October 22, 2008 2:01PM # All Our Problems, in One, Easy Op-ed! By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) --- SHARE If you could endorse everything that’s killing our economy and inflating college costs in [one op-ed](http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/10/tuition-hikes-n.html), Michael Dannenberg of the New America Foundation has done it in this morning’s *USA Today*. Call for government-backed student loans to all comers, regardless of horrible credit history? Check! Trot out the [old canard](https://www.cato.org/2008/08/01/stop-blaming-the-states/) that penurious state higher ed spending drives tuition increases? Check! Demand deficit spending? Check! Declare that FDR ended the longest depression in American history with massive government outlays? Check! Unfortunately, I am at a conference right now and can’t give this the full treatment it deserves, but just read the op-ed. Frankly, as we are now paying the stabbing price for years of too much easy, government-driven credit—not to mention massive deficit spending—the piece practically refutes itself. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).