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UNIVERSITY SPENDING, NOT A LACK OF TAXPAYER SUPPORT, DRIVES HIGHER TUITION
History suggests the schools pocket the additional taxpayer contributions and still raise tuition
Michigan Capitol Confidential, July 17, 2018, https://www.mackinac.org

To push lawmakers to spend even more on Michigan’s 15 public universities, the Michigan Association of State Universities is promoting a poll which finds an overwhelming majority of residents agree to spend more – if that keeps tuition down. “Michigan Residents Say State Should Boost Higher Education Funding to Keep Tuition Low, Poll Shows.”

ForTheRecord says: Spending by Michigan’s 15 state universities in the 2016-17 school year increased 6.4 percent over the previous year, well above the rate of inflation. That’s about $400 million in additional spending, with fewer students to educate. And the students who did attend had to pay $200 million of that increase through higher tuition and fees.

That year continues the trend of university spending going up faster than the inflation rate over the past decade. And legislators have been increasing the amount that taxpayers contribute to spending by public universities.

With low inflation and a flat student population, the driver of higher tuition is the failure of universities to control their costs.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Mackinac Center policy staff.

BACKING A MAN WHO RENOUNCED HIS CITIZENSHIP, DENOUNCING TRUMP
By Don Surber, July 17, 2018, DonSurber@gmail.com

Politics used to end at the nation's shores. No more. Globalists slammed the president before, after, and while our duly elected president met with the leader of Russia.

Just as they did when he met the prime minister of England.

Just as they did when he met the heads of NATO.

Just as they did when he met the head of North Korea.

Just as they do any time President Trump does anything. They fear and oppose his America First policy, which raises the question: if not America, who do they put first?

London-based Russian hedge fund magnate Bill Browder?

Jay Nordlinger of the Never Trump National Review wrote, "Sergei Magnitsky was Bill Browder’s lawyer — and a whistleblower. Magnitsky was tortured to death, real slow, by Russian authorities. Since that time, Browder has dedicated his life to human rights and justice. He has campaigned all over the world for 'Magnitsky acts,' which place sanctions on Russian officials who abuse human rights. His activism has made him a prime target of Putin and the Kremlin. Bill (he is a friend of mine) has to watch his step at every turn. He has stuck his neck out, for truth and justice."

Nordlinger left out of his piece that his friend, Browder, renounced his American citizenship more than 20 years ago. Real patriots do not befriend those who renounce their citizenship.

Unlike Nordlinger, Mathew Cooper of Newsweek confronted Browder.

Cooper: "You renounced your American citizenship in the ’90s and moved to London. Tell me about that decision?"

Browder: "My grandfather was an American Communist, and he married my grandmother, who was a Russian Communist. During the 1950s, the McCarthy era, my family was viciously persecuted. [When] my grandmother was dying of cancer…the U.S....wanted to deport her back to Russia. It just left a legacy of bad feeling about the rule of law. Things can swing wildly in the wrong direction from time to time. And in a certain way, we’re sort of seeing that right now."

Cooper: "Would you ever move back?"

Browder: "I’ve been [in London] 28 years. I’ve made my choice."

By friend, I think Nordlinger means donor to the magazine and whatever Counterfeit Conservative think tank has him on the payroll.

Browder's story does not add up. He said his family was persecuted in the 1950s but his grandmother was not facing deportation until the 1990s.

But he is against President Trump, and anyone who is against President Trump now has the support of all these unpatriotic souls.

Nordlinger should follow the lead of his friend, Bill Browder. All of them should. Renounce their citizenship and go live someplace else.

We really don't need them.

FBI DIRECTOR: CHINESE ESPIONAGE ‘MOST SIGNIFICANT’ SPY THREAT FACING US
Chuck Ross. 7/19/2018 http://dailycaller.com

China, rather than Russia, is the “most significant” long-term threat to the United States, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.

During an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt at the Aspen Ideas Forum, Wray said that the FBI has economic espionage investigations in all 50 states that trace back to Chinese activity.

“It covers everything from corn seeds in Iowa to wind turbines in Massachusetts and everything in between,” said Wray.

Most of the forum focused on the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and in other arenas. Wray’s appearance comes in the wake of two significant indictments in Russia-related investigations. (RELATED: Trump Fights Back Against China By Limiting Chinese Student Visas)


The special counsel’s office on Friday indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers allegedly involved in disseminating emails stolen from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. And on Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted a Russian national named Maria Butina who allegedly attempted to infiltrate Republican political circles and the National Rifle Association. (RELATED: Grand Jury Indicts Russian National Linked To NRA, Adds ‘Foreign Agent’ Charge)

Wray acknowledged the seriousness of the Russian threat, saying that the U.S. has to deal with it “very aggressively.”

“There are certainly other countries that…have their own ways of influencing our public opinion, our politicians, our business community. But there’s no question that Russia has been by far the most aggressive actor in the space we’re talking about right now,” he said of Russia’s campaign-related efforts.

But China is “trying to position itself as the sole dominant superpower,” said Wray. “They’re trying to replace the United States in that role.”

“I think China from a counterintelligence perspective represents in many ways represents the broadest, most challenging, most significant threat we face as a country,” he added.

He said that China’s espionage activities are “a whole of state effort” that involves “economic espionage as well as traditional espionage” and “human sources as well as cyber means.”

“The volume of it, the pervasive of it, the significance of it, is something that I think this country cannot underestimate,” he said.