5115 S. Lakeland Dr., Ste
#1 as
a courtesy copy because I am quoting you
Lakeland, FL
33813-2565
(863)
619-7464 Cc:
file copes
Mr. Shannon, thank you for taking time to
speak with me by phone the other day when I had questions about your campaign
for Seth McKeel's state house seat. -- Thank you, even more, for being brave
enough to consider an issue which is probably much more "Federal" than "State"
(since the Florida's attempts to regulate tuition are VERY difficult given
the intrusion of the Feds into the Free Market, here, causing tuition
inflation.)
Before I pose my answer to your point (which I
admit, stumped me), I owe it to you to verify my claims that I nearly won in
court for Terri Schiavo -all by myself -doing better than all other
-combined:
* In Re: GORDON WAYNE WATTS (as next friend of
THERESA MARIE 'TERRI' SCHIAVO), No. SC03-2420 (Fla. Feb.23, 2003), denied 4-3 on
rehearing. http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/clerk/dispositions/2005/2/03-2420reh.pdf (I lost 4-3, getting 42.7% of my panel)
* In Re:
JEB BUSH, GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA, ET AL. v. MICHAEL SCHIAVO, GUARDIAN: THERESA
SCHIAVO, No. SC04-925 (Fla. Oct.21, 2004), denied 7-0 on rehearing. http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/clerk/dispositions/2004/10/04-925reh.pdf (Jeb, bless his heart, lost 7-0, getting 0.0% of
his panel)
* Schiavo ex rel. Schindler v. Schiavo ex rel. Schiavo, 403 F.3d
1223, 2005 WL 648897 (11th Cir. Mar.23, 2005), denied 2-1 on appeal. http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200511628.pdf (Even Terri's blood family got only 33.3% of their
own panel in Federal Appeals court)
* A slightly-updated version my brief, filed
before the US Supreme Ct, is attached, as is my 'research' on the college loan
debacle.
Anyhow, thank you, also, for supporting (at
least, as far as you can at the state level) all the "other" Standard Consumer
Protections, but your claim that there was a crisis of abuse of the system that
justified removal of the bankruptcy option seems to be incorrect: Alan Collinge
reports at http://StudentLoanJustice.org/press-fact-sheet.html that: “There was never a
rational basis for removing bankruptcy protections from student loans. Three
decades ago people found to be discharging their loans shortly after graduation,
while highlighted by media and pointed to as a rationalization for bankruptcy
removal, turned out to be exceedingly rare. In fact, far less than 1% of all
federal loans were actually discharged in bankruptcy.” Is Alan right?
Yes: The recent 'urban legend' among some of the “rich & powerful” banker
types that Congress had 'good' rationale for removal of bankruptcy protections
from student loans, namely that many students were abusing this option by going
to college, racking up large debts, & then refusing to pay is easily
disproved: Default rates and overall college loan debt, good proxies for levels
of bankruptcy filings, used to be very low in the past (back
when bankruptcy
was an option, and did not require the next-to-impossible 'Undue Hardship'
test). However, it was only AFTER bankruptcy (and other Standard Consumer
Protections) were removed that Student Loan Debt has, for the FIRST TIME in
America's history, surpassed Credit Card Debt.
However, this is moot: you surely know that
Congress is prohibited by the Constitution (Art. I, §10, Cl. 1) from either
changing of the existing Student Loan Contracts (such as they did with mine,
when the law removed the bk option) or from writing any bk law that is not
uniform (Art. I, §8).
Further, if you think it's right for college
students to be whacked for abuse, why not the same standard for all others, such
as Donald Trump, who filed 4 times, for huge sums? (It can be argued that he
'creates jobs,' but the same can be said of students who could put more back
into the economy with a lowered loan burden.)
“Donald Trump -- or companies that bear
his name - have declared bankruptcy four times...Trump's first visit to
bankruptcy court was in 1991, when his Atlantic City casino, the Taj Mahal, was
buried under a mountain of debt. The Taj carried a $1 billion price tag and was
financed by junk bonds carrying a staggering 14 percent interest rate. As
construction completed, the economy slumped, as did the Atlantic City gambling
scene, soon plunging Trump into $3.4 billion of debt...In December 2008 his
company missed a $53.1 million bond interest payment, propelling Trump
Entertainment Resorts into bankruptcy court and plunging its stock price from $4
per share to a mere 23 cents.”
* http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-filed-bankruptcy-times/story?id=13419250(“Donald Trump's Companies Filed for Bankruptcy 4
Times,” By Amy Bingham (@Amy_Bingham), April 21, 2011, ABCNews.com)
Lastly, if you think it's ok to change
existing contracts for college students, then what prevents Congress from
changing existing contracts in which *you* are a signatory? As a practical
matter (and as elucidated in my email signature below), any time we refuse to
protect the rights of others, *we*, ourselves could become the next
victim.!
Thank you for being 'conservative' on almost
all issues which I can see, John (even tho I admit I view lack of bk
protections as contrary of many constitutional principals, and thus not
conservative.) -- I wish you the best in your run for house.
Gordon Wayne Watts, editor-in-chief, The
Register
www.GordonWayneWatts.com / www.GordonWatts.com
BS, The
Florida State University, Biological & Chemical Sciences
AS, United
Electronics Institute
821 Alicia Road, Lakeland,
FL 33801-2113
Home:(863)688-9880 Work: (863)686-3411
Voice&FAX:(863)687-6141 Cell:(863)XXX-YYYY [[ Redacted ]]
See also: http://Gordon_Watts.Tripod.com/consumer.html
Gww1210@aol.com ; Gww12102002@Yahoo.com
Truth is the
strongest, most stable force in the Universe
Truth
doesn't change because you disbelieve it
TRUTH doesn't bend to the
will of tyrantshttp://GordonWayneWatts.com / http://GordonWatts.com
Get
Truth
"First, they [Nazis] came for the Jews. I was silent. I was
not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a
Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a
trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for
me."(Martin Niemöller, given credit for a quotation in The Harper Religious and
Inspirational Quotation Companion, ed. Margaret Pepper(New York: Harper
&Row, 1989), 429 -as cited on page 44, note 17,of Religious Cleansing in the
American Republic, by Keith A. Fornier,Copyright 1993, by Liberty, Life, and
Family Publications.
Some versions have Mr. Niemöller saying:
"Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a
Protestant"; other versions have him saying that they came for Socialists,
Industrialists, schools, the press,and/or the Church; however, it's certain he
DID say SOMETHING like this. Actually, they may not have come for the Jews
first, as it's more likely they came for the prisoners, mentally handicapped,
&other so-called "inferiors" first -as historians tell us-so they could get
"practiced up"; however, they did come for them -due to the silence of their
neighbors -and due in part to their own silence. So: "Speak up now or
forever hold your peace!"-GWW