Representation and visibility are so important, but we need to acknowledge the systemic barriers that exist. It was lovely that we sat together in this building and said: here’s our ambition. But then we had to unpick the system. We had to make sure that the place itself was accessible. Does it have step-free access all the way through to the set, including the canteen and the bathrooms? Is there a quiet room on set for people who are neurodivergent, for people with requirements? You can imagine the information that came back was incredibly disappointing. When you look at representation as the only solution, you’re not acknowledging all the barriers there are to participation. It’s not just fashion – this is a microcosm of the wider world.
Ellie Goldstein in the May 2023 edition of Vogue. Composite: Adama Jalloh/Condé Nast
Do you see yourselves as being on a political mission?
Enninful: I would see it as just personal.
Burke: If we look at this portfolio of talent [in the forthcoming issue of Vogue], we have Dr Rosaleen McDonagh, who is a writer, and the Irish human rights and equality commissioner, and also an Irish Traveller. Is it political to have her in the issue, or is it just deeply personal, to ensure she has the pedestal and the platform she deserves? I think about Christine Sun Kim, the Asian American deaf artist. This is the value of having a lived experience in the room where decisions are made. It is about bringing in the humanity, creating an explicit invitation to people and saying: “You belong.”
Enninful: It’s an empathy question. I believe that, in whatever we do, we have to have empathy.
This industry is perceived as forbidding, harsh and judgmental. Have you experienced any of that?
Burke: Historically, there was a very specific definition as to what we defined and described as beautiful. In any industry, if you’re asking questions about or advocating for a change of that norm, you are often met with friction, uncertainty, nervousness. From the beginning, I was hoping to create change for far more than me. Particularly since the pandemic, I’ve really started to ask the question: in terms of the part that I’ve played within the fashion system, did it become more accessible? Or did it become more accessible for me? Because that’s not a broad enough definition of success.
Enninful: This is an industry that we both know very well. I’ve navigated it. I’m not scared. I’m very vocal. It’s up to us to change it. Vogue changed with the times; it had to. The brilliant thing is, it’s now a whole industry having these conversations. And we’re very proud of that.
Burke: What’s important about fashion is, wherever you participate in it, at whatever price point, the reality is we all have to participate in the fashion industry, because we all have to wear clothes. So, you may not have any interest in the most expensive streets in London, but the reality is, what happens in those rooms shapes what we have access to.
‘Representation has to be more than covers’ … Enninful with Burke. Composite: Yves Salmon/The Guardian
What has it been like dealing with the corporate world as an accessibility consultant?
Burke: It can be incredibly difficult. You’re sitting with somebody, saying: “This is an opportunity.” And somebody says: “We’re just not going to do it, because it’s too expensive.” Or because there’s a recession. Or “we don’t have time”. And when you are a member of that community and have that lived experience, you can’t help but feel like the refusal to participate is deeply personal. But I just choose differently the people I work with. The reality is, I will not convince everyone.
Do you ever think exclusivity is in the DNA of the industry?
Burke: I fundamentally believe that disability and accessibility are at the core of fashion’s DNA. Because where this industry started was made-to-measure. We have moved to something that is much more streamlined, much more cyclical. If we were to reflect on where this industry began, it was about customisation. It was, of course, veiled in wealth – and, in many instances, still is. But in terms of the history of this industry, it began designing for bodies, not designing for a mass market that the body then had to fit.
There is a seasonal logic to the industry. This leads people to think that, whenever there is a surge of representation, it will be short-lived, whether that’s plus-size models, or racial diversity; it will happen, then drop out of fashion.
Enninful: That’s why I always said, when I started at Vogue, you don’t just do a special issue and move on. We need representation in every single issue. And we’ve been able to do that – not perfectly, but we have done it.
Burke: Last season, there was some really challenging data around the lack of representation of fat and plus-size models, how it had decreased from previous seasons. Two weeks later, British Vogue had three supermodels who were plus-size. This is not a moment. But it goes back to the idea that representation has to be more than covers. It has to be inclusivity at every strata of the industry where decisions are made.
L-R: Fats Timbo, author, comedian and content creator, in the May 2023 edition of Vogue; and Selma Blair on the cover. Composite: Adama Jalloh/Condé Nast
When you’re making editorial decisions about representation, where do you stand on invisible disability?
Enninful: Even before we did this issue, someone said we should do an issue on invisible disability and I said: there is no way we’re doing that. For me, you have to deal with both.
Burke: It’s about a broader intersectionality – can you imagine, in this issue, if we’d said we were going to have one definition of disability? Maybe Aaron Rose Philip, who is a black transgender disabled woman, wouldn’t be part of that. Our identities weave and overlap, we are not just one thing, and by not having a cacophony of voices in the room we further create a path where the most excluded continue to be excluded.
There are evolutions of diversity and inclusion in which fashion has led the way, and others in which it has lagged behind. How do you account for that?
Burke: Often, the people who have gravitated to this industry are people who felt excluded, people who wanted to discover who they were, people who came out as queer …
Enninful: People who’ve been othered.
Burke: And clothes were this tool, this armour they could put on; whether it’s a beautiful navy suit or a bell skirt, fashion gave them – and gave me, specifically – a vocabulary.
Enninful: And me.
Burke: So, we understood the language – and maybe LGBT people in particular felt seen and it felt like a safe place.
Enninful: We always think of fashion as where the misfits gather. We were all alienated one way or another and the industry welcomed us.
Burke: Clothes and beauty were ways in which people worked out who they were.
Enninful: I have always found it a very welcoming industry. I was a very shy, religious kid.
Burke: And look at you now.
Historically it has also been racist, right?
Enninful: Oh yeah. In the 1990s, they used to say things like: “Non-white models don’t sell covers.” And it was OK to say that. And I used to go: “Here’s another one. Here’s another one.” You continuously have to fight. You continuously have to show another way. It’s a complex industry.
Burke: What’s important about this issue is that, whether or not people pick it up, very few people in the world don’t know what Vogue is. And there are five disabled people on the cover of Vogue, being daring, dynamic – and disabled.
The May issue of British Vogue is available on newsstands and via digital download
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
Protests against proposed mega-refinery in Maha with Arab help

