Posted on 12/02/2016 12:18:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- An estimated $108 billion in student loans will be forgiven in the next two decades as a growing number of borrowers seek income-driven payment assistance programs, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.
The GAO, in a report to Congress that analyzed the cost of income-driven repayment plans, found some $29 billion more in student loans will be discharged due to borrower death or disability. Overall, the sum is double the amount estimated by the U.S. Department of Education, the report found.
The GAO criticized the department for underestimating the cost of the repayment plans and significant accounting flaws that altered projected revenues.
The Obama administration has promoted five repayment programs, known as income-driven repayment plans, to slow the tide of student loan defaults. About 5.3 billion borrowers who hold an estimated $355 billion in student loans are participating in income-driven repayment plans that also extend repayment periods from 10 years to 25. Programs that include the public service loan forgiveness plan allow loans to be forgiven after 10 years of consistent payments.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R- Wyo., who ordered the GAO study, criticized the Obama administration's use of executive authority over student loan repayment programs.
"This extensive investigation by an independent government watchdog found that the Department of Education relied on flawed data and methods to estimate program costs," he said. " This administration has been manipulating the terms of the student loan program without the consent of Congress, while shirking its statutory duty to carefully assess the cost impact of those changes."
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
ping
We’ve arrived at DeToqueville’s nightmare. They’ve figured out that they can vote themselves pieces of the public treasury.
So, why are the Dept of (uneducated) Education bureaucrats not going to jail.
I find student loans almost predatory. I know these students sign up for them and they are technically adults. However, I don’t think anyone with absolutely no credit history should ever be allowed to take on so much debt, especially with no foreseeable way for them to pay it back.
I was fortunate enough to not have student loans. I have a 15 year old and I pray he can get a full ride somewhere. When I started college back in 91, my entire freshman year was less than $1800 tuition wise (at a state university). What the F happened.
I paid all my loans off. My wife paid all her loans off. We scrimped and saved for our kids’ education. We did without new cars and lived in a less than modest home. BUT, dad-gummit, we paid off all their quite substantial loans, too (they helped significantly themselves). They had real majors and now have real jobs.
So where is the fairness and social justice in having one expectation for my family, and another expectation for deadbeats. I was often in court over the past 15 years where defendants used their student loans to pay fines, fees and attorneys. I am pretty sure that is not what the American taxpayers expect.
I paid all my loans off. My wife paid all her loans off. We scrimped and saved for our kids’ education. We did without new cars and lived in a less than modest home. BUT, dad-gummit, we paid off all their quite substantial loans, too (they helped significantly themselves). They had real majors and now have real jobs.
So where is the fairness and social justice in having one expectation for my family, and another expectation for deadbeats. I was often in court over the past 15 years where defendants used their student loans to pay fines, fees and attorneys. I am pretty sure that is not what the American taxpayers expect.
The Dems must be outraged. They used student loans to pay for Obamacare. So forgiving student loans hurts their favorite “success”.
A fair media might point out how screwed up dem programs are and how they steel from one to support another then complain about the funding for the one they stole from.
Student loans happened. Supply and demand. The demand went way up, because it was so easy for students to get loans for up to 50K a year. Then the price of tuition kept going up.
I was fortunate enough to get an NROTC scholarship. However, most cannot get that. The cost of tuition got so high that it is difficult for most parents to help their child.
NO!
I paid for mine and I paid for my kiddos’ so there is no reason I should be made to pay for everyone else. Make them pay for their own womens studies and underwater basket weaving as they’re goofing off, waving giant dildos against campus carry and demanding more green play-doh in their safe spaces.
I understood the need to graduate asap and that was back before students could get a couple years of college under their belt in high school. I started out with 0 hours as a freshman and graduate in 3 years by taking the maximum hours each semester and going year round. That saved a year of tuition costs. I lived in the dorm and had the meal plan but snowflakes have to have ritzy apartments and eat out. Had a few part time jobs for spending money but that’s below high maintenance snowflakes. And still had time to have fun though not 24/7 like college students today.
I graduated and had my first real job at 20 and didn’t owe a dime to anyone. How many snowflakes can say that? But, nooooo, I’m supposed to foot their bill. I - don’t - think - so.
Having paid tuition for 3 kids (no loans), we are naturally not thrilled to see the improvident rewarded.
We hace too many folks there who think it is normal to not deal with problems they will get some negative uniparty media spin on.
I paid mine back many, many years ago! Can I get it back?!!!
+ 100
If not, then prospective students should then be required to undergo intensive training on the costs of college and the income potential and hiring potential of their chosen field of study.
I had a $100 scholarship every semester and earmarked it for textbooks. I’d rummage through the bookstore shelves to find the cheapest used texts to make the $$$ stretch. Sometimes, there weren’t any marked down books so I’d rush to check them out at the library because they’d have about 3 on the shelves. That was 2 weeks plus another 2 weeks for renewals. Then turn it in late at night at the end of 4 weeks and check it out the next morning to repeat. Thankfully, books don’t really change and mom had saved hers from decades before so could use her bio texts. Word for word. Only the pictures were updated.
“Forgiven”= you and I pay.
I paid mine. Every dam penny.
But I wasn’t a snowflake.
Now I’m paying their loans.
Oh, come now! It’s ONLY Taxpayer Dollars! Who cares if they’re lost, stolen, wasted or even properly accounted for in the first place?
*SPIT*
This kind of stuff had BETTER change under President Trump. I am hoping for some thorough accountant-style smack-downs in EVERY dark corner of our Government!
Grrrr!
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