221–230 of 483 posts
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How much do you really think this is taking out of your pocket? You are paying for others all the time with your taxes, which can’t be selective for the system to function
If the 1.6 trillion in debt was divided evenly among every human in the US it would be 4k. If we’re ball-parking and say that the top 20% of earners would foot the bill it’d be about 64k per household.
If we're going to be forgiving loans, we shouldn't be giving them out in the first place. Otherwise, we're going to be in the same spot in one generation's time.
Is not giving out loans at all necessarily better? Stop giving out loans, and higher education becomes even more elitist and out of reach.
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I believe a lot of this wave of forgiveness is due to correcting/removing the road blocks for this program put into place by Devos in previous years. The article refers to these as "historical failures" but I think that being very generous.
It wasn't just the Trump administration; it was clear there were significant problems with the way the program was administered well before the first loans were supposed to start qualifying in 2017. Among other things, the Bush and Obama administrations that created and administrated the program provided no guidance and no oversight to the companies overseeing the loans, so the companies made it effectively impossibl…
Policies such as Public Search Loan Forgiveness, Pay as You Earn (PAYE), Perkins Loan cancellation, and several others were part of the Student Aid Bill of Rights. Having the government hold student loan debt is foundational to making these policies work.
This was a key policy platform of the Obama administration. It's less widely known about, compared to ACA, but still an important one. And this is probably the reason that it's been a day-one policy issue for the Biden administration.
It's crazy to cancel student loans and still keep issuing the exact same loans. If we believe the loans are unjust then the government should stop handing them out as the very first step.
Free community college was in build back better, 49 republicans and Joe Manchin killed it.
The Democrats tried to govern like they had a large majority, when they had 5 (I think) seats in the House, and a 50/50 Senate. Of course it failed! If you need every single vote, you can only go as far as the least-willing member will let you go.
The Democrats never should have tried to govern that way. They should have been coalition building, trying to find some common ground where they could do some things. Instead, they acted like they could dictate their agenda to Congress. Both Biden and Pelosi should have known better; they have decades of experience in Congress.
Why did they do this? You could argue that they did it because they knew that no Republican would ever cooperate on anything. But if that was the reason, they still should have gone for what they could get through the members they had, not going for the moon.
Or you could suspect that they wanted to blame the Republicans (and maybe the more conservative Democrats) for their lack of progress, as a tactic to win the next election. Well, from all the indications so far, that's not working out for them.
So why did they take the approach they took?
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Exactly. Plug the hole first (or concurrently), and then worry about bailing water. Additionally, as others have mentioned, it needs to be done in such a way that we aren't punishing those who have been responsible and made sacrifices to pay off their loans. I'm not opposed to student loan forgiveness, but I don't think it's nearly as popular as many progressives would like to believe as a standalone proposal. Come u…
I am starting to think this is a sign of a big weakness in the American system. These half baked actions are evident in health care, security, and all other categories. I think it has to do with the fact that there are so many parties acting in bad faith that it is hard to get comprehensive legislation that addresses the problem as a whole vs just piecemeal bits and pieces because that is all that can be pushed throu…
or a revolution
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Demanding "even-stevens" all the time doesn't help the situation at all. The people that were able to pay off their loan debt were people who chose a degree that would be able to make significant money, were talented enough to land a great job in a field without a lot, or had the circumstances that let them finish a degree where others were unable to. Do some people make bad decisions about degree choice? - Yes Do so…
Bankruptcy and Restructuring are in place for people that make tremendously bad financial decisions... ...Except for College loans, which are expressly excluded.
Tremendously bad change in circumstances is also enough to push someone into bankruptcy.
Please, please, please take note before commenting: These are being forgiven under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, created in 2007 (fifteen years ago), which eliminates your remaining debt after you've made ten years of payments while working in the public sector (government or non-profit). This has nothing to do with current debates around loan forgiveness.
> are being forgiven under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, created in 2007 ... nothing to do with current debates around loan forgiveness Well, FWIW, I'd never heard of that program before now, but I'm not super happy about it, either.
FWIW, IBR systems they are a common policy suggestion from both conservatives and liberals (with differing priorities / rules).
Now universities can continue to raise tuition and pay the administrative class even more. Uncle Sam has shown they'll pay it on his dime.
End federal involvement in student loan and allow student loan debt to be discharged in bankruptcy. Problem solved.
What we should do is have the fed define a maximum allowable charge for the school loan that can be protected by the government. Pick some number, like $10K a year all in. Any other school loans can be discharged as they aren't protected or schools could try to force the parents to co-sign. But either way, the government stops propping up runaway tuition inflation.
We have to also look at why some of the cost is through the roof. When I was in school, housing was block buildings with bunk beds and a bathroom for the whole floor. Cafeteria was 2 choices and drinks. Now, everyone has a private bedroom and living room to hang out in and their own apartment bathroom. Cafeteria is like a commercial buffet with all you can eat Nutella. That money has to come from somewhere. People want it to feel like a 4 year cruise ship. That is one reason that the costs are out of control.
This is also one factor in our healthcare. Everyone wants lower prices but they also want an Urgent Care on every corner so they can go when it is convenient to them. Someone has to pay for that building and staff to sit there all day waiting for customers to show up. Everyone seems to want it both ways and never stop to consider their complicity.