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Ratnagiri: Protests have erupted against the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Project (RRPL) coming up in Maharashtra’s Rajapur taluka with the help of Saudi ARAMCO and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, activists said here on Tuesday.
Over 500 residents of around six villages have taken to the streets against the soil surveys that were due to start which would affect their lands, according to activist Sachin Chavan.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders of Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena (UBT), and local parties have come out in support of the villagers, who apprehend that 20 acres of their land will be taken away for the RRPL project.

NCP’s Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, Congress Legislative Party Leader Balasaheb Thorat, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and others have urged the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP government to call off the survey in view of the opposition from the villagers.
The police have deployed a massive force of over 1,500, 300 SRP personnel and four platoons of riot control police in and around the villages of Barsu, Goval, Dhopeshwar Varchiwadi-Goval, Rajapur, Khalchiwadi-Goval, Panhale-Tarfe.
AScores of women activists protested on Tuesday by squatting and lying on the roads to stop the survey teams from entering their villages as police attempted to physically lift them aside.
Chavan claimed that over a 100 protesters have been either detained or arrested in the past three days, allegedly flouting norms and being produced in distant courts beyond the stipulated time of 24 hours after they are nabbed.

Prohibitory orders have been clamped till May 31 outside the (above) villages to enable the soil testing for the RRPL project, and notices have slapped on many villagers, he added.

Attempting to persuade the villagers to call off their protests, government officials like Vaishali Mane and Sheetal Jadhav held unsuccessful talks with the protesters.
Adding to the government’s woes was the overturning of a police vehicle en route to the protest site in which around 17 personnel were injured but their condition is stable in a local hospital.
The RRPL is promoted by IOCL, BPCL and HPCL and plans to construct the mega-refinery and petrochemical complex with help of the two Arab giants which have signed a MoU with the government.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 25, 2023
KKK 13 contestant Shiv Thakare’s dating reports go viral

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Mumbai: Khatron Ke Khiladi 13 contestant Shiv Thakare has been making headlines recently, not just for his participation in the upcoming season of the Rohit Shetty-hosted show but also for his personal life. Reports of him dating Akanksha Puri, who is known for her role in the TV show Vighnaharta Ganesh, have been doing the rounds on social media.
It all started when paps spotted Akanksha and Shiv together at a couple of events. Fans took note of the friendly rapport between the duo and speculated whether there was a romantic spark between them. Soon after, speculations about their alleged relationship started making rounds on social media.
However, Akanksha in her latest interview with India Forums cleared the air and said that they are just good friends. Akanksha dismissed relationship reports but went on to call Shiv a ‘sweetheart’.

