Facebook Hoax Claims Children Of Congress Members Don't Pay Back College Loans

 

Myths and untruths are passed around on Facebook every now and then, but it's still a surprise when thousands of people at a time fall for unverified statements posted by random users.

One of the latest cases of a questionable Facebook post going viral is a photo with a with a lengthy caption that claims Congress members' children do not have to pay back their college student loans.

Uploaded on Jan. 2 by a user who goes by the moniker "Actof Courage" (sic), the photo has more than 75,000 Likes and more than 280,000 shares on the social network.

Below the photo, Actof Courage claims that "the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news networks will broadcast it."

The post goes on to propose a 28th Amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States

A similar claim was posted -- and debunked -- on Facebook in 2011.

Politifact gave the claim a "Pants on Fire" rating on Jan. 7, 2011, after receiving a chain email about the alleged loan forgiveness. The fact-checking group contacted the U.S. Department of Education, which responded thus: "There are no provisions under Title IV (federal student aid programs) that provide loan forgiveness for Members of Congress or their families or staff (beyond what any other borrower would be eligible for)."

The Annenenbreg Public Policy Center also did a similar analysis of the claim in 2011 and rated it "Not true."

"Some congressional employees are eligible to have up to $60,000 of student loans repaid after several years — just like other federal workers. But that’s not the case for members of Congress or their families," the Center wrote.

Will Facebook users ever tire of sharing posts with friends before independently researching theories or outrageous claims? Not this month.

Facebook Hoax Claims Children Of Congress Members Don't Pay Back College Loans

How Trump could turn the presidency into a ‘litigation circus’

 

Kathleen Meese, an upstate New York schoolteacher, plunked down $25,000 five years ago for “Gold Elite” courses at Trump University — a for-profit educational outfit owned by Donald Trump that promised prospective students it would teach them how to “make a killing” in the real estate market.

But Meese later complained to New York state regulators she was conned. Her Trump University instructor — supposedly an “expert” who was “handpicked” by Trump — turned out to be a failed businessman who had filed for bankruptcy and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, according to court records.

Her Trump University “mentors,” who she was told would counsel her about real estate deals, were unreachable; their phone numbers disconnected, she asserted. Even a promised photo session with Trump never materialized. What she got instead: a photo of herself with “a cardboard cutout” of Trump, she says.

“Donald Trump received $25,000 of my money,” Meese wrote in a sworn affidavit filed with the New York attorney general’s office, reviewed by Yahoo News. “For $25,000, I have a lifetime membership to nothing!”

Meese is one of more than 150 former Trump University students whose complaints are the basis for a $40 million lawsuit against Trump brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The number of complainants — all potential witnesses against Trump — has more than tripled since Schneiderman first brought the case two years ago, according to state officials. The suit, still active in the New York courts, accuses Trump of pocketing $5 million in profits while running “an unlicensed, illegal educational institution” that “intentionally” misled students and engaged in a “pattern of deceptions” that included false advertisements, “bait and switch tactics” and other “misrepresentations and fraudulent practices.”

The lawsuit filed by Schneiderman, a Democrat, is on top of two other class action claims that have been filed against Trump by former students in federal court in California — one of which accuses the billionaire real estate mogul of a “pattern of racketeering activities.”They are being vigorously contested by Trump and his army of lawyers, but threaten a continuous toll on his crowded schedule. Just last week, sources confirmed to Yahoo News, Trump was due to be deposed in one of the California cases, but the scheduled grilling was put off until the fall to give the plaintiffs’ lawyers more time to seek evidence.

“Mr. Trump has no concerns about testifying in this case, whether it is today, tomorrow or next year,” said Jeffrey Goldman, one of Trump’s lawyers, who is defending him in the case. “None of it is true. No one was defrauded,” adds Alan Garten — Trump Organization’s general counsel, who heads up the real estate mogul’s vast legal team — about the allegations in the lawsuits against Trump University. (After receiving warnings from the New York Education Department that it was not a licensed educational institution, the school was later renamed “the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative” and is no longer conducting any business.)

“The people that take these classes go into it with their eyes open,” said Garten. “A lot of people did very well with [Trump University.] A lot of people enjoyed it. But like everything else, if people don’t put the effort into it” they don’t succeed.

Read more:   How Trump could turn the presidency into a ‘litigation circus’

Fiat Chrysler CEO again pushes merger with GM

 

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is taking another swing at trying to promote the idea of a merger with General Motors.

Marchoinne, in a story published Sunday evening by Automotive News, asserts that a merger between the two automakers could generate up to $30 billion annually in earnings before taxes.

The idea isn't new, but Marchionne's estimates of potential profits and his forceful tone are. The outspoken CEO sent GM CEO Mary Barra an email earlier this year outlining his idea for a merger of the two automakers and the reasons it makes sense. Since then, Barra has said both publicly and privately the Detroit automaker has no interest in exploring the idea.

"We already have scale and we are leveraging that scale," Barra said in June. "When you look at the last several years we have been merging with ourselves."

By mid-summer, it appeared that Marchionne was backing away from the idea -- at least in the near future. But he took a more aggressive tone in an interview published by Automotive News..

"Look, the combined entity can make $30 billion a year in cash. Thirty. Just think about that [expletive] number," Marchionne told the publication. "In steady-state environments, it'll make me $28 to $30 billion," at a seasonally adjusted annual selling rate of 17 million new cars and trucks in the U.S.

Marchionne stopped short of saying he is pursuing a hostile deal with GM but said the automaker's board and executives cannot avoid a discussion of the potential cost savings.

"Not hostile," he told the publication. "There are varying degrees of hugs. I can hug you nicely, I can hug you tightly, I can hug you like a bear, I can really hug you. Everything starts with physical contact. Then it can degrade, but it starts with physical contact."

GM said it has already reviewed Marchionne's proposal.

"Our management and board are always working to maximize shareholder value. After we completed a thorough review of a possible merger with FCA, we concluded that executing our current plan is the best way to create value for GM stockholders," GM said in an emailed statement Sunday.

Fiat Chrysler CEO again pushes merger with GM