Posted on 02/12/2018 9:16:20 AM PST by C19fan
Student loan debt is a crushing problem in America. Over 44 million people have such loans, with an average balance of about $30,000 making for a total debt pile of $1.4 trillion. Unsurprisingly, people often struggle to repay these debts with their entry-level wages after graduating. Student debt is now the most common form of troubled debt, with about 11 percent of them 90 days or more delinquent. Worse still, thanks to Republicans and neoliberal Democrats alike, they are almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
Yeahno.
I’ve spent ten years paying off my debts AND had to consolidate them in a private loan on top of it.
Thanks Obama economy making me unemployed for too damn long and racking up the debt.
But I’ve been paying them back; if you pass this, I want ALL of my money back. Every last penny; every percent of interest that the gummint charged. I want back everything that I was responsible enough to pay.
Good luck getting hired if your debt is forgiven.
And oh, by the way, forgiven debt is fully taxable in the year it’s forgiven. D’oh!
Yep, we used to be able to give college loans. Not anymore, the government took that over too.
This idea is cut from the same cloth as those who propose amnesty for illegal aliens. Immigrants who follow all the procedures for becoming a citizen are punished and those who cut the line are rewarded. It is rewarding bad behavior.
That student debt can’t be discharged in bankruptcy appears to be a lie and political football.
I paid for my college education. We paid for our kids’ college education. Why should we pay for everyone else’s?
Yeah I think that is the proper light to see this in. The colleges have been completely scamming the kids, making promises of better jobs that simply are not there. The holders of this odious debt ought to eat their losses in full.
In any case, none of that is what the author is really after. This is:
Because any debt cancellation should logically be paired with a new free college policy.
All of a sudden those tidy figures on debt "forgiveness" become a drop in a very large bucket. We'll just have "the government", meaning the taxpayers, assume the entire cost of college and university education in the entire country! Piece of cake.
The difficulties with this sort of utopian policy are the same as any other utopian policy: you don't get to start with a clean slate, you have to get there from here, and you have to do it without wrecking the entire current university system in the process. Sudden debt forgiveness without a new system already in place will kill the oncoming freshman classes for however long that takes, or at least all of them who aren't independently wealthy, because there won't be any loans for the newcomers. Suddenly nationalizing the entire upper division education system will kill the taxpayer. It just isn't that easy.
First thing to do is to eliminate the government guarantee on these debts so that lenders have to be smarter with their loans. A C+ student wanting to major in womyns’ studies is probably not going to repay.
How ‘bout the kid bustin’ his ass in the oil patch at 15 below?
How ‘bout the kid on the ranch who was out last night at five below rounding up the cattle that got through the fence and onto the highway?
How ‘bout the young man at the lumber yard, loading up contractors’ 2x4s this morning at just shy of five above, and who will be driving Uber around town at closing time tonight?
Who’s giving them a $30K shot in the arm?...and worse still, why the FFFF are they paying taxes to cover the debt of these pansies wandering around campus with a weepy eye out for whomever will offend them today.
Man, this country has gone to hell.
History of student loans and bankruptcy. Lets get past the lies and assumptions given to us.
http://www.rhymerlaw.com/history-of-student-loans-and-bankruptcy.html
Yep, clawback from the universities. With prejudice.
Note the following. This student loan thing is NOT what we think it is. Much has been done to address it. Max payments of 10% if discretionary income and max pmts of 25 years after which balance is forgiven. But forgiven debt is income according to IRS which is always a surprise .............
2011: President Obama issues an executive order making the new version of income-based repayment available to borrowers two years earlier. To be eligible, borrowers may not have any loans from before 2008 and must have at least one loan in 2012 or a later year.
2010: The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152, 3/30/2010) created a new version of income-based repayment. The new version cuts the monthly payment by a third, to 10% of discretionary income, and forgives the remaining debt after 20 years in repayment instead of 25 years. The new version is effective for new borrowers as of July 1, 2014. Borrowers with previous federal student loans as of June 30, 2014, are not eligible for the improved income-based repayment terms.
2007: The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-84, 9/27/2007) added income-based repayment as an option within both the FFEL and Direct Loan programs. This repayment plan bases monthly loan payments on 15% of discretionary income, with discretionary income defined as the amount by which adjusted gross income exceeds 150% of the poverty line. After 25 years in repayment, the remaining amount owed is forgiven. This yields a lower monthly payment than the income-contingent repayment plan. The use of 150% of the poverty line as a threshold aligns the repayment plan with standards for bankruptcy fee waivers.
IT WAS DESIGNED TO GET THIS OUTCOME.
Think: “Basketweave majors”
Other worthless majors.
Howsabout all them H1B jobs GOING ELSEWHERE?
ALL leaving to lower incomes for U.S. CITIZENS.
The end result was designed to be: FREE COLLICH FOR ALL THE DEADBEATS (and screw those that paid their $$$$$!)
Ya see, Hillary was SUPPOSED TO WIN!!!!
NOT the taxpayer!!!"
Exactly! An excellent idea. Make those pompous, liberal professor's feel the pain. The cost of a college education is pretty ridiculous.
The average professor makes well into 6 figures, and often only teach 2 or 3 classes a semester while their graduate students do much of the work.
i did work-study program while i was in school, and when i was done, i signed up for a hitch in the army and they, the army, paid off my loans as part of my tour of duty....
They expect taxpayers to pay for the utter BRAINWASHING of the young people of this country???? OH HELL NO!!!!
Yup!
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