“I am just laughing at the news. The news is not accurate at all. Shiv is a nice guy is such a sweetheart, such a nice guy !! But unfortunately, no. I don’t get good guys,” she said.
Akanksha Puri was a part of Mika Di Vohti where she emerged as the winner.
The actress even got married to Mika on the show, but their relationship did not work out as speculated by many who trolled them for having a “showmance.”
Shiv Thakare, on the other hand, dated Veena Jagtap whom he met on Bigg Boss Marathi season 2. They fell in love with each other and the jodi was an instant hit among the audience. However, they parted ways after a few months but never opened up about their split.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 25, 2023
Wembley Pretend Play Doctor Play Sets for Boys/Girls/Kids Doctor Kit Toys with Suitcase – ISI Approved (Doctor Set – Box)
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April 25, 2023
Karnataka will be afflicted with riots if Congress comes to power: Amit Shah

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Bagalkote: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said if the Congress comes to power in Karnataka, dynastic politics will be at an all-time high in the state and it will be ‘afflicted with riots.’
The former BJP chief also said the development of the state will be in “reverse gear” if the Congress forms the government.
Seeking the people’s mandate for “political stability” in Karnataka, which would vote on May 10, Shah said at a public meeting at Terdal in this district that only the BJP can lead the state towards a ‘New Karnataka.’
“If the Congress comes to power, dynastic politics will be at an all-time high and Karnataka will be afflicted with riots,” added Shah, one of the party’s key poll strategists and campaigners.

“If the Congress comes to power by mistake then corruption will be all-time high and there will be ‘appeasement’,” said Shah, who is on a two-day tour of Karnataka to hold a series of public meetings, roadshows and review meetings with his party leaders.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 25, 2023
Dems relish Trump-Biden rematch

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“Trump’s obviously an extremely dangerous person who would be very dangerous for the country. But I’m confident that President Biden could beat him,” the retiring senator said in an interview. “Politically, for us, it’s helpful if former President Trump is front and center.”
“Broadly,” Stabenow added, “the public rejects him.”
As Trump reels in endorsements, rakes in campaign dollars and reclaims his lead in Republican primary polls, Democrats are growing more enthusiastic about his chances of clinching his party’s nomination. They think Trump would not only maximize Biden’s chances of a second term, but help the party battle for control of Congress.
With Biden set to announce his reelection bid as soon as Tuesday, Democrats aren’t blind to his stubbornly low approval ratings. But they also know Trump’s polarizing profile — including an indictment, his fixation on the 2020 election and polarizing profile both within his own party and among independents — could be their best matchup in 2024.
Of course, that was the same logic they applied in 2016. After Trump won the GOP nod, Democrats thought Hillary Clinton was in for a romp. With that in mind, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) warned Democrats “to be careful what you wish for.”
“I hope they realize that there’s at least a 50/50 chance — and even more than 50/50 — that he becomes president if he becomes the nominee,” the 2012 Republican nominee said. “They think he’s the easiest Republican to beat. That may be the case. But in my opinion, he’s someone the country would not be well served to have in the White House again.”
Nevertheless, Democrats still find themselves rooting for a Trump-Biden ballot as some polls show Trump would be weaker in a general election than someone like Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“Obviously, it’s politically helpful,” said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who flipped a red seat in his party’s anti-Trump-fueled wave in 2018. “But that’s not good for the country.”

In the House, where Democrats need to flip just a handful of seats to win the majority, they’re betting on Trump’s ability to turn out blue voters and inspire Democratic fundraising. That amounts to a much more potent villain for campaign ads than Hill Republicans like Speaker Kevin McCarthy or other potential presidential candidates like DeSantis.
There’s always the chance Trump’s gravitational pull could propel more GOP voters, too, but Democrats believe the math is on their side. Just a handful of Democrats represent districts Trump won in 2020, like Jared Golden in northern Maine, Matt Cartwright in eastern Pennsylvania or Mary Peltola in Alaska.

