If Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) is confirmed as the next Speaker of the House, J. David Hoppe will serve as his chief of staff.
Hoppe, as ThinkProgress points out, is a registered lobbyist for the for-profit college industry, among other clients, and he operated as a lobbyist as recently as September.
This year, he was part of a team receiving $180,000 from the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, the trade association for the for-profit higher-education industry. He lobbied Congress on issues related to “gainful employment,” working against the Obama administration’s efforts to crack down on companies that operate colleges and universities which do not offer students much chance of becoming gainfully employed after graduation but do help them accumulate massive student loan debt.
Paul Ryan's entire economic philosophy and view of the world can only be resolved with the magic asterisks of dynamic scoring. Selecting a lobbyist for the for-profit college industry is entirely within character as that industry also relies on magic asterisks for job growth.