President Biden will likely make his decision on partial student loan forgiveness for millions of borrowers later this summer, administration officials told the Wall Street Journal.
Mick is thrilled….
Fox host Jesse Waters reveals the President’s glaring failure!
Watters: He’s not even playing golf like other Presidents. He can play at any course he wants to and he doesn’t even play golf. It’s like he’s given up and the American people see it https://t.co/1oedUQJXxu
This is a tricky decision: Would I want to protect sharks [read: financial institutions] who took advantage of naive, gullible, impulsive and easily sold teenagers/young adults — I’ve heard the professionally delivered spiels; “You want even have to pay anything back until you’re making bank!” and protect the architects of the carve-out in bankruptcy laws to ensure student loans will burden people forever?
Hmm.
“But what if people abused the system? What if they had bigger loans than other people? Should we let them all off scot free?” Conservatives actually ask this in earnest, without a whit of shame or irony, despite their savior’s well-publicized defaults on billions — and then suing his lender for loaning him the money!
I’d treat it like a BAND-AID® ripped off all at once. I’d pull out my pen, sign and Executive Order wiping all of them out — while watching those dollars further simulate and already chugging economy — and be very blunt in answering the opposition’s criticism.
“Wah. It’s done. Get used to it.”
So is David
Fully expect that any sweeping forgiveness of student loan debt will be met with a tsunami of lawsuits to prevent any such action … lawsuits raging about the inequities ( and the opposition will be excessively funded by highly wealthy individuals/ entities bent on keeping the smothering debt in place )
Here’s the deal.
Years ago, the government handled most students loans. Generally, the interest rate was 3% per year. Next up, Reagan and company put the banks into the equation, and they charged generally 7% per year and as much as 9%. After all, they deserved a profit, right? With such rediculous and unnecessary interest rates, a lot of people just couldn’t keep up.
Based on this history, one fair approach is for the government to get the bankers out (remember: nobody wants the bankers and Wall Street to mess with Social Security, right?–except the bankers and Wall Street), pay off all the damn loans and take them over. Then have people pay them back at a reasonable interest rate, say the old 3% per year. And, of course, modify this approach to take into account ability to pay, etc. At the same time, go after the people who made windfalls running fraudulent diploma mills, while pumping out loans at rediculous interest rates.
That’s a fair way to handle this. Pay the loans off and then have people pay them back with reasonable terms fitting their budgets. That would minimize the political blow-back. Hell, get Congress to vote on this approach. Maybe it would work because the big banks get their money back (minus the usurous interest) without defaults.
The military budget is 700 billion dollars and the education budget is 70 billion dollars. If we reversed those numbers and spent 700 billion on education, just think how innovative our country would be. We might even do something to save our ass from Climate Heating.
from what i’ve read. it s the compounded interest that is killing these young people’s ability to even make dent in the loans…some of the GD lenders make it all sound so easy to these kids, and their parents…it is a form of loan-sharking.
This is the kind of thing that makes people feel like dupes for voting Dem. Demoralized voters often become non-voters.
If I were Biden I’d be asking what can I do to get the loan sharking out of the picture?
Ideas for executive action:
Forgiveness/amnesty of all penalties and interest on those penalties and penalties on the penalties. Lowering of interest rate, including for grad students. Having a real ombudsman instead of a fake one. Stricter standards for lenders, possibly including insourcing to the Dept of Education. Process automation, so you can see in real time what your options are (instead of this nonsense, for example, of not being able to see your forgiveness eligibility during the covid forbearance because the system can only retroactively update the credited months). Giving out real information – bad and completely inaccurate advice cost me $20K plus the opportunity cost of renting and not buying a home during the 2010s. Stricter requirements for schools to confirm adequate progress of students. $10K+ forgiveness. Preventing schools from providing student loans to students who are on probation more than two consecutive semesters or without a clear path to graduation.
Ideas for legislation:
Forvigability of student loans in bankruptcy, so that lenders face the same responsibilities as with other kinds of debt. Statutory requirement for schools to confirm adequate progress of students and meet retention standards in order to participate in federal loan programs. Quotas/caps on schools in their use of loan programs. Expanded student grants.
My dog would have jumped into the bowl and eaten the popcorn in 3 minutes
Oh man, this will be interesting. Besides the normal complaints from people who paid off their loans or never went to university due to cost what about the next generation.
For example, my son graduates this year. He would get assistance. My daughter starts next year and not only will she not get relief when she graduates her tax dollars will go to pay off my sons loans. She is furious. Nothing will be done to help kids going forward. As a matter of fact will tuition go even higher with the thought “the government will pay it off so who cares?”
When I bring this up to my son and his friends the response is “thats their problem”.
This issue highlights for me one of the fatal flaws of the Democratic party writ large.
Just do it. Go up to $50k. Don’t means-test it. Keep it simple. Makes for an easy message.
“But what if you’re doing it for people who don’t deserve it?”
“Well, we’d rather make sure we’re including everyone who can benefit and who may have been taken advantage of, rather than leave them out at the risk of being too restrictive.”
The people who are going to vote against you are still not going to vote for you after you do this. The people who are going to vote for you are still going to vote for you after you do this.
BUT, the people who are not inclined to vote at all will vote for you if this helps them.
Sure, so…we do nothing, because not everyone will get the same benefit? Your daughter is angry because she won’t get Nice Thing, and your son will be equally angry because Nice Thing was snatched from his grasp.
I won’t qualify for this carefully targeted forgiveness and I’m not angry because that’s how life works out sometimes–it sounds like a lesson your children need to learn as well.
I think they should fix the issue with sky high tuition before anything else. The maybe address interest rates. And just to make people gnash their teeth start it in 2023. Lets see how many people who have loans now feel about life not being fair.
Time is marching. I just wish the Democrats would show some urgency in their actions.
Inflation is up because it’s basically 3 years worth rolled into 1 year. Gas needs to be more expensive because we need to stop using it, period. Roe needs to be codified now and should have been done years ago, it turns out (I didn’t realize it but that’s what happens when you go with the flow, especially the media flow which circles clockwise and down).
And from the responses in Josh’s posts to calling your Senator on Roe, it would seem that the Democrats can not walk and chew gum at the same time.
Remember when our intelligence agencies failed to act on the hair on fire warnings about al Qaeda? And we all blamed bush for not acting, and rightly so?
We’ve put all our eggs in one basket, the Jan 6th Committee. Just like the Mueller Report. Just like how we focus on the White House and Senate and House, especially the White House, and ignore the States, except for maybe Governors, and Courts.
I fear for our Country. But maybe I’m wrong, and the televised hearings will expose the calumny and infamy of Trump and his co-conspirators and ass lickers and the American people will finally have their fill of his crap and reject him and the whole malignant sepsis that is today’s Republican party.
Thank you. Number One. Higher education has not been in the least held accountable on this score. The whole situation will not be fixed if this isn’t fixed.