Trump and Biden during the first presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2020.
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Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
There are 18 Republicans, though, who sit in seats that Biden carried — more than three times as many as Democrats need to flip the House.
“It’s very good for us,” said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), who’s held onto her own swing seat for a decade. Kuster called Trump “unelectable” in purple seats like hers, and predicted that if Republicans in Biden-friendly turf get behind Trump: “I think we’ll win them all.”
One of those Republicans is Rep. Mike Garcia, a Trump-endorsed Californian who’s survived three elections since 2020 in a heavily pro-Biden seat. He said he’s not sweating having Trump at the top of the ticket and posited that turbocharged turnout on both sides would be essentially a wash: “The left gets more excited, and our base gets more excited.”
Other Republicans predicted Biden’s presidency would help them more than Trump would hurt the GOP. “Two more years of this? I’m more and more confident every day,” said Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), a longtime Trump backer. “It’s looking really good for him right now.”
Across the Capitol, the battle for the Senate majority hinges on deep-red Trump states like Montana, West Virginia and Ohio. That means Democrats could win the presidency and perhaps the House but still lose the Senate, even with anti-Trump tailwinds. But further down the map, in purple states like Stabenow’s that Biden flipped in 2020, Democrats say their constituents are tired of Trump.
“I don’t want to see that for our country. I don’t even want to see that for the Republican Party,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) of a Trump nomination. “But if you’re just asking me numbers? We’ve seen that matchup before in Wisconsin. We can win that one.”
Still, some endangered Democrats worry that their party could again overlook Trump’s strength. They noted how he emerged with a stronger hand in the GOP primary after his indictment last month and acknowledged there are plenty of purple districts with enough Trump supporters to tip tough races. Plus, House Democrats still lost a handful of seats in 2020, even as they kept their majority and their party won back the White House.
A lesser-known candidate, like DeSantis or former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, they argue, might not draw the same crowds. There’s also anxiety over how the election would change from 2020, as pandemic-era campaigning gives way to more traditional tactics and would require more time on the road for both the octogenarian president and his 76-year-old predecessor.
“Democrats are rightfully terrified of 2024 because they have to own Joe Biden’s disastrous economic record that has hurt Americans and his foreign policy blunders,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign.
Nonetheless, there’s a gut feeling that Trump is more beatable.
“Personally, I think it’s probably better for Biden to have Trump as the nominee. But I don’t know that that’s true,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), one of Republicans’ top targets in 2024. “He’s a known commodity. Biden’s a known commodity. You just don’t know about the others. You don’t know how they’re gonna perform under pressure. You don’t know if they got a glass jaw.”
A Biden adviser argued that the president proved in previous contests that “he is second to none in prosecuting extreme MAGA candidates.” The adviser also noted Biden’s endurance traveling the country to sell his accomplishments, comparing him favorably to former President Barack Obama in 2011 ahead of his successful reelection campaign.
Still, using Trump as a cudgel in down-ballot races is now a tried-and-true Democratic campaign method everywhere but deep-red states like Montana. House Democrats’ campaign chief even began meddling in GOP primaries to boost pro-Trump opponents last cycle — with the hopes of helping their own candidates’ chances in the general election. It infuriated Democrats in the caucus, who feared it would backfire.
It didn’t, ultimately, but there’s still some apprehension about elevating candidates that Democrats simultaneously argue are more beatable and extreme.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a Biden confidante, said he’s “surprised at how strongly the former president is performing in the early polls. But not a single vote has been cast in a single primary or caucus.”
“If you look back at almost every previous election cycle, guesses about who was going to be the nominee, who would fare well, who would fare poorly, were almost always wrong,” Coons said. “Otherwise, we’d have President Giuliani or President Thompson or President [Hillary] Clinton.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 25, 2023
Law firm head bought Gorsuch-owned property

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He and his wife closed on the house a month later, paying $1.825 million, according to a deed in the county’s record system. Gorsuch, who held a 20 percent stake, reported making between $250,001 and $500,000 from the sale on his federal disclosure forms.
Gorsuch did not disclose the identity of the purchaser. That box was left blank.
Since then, Greenberg Traurig has been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the court, according to a POLITICO review of the court’s docket.
They include cases in which Greenberg either filed amicus briefs or represented parties. In the 12 cases where Gorsuch’s opinion is recorded, he sided with Greenberg Traurig clients eight times and against them four times.
In addition, a Denver-based lawyer for Greenberg represented North Dakota in what became one of the more highly publicized rulings in recent years, a multistate suit which reversed former President Barack Obama’s plan to fight climate change through the Clean Air Act.
Gorsuch joined the court’s other five conservative judges in agreeing with the plaintiffs — including Greenberg’s client — that the Environmental Protection Agency had overstepped its authority by regulating carbon emissions from power plants in the decision that makes it more difficult for the executive branch to regulate emissions without express authorization from Congress.
Duffy, who in addition to serving as CEO is chief of Greenberg’s entire 600-lawyer litigation department, said he has never personally argued cases before Gorsuch or met the justice socially.

“I’ve never spoken to him,” Duffy said. “I’ve never met him.”

