turns out we have a divide at this table. paul begala, i ll start with you. policy as well as politics. for that amount of money, you could fund free pre-k for every 3 and 4-year-old for ten years. you can do a lot more good for poor people, communities of color and the underprivileged by doing pre-k. you could forgive all medical debt, which unlike student debt is not freely entered into. democrats, i m a progressive, i want to help folks. but i think this is terrible policy. the politics of it, we saw. tim ryan is in a tough race in a tough state, and he can t stand this idea. senator warren is all for it. she s not exactly from a swing state in massachusetts. senator catherine cortez masto doesn t like this. michael bennet, he doesn t like this, from colorado. cherice davis from kansas doesn t like it.
not fair that student loan is just one kind of debt and there are other people who don t have that but have other struggles the government isn t helping them with? i think a lot about fairness. and i think about how education debt is different from other debt. i look at it this way. i wanted to be a public school teacher from the time i was in second grade. my daddy ended up as janitor. there was no money for me to go to college. but i found a public university that cost $50 a semester. and for a price i could pay for on a part-time waitressing job, i finished a four-year diploma. i became a special education teacher and it opened a million doors for me. that opportunity is not out there today for any of our kids. our public education system is no longer creating opportunities for kids like me and other kids whose families can t afford to write a check.
have the credit to take out a loan they can t play back. it plays to the notion, i m sorry, the democrats are becoming a party of elites. donald trump played to that. there s a reason working americans turned out for donald trump, who i m no fan of, but it s playing into that. it s a new feeling, third person at the table jumping onto a dog pile. new role for scott jennings. that s right. i think many important and smart things have been said at this table. i ll add a couple. i feel like we ve reached the joker phase of the biden presidents. he s riding a parade float down pennsylvania avenue tossing money out the window. it s totally lawless, completely unconstitutional, completely in violation of our norm. you got a president with no agreement from congress spending up to half a trillion dollars. this is a massive, massive thing. and it s unprecedented. and biden ran as someone who was
party of elites. donald trump played to that. there s a reason working americans turned out for donald trump, who i m no fan of, but it s playing into that. it s a new feeling, third person at the table jumping onto a dog pile. new role for scott jennings. that s right. i think many important and smart things have been said at this table. so i ll just add a couple. i feel like we ve reached the joker phase of the biden presidents. he s riding a parade float down pennsylvania avenue tossing money out the window. it s totally lawless, completely unconstitutional, completely in violation of our norm. you got a president with no agreement from congress spending up to half a trillion dollars. this is a massive, massive thing. and it s unprecedented. and biden ran as someone who was going to restore our norms and restore the balance and restore our, you know, laws and institutions. and this is completely in opposition to all of that, all for politics.
interest rates high for some time. listen to what he said. while higher interest rates, slower growth and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses. these are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. is raising interest rates again a mistake? how likely do you think it is that a recession is coming if the interest rates continue to go up? i just want to translate what joer roam powell just said. what he calls some pain means putting people out of work, shutting down small businesses, because the cost of money goes up, because the interest rates go up. you do sound like you think it s a mistake to raise interest rates again? i am very worried about this because the causes of inflation, things like the fact that covid is still shutting down parts of the economy around the world,