(Reuters) – The White House threatened on Wednesday to veto a Republican bill to switch federal student loan interest rates to a market-based system, arguing the plan would create more uncertainty for students and families.

Under the legislation introduced by Republican Representatives John Kline of Minnesota and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans would be recalculated every year and pegged to 10-year Treasury notes, plus 2.5 percentage points.

Currently, interest rates on those loans are set by the government. Without congressional action, the interest rates are set to double on July 1 to 6.8 percent from 3.4 percent for millions of subsidized Stafford loans.

Sign the petition to support President Obama’s student loan reform plan here.

Read the full article from Reuters here.

Already running as one of the most conservative gubernatorial candidates in recent history, Ken Cuccinelli recently completed his statewide ticket with an extreme Republican Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General candidate to match Cuccinelli’s own record. The Virginia GOP ticket now consists of candidates who compared Planned Parenthood to the KKK, wants to ban common forms of birth control, and would require women to report their miscarriages to police within 24 hours of face prison time. Ken Cuccinelli and E.W. Jackson are two of the most extreme statewide candidates Virginians have ever seen.

Virginians are just now getting to know Ken Cuccinelli’s hate-spewing running mate E.W. Jackson. In the short time since Virginia Republicans nominated him to be Cuccinelli’s Lieutenant Governor, we’ve already learned that Jackson has compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, thinks gay people are “very sick,” and believes there’s a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia. This afternoon, Cuccinelli made clear what he thinks of all that when he called Jackson a “powerful, powerful fighter and communicator for first principles.” Clearly, Cuccinelli and Jackson were meant to run together.

Meet the Virginia GOP’s Extreme Team by the Virginia Democratic Party

TRENTON — Calling the proposal “hasty, counterproductive and less reliable,” Gov. Chris Christie today vetoed a bill that would have let residents vote at their polling place starting 15 days before Election Day.

The move was instantly criticized by Democrats who accused the Republican governor of trying to stifle the vote.

Read the full article at: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/christie_vetoes_early_voting_b.html

Agree with us? Make a contribution here: http://demgoverno.rs/kKsQa 

There are some rights that are so fundamental to our society that you’d think the public debate would be closed on them. The right of every American citizen to vote — regardless of age, race, or income level — is one of them.

It’s a right that we have as a free people because so many courageous individuals sacrificed before us. Our parents and grandparents, and the brave men and women who died for this right, all understood a powerful truth at the heart of the American dream: the stronger we make our country, the more she gives back to us, to our children, and to our grandchildren. That better, stronger future rests in the hands of those who cast their ballots all across America: in every state, in every city and town.

Yet today, this fundamental right is under attack. In states like South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Republican governors have signed into law voter ID measures that would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in their states that don’t currently meet the strict specifications of the new laws. And in other states like Florida and Ohio, Republican governors are making it harder to vote by reducing the length of early voting and restricting the use of absentee ballots. It should come as no surprise that the voters affected by these new laws are more likely to be minorities, college students, working people, the elderly and lower income voters — voters that tend to skew Democratic.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gov-martin-omalley/strengthening-our-democra_b_3199673.html

“During the last session I supported an increase, but for a host of reasons it never came to pass,” Malloy told reporters after the monthly meeting of the State Bond Commission. “It is my hope that this year we can get it done. I have spoken with some in the business community and I believe we can get to $9 an hour over the next two years; an increase that will make it just a little easier for working people in our state.”

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Malloy-backs-raising-of-minimum-wage-4466711.php#ixzz2RbAc3RJk

Watch here:

Governor LePage has a habit of using false anecdotes to back up his policy positions. It started during his campaign and has continued throughout his time in office. He routinely makes up regulations that don’t exist, conversations that never happened and discriminatory practices that have never occurred. LePage has repeated some of these claims even after they have been proven to be false.

What these lies have in common is that they all seem designed to highlight some extreme example of what LePage sees as wrong with the world and justify his policy prescriptions. If any of them were true, they would be very compelling.

LePage added a new false anecdote to his repertoire on Tuesday as he spoke to the Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce. At the end of long rant against the wind power industry, filled with claims that the renewable resource doesn’t create jobs and leads to higher electricity rates, LePage took aim at one wind turbine in particular.

Read more: http://thetippingpoint.bangordailynews.com/2013/04/18/state-politics/lepage-windmill-conspiracy-theory/

8. Right wing gadflies are already promoting Cuccinelli as the greatest thing since Pat Buchanan.

“Bob Vander Plaats, an influential social conservative who heads Iowa’s Family Leader, called himself a ‘big fan’ of Cuccinelli’s and said he should definitely keep his 2016 options open.”

7. The author manages to use the phrases “flirtation with” and “birther movement” in the same sentence describing something Cuccinelli said.

“And his brief flirtation with the birther movement when he opined that the odds Obama was born in Kenya did not ‘seem beyond the realm of possibility.’”

6. Cuccinelli once made Rick Perry look dumb — wait, actually this is not all that crazy.

“During the q-and-a that night, Cuccinelli pointedly pressed Texas Gov. Rick Perry on his suggestion that an executive order could effectively repeal President Obama’s health care law…Perry swiftly recalibrated his answer.”

5. Cuccinelli is fighting to uphold Virginia’s antiquated “anti-sodomy” law.

“Cuccinelli requested an appeals court to uphold a law that essentially makes anal and oral sex a crime—exactly the type of move that makes him look like a relic cultural warrior.”

4. Cuccinelli thinks there’s a ‘gay conspiracy’ behind commonsense efforts to teach students safe sex and AIDS prevention in public schools.

“Cuccinelli suggested that the gay movement’s plan to ‘dismantle sodomy laws’ was designed to ‘get education about homosexuals and AIDS in public schools.”

3. Cuccinelli actually has a chance to become the governor of a state in this country, according to recent polling.

“A late March survey by Quinnipiac University put him just ahead of McAuliffe, 40 percent to 38 percent—the kind of statistical dead heat Virginia is known for.”

2. Cuccinelli compared his own fight to restrict women’s access to affordable health care to Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement.

“[Cuccinelli] has drawn comparisons between abortion and slavery.”

1. Cuccinelli sees himself as President of the United States.

“When Ken Cuccinelli wakes up in the morning, he looks in the mirror and sees a man on the road to the White House—or at least a candidate of presidential timber.”

Read the full article here.