Once he learned Gorsuch was among the owners, Duffy said, he cleared the sale with his firm’s ethics department.
Gorsuch did not respond to inquiries about the sale, his disclosures or whether he should have reported Duffy’s identity as the purchaser.
Supreme Court rules do not prevent justices from engaging in financial transactions with people with interest in court decisions, but Gorsuch’s dealings with Duffy expose the weakness of the court’s disclosure procedures. For instance, in reporting his Colorado income, Gorsuch listed as his source only the name that he and his two co-owners gave themselves, Walden Group, LLC. The report didn’t indicate that there had been a real estate sale or a purchaser.
Such a sale would raise ethical problems for officials serving in many other branches of government, but the Supreme Court sets its own rules. It has largely left justices to make their own decisions about when and how to report outside gifts and income.
Justice Clarence Thomas is currently under scrutiny for accepting lavish trips from GOP billionaire donor Harlan Crow, who also purchased three Georgia properties from the justice. Thomas did not report the property sales. Of the vacations, Thomas said he had been advised that “personal hospitality from close friends” need not be disclosed.
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a frequent critic of Supreme Court ethics rules, sent a statement responding to POLITICO’s inquiry about Gorsuch’s sale of the Colorado property.
“We have seen a steady stream of revelations regarding Supreme Court Justices falling short of the ethical standards expected of other federal judges and of public servants,” said Durbin. “The need for Supreme Court ethics reform is clear, and if the Court does not take adequate action, Congress must. The Senate Judiciary Committee will be closely examining these matters in the coming weeks,” said Durbin, who has asked Chief Justice John Roberts to testify next month on the court’s ethics rules.
Kedric Payne, director of ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said he believes “investments in LLCs require more details than the justice includes in his financial disclosures.“
“This transaction appears to also require naming the buyer. The public has a right to know that justices will fully comply with disclosure rules instead of providing only a tiny peek into their financial disclosures,” he said, noting more facts are needed to distinguish whether it’s a disclosure omission or violation. The center was founded by a Republican former chair of the Federal Election Commission.
Unlike Crow, who bought properties from Thomas, Duffy says he is neither a friend nor a confidant of Gorsuch. But he is one of the nation’s most powerful attorneys.
His Greenberg bio describes him as “A true ‘working CEO,’” and says he “focuses his practice on trial and appellate work in the class action, employment, energy, commercial contract, and product liability areas, serving as counsel in high-profile cases throughout the United States.”
At the time of the sale, Duffy had headed Greenberg Traurig for about a year. A search of his contributions to political candidates revealed that they went primarily to Democrats, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, (D-N.Y.). He contributed the maximum amount allowable for individual donors to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, though he also made contributions in the past to Republicans such as former Sen. John McCain of Arizona and a GOP New York City mayoral candidate, Joe Lhota.
The Duffy family has long resided in Colorado. Duffy attended the University of Colorado Law School and, in 2019, he was the recipient of the “most admired CEO” award by the Denver Business Journal.
Duffy, who described himself as an avid fly fisher, said he’d been looking for the right property for his family for many years. Duffy said he did not know Gorsuch was one of the owners when he made his first offer.
“The fact that he was going to be a Supreme Court justice was absolutely irrelevant to the purchase of that property. It’s a wonderful piece of property and we’re so glad we bought it,” said Duffy.
Gorsuch and his associates purchased the property in 2005 through their LLC, the Walden Group, which was dissolved after the 2017 sale. The home was originally listed, in July of 2015, for $2.495 million. The fact that the property had sat on the market for so long and that its price had been lowered a couple times suggests the partners were having trouble finding a buyer.
The real estate transaction is another example of how the lack of a firm code of ethics for the court stands in contrast to most other branches of the U.S. government, including the White House and Congress as well as lower court judges.
The code of conduct for lower court U.S. judges says judges should “avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities,” and “discourages frequent transactions or continuing business relationships with lawyers or other persons likely to come before the court” on which the judge serves. Unlike many of the country’s state and federal courts, the Supreme Court lacks a code of conduct.
“This is exactly the type of situation that an ethics code that included vetting of transactions and full disclosure would clear up,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, a progressive research organization. “Without decisive action, the conservatives on the Supreme Court will forever tarnish its reputation in our public life,” he said.
At the time of Gorsuch’s appointment, his ownership of the Colorado property drew attention only for the fact that his co-owners were major figures in the oil and gas industry. Gorsuch’s ties to the oil and gas industry run deep.
As a lawyer at a Washington law firm nearly 20 years ago, Gorsuch represented oil and gas billionaire Philip Anschutz on a variety of matters as outside counsel, and it was through this connection that Gorsuch befriended his future real estate partners.
Anschutz helped Gorsuch win an appointment to an open seat on a federal appeals court in Denver, including directly lobbying the George W. Bush White House.
Gorsuch’s connections to Anschutz extend to both of his prior real estate partners.
The Walden Group included Kevin Conwick, who had advised Anschutz in deals to buy sports teams and other projects like the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and Cannon Harvey, who oversaw Anschutz’s venture capital investment division.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 25, 2023
Biden’s Running. Which Republican Has the Best Chance of Beating Him?

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Perhaps most importantly, Biden proved in 2020 that not only could he rebuild the so-called Blue Wall (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), he could snag increasingly purple Arizona and Georgia.
So which Republican contender is best positioned to take on Biden and win back those swing states? Here’s a clear-eyed look at their strengths and weaknesses.

