Hillary Clinton didn’t become Washington, D.C.’s #1 Girl Gone Wild by winning wet T-shirt contests but by offering the most seductive plan on college affordability. Here’s how we can beat her at her own wild game…
Hillary knows Obama won the youth vote in two consecutive presidential elections by promising to erase the burden of college loans. She also knows the average college student graduates with $33,000 in debt. Finally, she knows independents and Republicans are offering young voters little by way of a counter offer.
Today I’ll lay out a three-step proposal we can use to counter Hillary’s offer to strip $350 billion out of the economy over ten years and make college tuition “free.”
Mrs. Clinton tries not to look or sound like a spring breaker at the beach,favoring matronly pantsuits and frequently mentioning that she’s a “grandmother.” She pitches herself as a boring yet trustworthy “Mrs. Clause”—handing out free college tuition while wearing a Santa suit. But, beneath the surface, it’s crystal clear that Hillary is the wildest girl in Washington.
Here’s how independents and Republicans should fight back on behalf of college students and offer a more meaningful college affordability solution.
1.) Helping Millions of Jobless College-Educated Millennials
Together, we must expose a story that the Obama administration’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) quietly released this month: there are 6.5 million (6,455,300 to be exact) more Millennials with college degrees than there are jobs for them now. Furthermore, when you account for all the jobs forecasted to be created between now and 2022, the BLS says there still will not be enough jobs.
Translation: You’d likely be better off investing four years and $100,000 into starting your own company than getting a college degree because there are will be an oversupply of Americans with degrees through at least 2022.
The greatest weakness in Hillary’s sales pitch to young voters is her premise that a college degree is necessary for success.
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ralph Lauren, LeBron James, Michael Dell and Rush Limbaugh are only a few examples of people who rose to the top of their field without a college degree. In fact, dedicating four years to obtaining a degree could have doomed their careers. And we wouldn’t be using technology products that we now take for granted, like iPhones and Microsoft software.
The truth is that we must recover our economy in order to employ young people and taking $350 billion out of the economy will not help. No matter how many “free” degrees a young person obtains, they still won’t get interviewed for job openings that don’t exist when companies cannot afford to expand and hire.
GOP candidates should start educating young people on these facts so they don’t fall for Hillary’s plan, which relies on them buying into her false premise that college is necessary for career success.
2.) A Better Proposal (Hint: Concealed Carry)
Here’s a proposal: we will match Hillary’s experiment to spend $350 billion over ten years on college education, but we have one condition. Our one condition is: the only schools that get funds are those that will allow professors, staff and students to carry concealed firearms on campus.
College campuses are now one of the most deadly places in America; in the past few weeks alone we’ve had four shootings. Republicans have an opportunity to stand up and say that no young person should be pressured by a self-serving politician to choose between the safety of their life and a free education.
Clinton is not going back to college anytime soon and, even if she were, she has lifetime Secret Service protection. She’s unperturbed by the prospect of walking to chemistry class and running into the next Christopher Harper-Mercer, Steven Jones or Elliot Rodger. She doesn’t face the dangers that your children face.
Hillary is capitalizing on the fact that we haven’t done a good job of informing our children of two stories within American history which they are too young to intuit from their experience: One, gun free zones didn’t always exist in America. Two, ever since Bill Clinton pushed hard for gun free zones there has been an uptick in mass violence and today we are at a historic high.
3.) Emphasize Entrepreneurship
A final way in which we can resonate with Millennial voters on the topic of college education is by emphasizing how our free market policies will allow them to become successful entrepreneurs. This is because 70 percent of Millennials say they aspire to be independent and work for themselves someday, according to research from Deloitte.
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel launched a scholarship program proving that Millennials are willing to give up a four-year degree for the opportunity to be an entrepreneur. Republicans should expand upon Thiel’s message by showing young people that a pricey college degree is optional for career success.
College degrees aren’t worth what they used to be. Ivy League students are hiring writing tutors and Harvard Business School grads are complaining they feel unprepared for the modern workforce. This is because increasing federal aid to institutions of higher learning encourages them to raise their prices without improving the quality of education.
Republicans will be seen as “student advocates” if they hold colleges and Democrats accountable for profiting off the backs of students and endangering their lives in gun free zones. We will attract young people with the message that success is not one-size-fits all. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s plan will leave students in the same position as they are now—in debt and unemployable.
For more information and history that you can offer Millennials about student loan debt and gun free zones, you can also read “Let Me Be Clear.”
Share this with every young person in your life—before their life is forever set back by the policies of Girl Gone Wild Incognito, Hillary Clinton.