Former President Donald Trump
Twice impeached, once indicted, the only president since the advent of polling whose approval ratings never cracked 50 percent, Trump doesn’t exactly cut the profile of a model challenger. Even in his two presidential runs, his high-water mark in the popular vote was just under 47 percent. But in 2016, he showed there was a path to an Electoral College win nonetheless.
In a rematch with Biden, Trump would likely be better politically positioned than many of his GOP rivals on issues like entitlement reform and abortion, where he’s tacked a bit more to the center. Still, there is the matter of the five states that Biden flipped in 2020. Trump wouldn’t need to win all of them back to recapture the White House but he would likely need at least three of those states — and none of them is a slam dunk.
That’s not because of Biden’s strengths, but Trump’s flaws. There are clear signs of a more professionalized Trump campaign operation than in the past. But Trump is still Trump (see, for example, his Easter message on the holiest day on the Christian calendar). The swing states that will decide the 2024 election are among those that have been the most destabilized by Trump’s polarizing politics, either because of his conflicts with the state parties or the forces unleashed by his baseless claims of election fraud.
Take Georgia: The 2022 Republican primary there represented a massive repudiation of the former president; the cherry on top came in the December Senate runoff, when Trump’s handpicked nominee Herschel Walker was defeated. In Arizona, ground zero for election denialism, the Trump-endorsed statewide candidates crashed and burned in November. Biden was no asset to Democrats in 2022, but Trump was equally damaging. While 38 percent of Arizona voters said they cast their votes to oppose Biden, according to exit polls, 35 percent said their votes were to oppose Trump.
The Blue Wall that Trump cracked in 2016 is equally daunting. Democrats are now in ascendance in Michigan and Pennsylvania — which have moved in tandem in presidential elections for close to 40 years — in no small part due to a backlash against Trump in their most populous suburbs. Short of a massive rural turnout in those states, or a black swan event, Biden has a decided edge against Trump in both places.

In Wisconsin, the closest of the three states in 2020, a mere 20,000 votes separated Biden and Trump. But the trendlines for the GOP aren’t promising there either. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump ran behind traditional Republican margins in the conservative suburbs of Milwaukee that are essential to GOP chances. Worse, the Trump era has seen the rise of liberal Dane County as an electoral powerhouse — witness the recent state Supreme Court election — and a Trump-led GOP ticket is guaranteed to generate another monster turnout there.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
In the view of many Republican officials, DeSantis is Trump without the baggage and drama. If he runs, they envision a conservative big-state governor, fresh off a landslide reelection, prosecuting a vigorous case against an enfeebled Biden — an incumbent who’s nearly twice his age.
It’s true that DeSantis might staunch the bleeding in traditionally Republican suburbs, particularly across the Sun Belt, while maintaining the other elements of the MAGA coalition. Just as important, his robust performance among all Latino groups in Florida in his 2022 reelection caught both parties’ attention — he outpaced even Trump’s 2020 Latino gains.
But the governor’s recent stumbles have raised real questions about how he’d fare on the national stage under the relentless pressures of a presidential election — where there is no place for the press-averse DeSantis to hide from the media. And the disciplined approach and sharp political instincts that enabled his rapid rise on the national scene haven’t been sufficient to shield him from Trump’s assault. If he does emerge from a smashmouth primary against Trump — and with Trump, there is no other kind — DeSantis will enter the general election against Biden with deep scars to show for it.
In presidential elections, governors typically face questions about their lack of foreign policy experience, and DeSantis’ description of Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” — which he later walked back amid bipartisan criticism — will only bolster the case for Biden as an experienced hand.
Yet that stance may not be nearly so politically problematic as the bill he signed recently banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. DeSantis — who is expected to announce his candidacy in May, after the legislative session — may have advanced his prospects in a GOP primary, but polling and recent election results in the swing states that will decide the presidency suggest his position could be a millstone. If DeSantis is the GOP nominee, the ban makes it more likely than ever that abortion rights will be a central issue in 2024, drowning out the other issues where Biden would be more vulnerable.

Former Vice President Mike Pence
Biden proved that former vice presidents can sit on the sidelines for four years and still return to win the presidency. But Pence is no ordinary vice president. For one thing, his boss expressed support for hanging him amid the Jan. 6 riot.
That strained relationship with Trump has made Pence, who said Sunday he’ll announce his 2024 presidential decision “well before” late June, a longshot to win the nomination. The best case for Pence in a general election is that he is a Reagan conservative whose loyal service to Trump could bridge the gap between traditional Republicans and the MAGA wing of the party. As a former Midwestern governor, he’s positioned to compete in the industrial swing states that flipped to Biden in 2020. Georgia’s 16 electoral votes would also seem to be in reach for Pence, given the architecture of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s successful 2022 reelection campaign.
The flip side is that some corners of the MAGA movement might never forgive Pence’s refusal to bend to Trump’s pressure to block certification of the 2020 Electoral College votes. And Pence’s vote-winning appeal on his own remains uncertain. Despite his estrangement from Trump — and a suburban dad image — he can’t easily sidestep his affiliation with Trump’s slash-and-burn politics. Pence ran statewide just once — in 2012 in Indiana, a red state where he ran well behind Mitt Romney’s pace that year. He was no shoo-in for reelection in 2016 before Trump plucked him to join his presidential ticket.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley would be a historic nominee — the first woman and the first person of color to lead the GOP ticket. That status, along with her age — she’s roughly 30 years younger than Biden — would make for a stark contrast on the campaign trail.
Haley, who announced her bid in February, also offers the prospect of shrinking the gender gap in the general election — which was a yawning 57-42 in 2020. Exit polls from her 2014 reelection also showed Haley ran strong in the suburbs and with independents, two additional groups Trump lost in 2020.
But establishing her independence from Trump won’t be easy. She’s frequently been critical of the former president, including in 2016 when she decried “the siren call of the angriest voices.” But she also went to work for Trump as his ambassador to the U.N. and has spent the last few years praising his agenda — positions that could limit her appeal with voters looking for a clean break from Trump.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott
Scott’s formidable political skills have been on display since then-Gov. Nikki Haley appointed him to the Senate in 2013. Within a year, he had outperformed both Haley and senior Sen. Lindsey Graham on the ballot. In 2016, he ran ahead of Donald Trump in South Carolina by more than 86,000 votes.
In his three Senate campaigns, however, Scott has never faced serious Democratic opposition or intense media scrutiny. It showed on his second day of campaigning after announcing a presidential exploratory committee, when he stumbled badly on the question of whether he’d back federal abortion restrictions.
And any expectation that Scott, who would be the GOP’s first Black presidential nominee, could carve out some of Biden’s considerable support among Black voters must be tempered by Scott’s actual performance. While the senator has improved his percentages over the past decade, he regularly loses the majority of the state’s nine majority Black counties.
Other Candidates
Several candidates making the early state rounds — among them, Vivek Ramaswamy and Perry Johnson — don’t have an electoral record to assess. But former two-term Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and current New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu have met with success at the ballot box, not to mention some of the highest approval ratings in the nation. As popular, traditional conservatives who have been lonely Trump critics within the party, they’d likely be well positioned to compete across the map in a general election — but the GOP base doesn’t show much appetite for nominating a Trump critic.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a one-time Trump ally who has become a sharp critic, faces the same predicament. He’s the rare conservative who’s won statewide in a blue state and his successful stint as chairperson of the Republican Governors Association gives him familiarity with the demands of running competitively across the national map.
But an experience during his failed 2016 presidential campaign captured both the promise and the flaws of a potential candidacy. In winning the coveted endorsement from the New Hampshire Union-Leader, a prominent voice in the early state’s primary, publisher Joseph McQuaid described Christie as “a solid, pro-life conservative” who managed to win and govern in a liberal state.
Several months later, however, the newspaper rescinded its endorsement after Christie’s surprise endorsement of Trump. “Watching Christie kiss the Donald’s ring this weekend — and make excuses for the man Christie himself had said was unfit for the presidency — demonstrated how wrong we were,” McQuaid wrote. “Rather than standing up to the bully, Christie bent his knee.” Biden wouldn’t have to try very hard to remind the public.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 25, 2023
Biden’s next student loan headache: A cash crunch at the Education Department

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The funding woes threaten to exacerbate the political pain of what was always going to be a tricky endeavor for Biden: Sending millions of Americans student loan bills for the first time since their payments were suspended at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Borrowers are set to face longer hold times to speak with their loan servicing company, potentially slower paperwork processing and reduced call center hours.
“It is a slow-moving car crash,” said Jared Bass, senior director for higher education at the Center for American Progress and a former Democratic appropriations staffer. Bass urged lawmakers to find a way to add money for administering student aid programs even before Congress debates government-wide funding this fall. “We see what’s about to unfold, so let’s just prevent it now and just step in and take preventative measures,” he said.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told House appropriators during a hearing last week that restarting payments will be an “unprecedented” undertaking that requires an “all hands on deck” approach.
“Never has this ever been done where — depending on the decision of the Supreme Court — up to 43 million borrowers are going to start repaying,” Cardona said. “It’s a huge lift for our team.”
The Biden administration has said publicly that the moratorium on payments will end this summer, with payments resuming 60 days after either the Supreme Court rules on student debt cancellation or June 30, whichever comes first.
But the Education Department is also contemplating a transition period that would push repayment well into the fall.

Department officials have told loan servicers to prepare to resume charging interest on federal loans in September, according to documents obtained by POLITICO under public records requests. Officials are eyeing October as the first month in which any borrower will be required to make a payment, the documents show, noting the requirement that borrowers receive a billing statement at least 21 days in advance of their due date.

In addition, Education Department officials are planning a “safety net” period in which borrowers aren’t penalized for missing payments once repayment begins, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
Officials had previously settled on a grace period for the first 90 days after payments are due. But they are now considering extending that flexibility to borrowers for as long as a year after repayment starts, according to two people familiar with internal discussions, who also cautioned that the plans are in flux and could change.
The administration is looking at a range of other policies designed to make the student loan system more borrower-friendly amid the looming restart of payments. For example, the Education Department last month directed loan servicers to stop collecting on borrower balances that total $100 or less and to write off those debts, according to one of the documents. That is an increase from the previous policy of writing off small balances under $25.
But the cash-strapped budget for restarting payments remains a major obstacle for the administration.
In a budget document released last month, the Education Department warned that the current level of funding for its student aid operations “poses significant risks” for implementing a “smooth return to repayment.”
Already the department has been forced to slash funding to federal loan servicing companies by nearly 10 percent. As part of the cutbacks, Biden administration officials last month allowed the loan companies to curtail their call center operations by 10 hours each week, including eliminating all Saturday hours. Officials also informed the companies they would not be penalized for failing to meet a performance standard in their contract related to long call wait times that caused borrowers to hang up before reaching a customer service representative.
“The Department is deeply concerned about the lack of adequate annual funding made available to Federal Student Aid this year,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO. “As the Department has repeatedly made clear, restarting repayment requires significant resources to avoid unnecessary harm to borrowers, such as cuts to servicing.”
“We continue to urge Congress to fully fund President Biden’s FY24 budget request, which would provide critical resources to FSA,” the statement continued. “At the same time, we will continue to work closely with servicers to prioritize providing services to borrowers as quickly and effectively as possible.”
The administration is deliberating over how to restart student loan payments as conservatives and businesses are ratcheting up pressure to get Biden to end the payment pause, which costs the government roughly $5 billion each month in foregone revenue.
SoFi, a private student loan company, and the Mackinac Center, a conservative group, have each filed lawsuits to stop the payment pause, arguing that it’s illegal and no longer properly linked to the pandemic emergency.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans are pushing for a vote in the coming weeks on legislation to overturn Biden’s student debt relief policies, including the pause on payments. Speaker Kevin McCarthy also last week included a repeal of Biden’s student loan policies as part of his opening package of policy concessions that House Republicans want in exchange for raising the debt limit.
Progressives, meanwhile, are focused on making sure the White House feels the pressure to deliver on student debt cancellation before restarting payments.
“President Biden has persuasively argued that the only way to responsibly restart loan payments without unleashing an economic catastrophe is to broadly cancel student debt,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center advocacy group. “The president cannot be baited into becoming America’s ‘debt collector-in-chief’ by his opponents. At the end of the day, his name goes on 40 million student loan bills.”
Beyond the customer service the department has already been forced to reduce, other efforts to ease borrowers back into repayment remain in limbo. That includes extra outreach to populations of borrowers who are particularly at risk of falling behind on payments. And it’s also not clear whether the Education Department will be able to fully implement Biden’s new, more generous repayment program before the payment pause ends.
The budget challenge stems from Congress’ decision last year to keep funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid flat at about $2 billion, rejecting the administration’s request for a roughly 30 percent increase. Republican appropriators offered to increase Education Department’s administrative funding for student loans, but only if it came with a prohibition on using the money for debt cancellation, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
In recent weeks, Education Department officials briefed congressional staff on the funding situation for the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The agency expects its available funds will be “fully utilized” to support a return to repayment, and the department plans to re-program and shift around some money to boost its loan servicing operations, according to a copy of the plan obtained by POLITICO.
Democrats plan to press for more funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid in the coming months as Congress hammers out government funding for next year, according to House and Senate aides. The administration said it needs a $620 million increase, about 30 percent, from the current level of funding, though that figure assumes debt cancellation will happen and there will be tens of millions of fewer accounts to manage.
A group of Senate Democrats, led by Elizabeth Warren, earlier this month warned of “catastrophic consequences for millions of working and middle-class Americans” if the Education Department doesn’t get that funding to help borrowers navigate the restart of payments.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, “will continue to fight for additional resources to FSA to help Pell Grant recipients and student borrowers,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that advocates for deficit reduction, said that while he’s sympathetic to the Education Department’s need for funding to properly restart payments the administration has a “credibility gap” on the issue.
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me seven times, shame on me,” he said, referring to the Education Department’s many extensions of the payment pause. “There’s no question that they need resources to be able to restart payments and collect the money. The question is: If you give them resources, are they going to use it for that? Or are they going to use it for their various debt cancellation schemes?”
Goldwein said he supports efforts by the administration to minimize the massive disruption of payments restarting for millions of borrowers, such as pulling borrowers out of default and suspending typical penalties for missed payments.
“It’s much better to do this well and with a little bit more grace than to do it poorly and save a few dollars,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 25, 2023