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Sen. Paul offering bill to combat student loan debt
Associated Press via YAHOO ^ | December 3, 2019 | BRUCE SCHREINER

Posted on 12/03/2019 11:12:04 PM PST by Farcesensitive

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul wants to combat the rising debt load engulfing college students by allowing families to use their retirement savings to pay off their loans.

The Kentucky Republican introduced federal legislation late Monday that would allow students to dip into retirement accounts to help pay for college or make monthly debt payments. Under his bill, individuals could to take up to $5,250 — tax and penalty free — from their 401(k) or IRA each year, and their parents could divert thousands more.

Americans collectively owe about $1.5 trillion in student loans — more than twice the total of a decade ago. On average, last year’s graduates owed about $29,200 each, leaving college with a long-lasting financial burden, Paul said.

“It’s just hard for people to pay back,” he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “Even people with graduate-degree educations are struggling to pay it back over a long period of time. We want to do something to try to help these kids pay off their loans.”

Paul’s bill is called the Higher Education Loan Repayment and Enhanced Retirement Act, or HELPER. He plans to pitch it in visits to college campuses in Kentucky in coming weeks.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: college; debt; loan; paul; rand; randpaul; studentdebt; studentloandebt; students
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To: Farcesensitive

Didnt borrow a penny. Had to delay one semester because I didn’t have the cash to pay. Still waiting to finish my masters because I need cash.


21 posted on 12/04/2019 1:45:33 AM PST by momincombatboots (Ephesians 6... who you are really at war with)
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To: Farcesensitive

How about a bill forcing the propaganda machine to use their endowments worth millions to do this, as an example: Harvard and yale are in the 30 to 40 million each. These criminal enterprises should be forced by law to do so


22 posted on 12/04/2019 2:02:24 AM PST by ronnie raygun (nic dip.com)
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To: Farcesensitive

Wait, you mean to say that people can’t already do that?


23 posted on 12/04/2019 2:19:05 AM PST by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: Farcesensitive

Why does anyone give an unsecured loan to an 18y.o. stranger?


24 posted on 12/04/2019 2:26:27 AM PST by Ikeon (Oops.. did I say that?)
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To: Ikeon

they don’t

It was secured, by their future earnings and the fact that Obama made the loan non dischargeable in bankruptcy.

created a class of indentured servants.


25 posted on 12/04/2019 2:28:27 AM PST by Chickensoup (Voter ID for 2020!! Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: Chickensoup

Ditto that. Excellent post.


26 posted on 12/04/2019 2:29:22 AM PST by Track9
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To: Reno89519

How is that a consequence? No one forced anyone to take out those loans. I took out loans, paid them back. No one forced me to do any of that.

What I find most interesting about this whole subject is the cost of the education/degree and then comparing it to the job market those folks are headed to.

I can understand that medical school costs as much as it does. Look at who and what you’re dealing with.

But, why does a Masters in Social Work, cost whatever the hell it costs, for the person to walk into the real world starting out at $40k a year, if that?

Another thing I find interesting is, I’ve never heard of any cuts with regards to the professors, etc. All I’ve ever heard was tuition increases due to rising costs. I’m quite sure there are plenty of retired “actual engineers” that wouldn’t mind supplementing their retirement incomes by teaching a class on something. Something they have real world experience in. Would probably drastically reduce the overhead in these places.


27 posted on 12/04/2019 2:37:05 AM PST by qaz123
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To: Farcesensitive

Cut the loan interest rates by two thirds.


28 posted on 12/04/2019 2:52:43 AM PST by Mashood
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To: know.your.why
Has to be after they graduate and been working 10 years or so right?

Yes, but surprisingly perhaps those over 30 are the ones holding most of the debt. See below (2017).

<30: $383B

30 to 39: $461B

40 to 49: $280B

50 to 59: $177B

>60: $85B

29 posted on 12/04/2019 3:05:59 AM PST by LambSlave
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To: Farcesensitive

Best way to combat student loan debt is to criminalize useless courses! If the purchaser is too stupid to pay for a worthless course why should colleges be allowed to offer them?


30 posted on 12/04/2019 3:10:58 AM PST by rawcatslyentist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfuAJcWl6DE Kill a Commie for Mommie)
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To: qaz123

The reason BS degrees cost as much as STEM degrees is that BS degree programs usually make far more money for collegiate diploma mills than the STEM programs, which are far more expensive to run.


31 posted on 12/04/2019 3:15:45 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Chickensoup

>>have the schools dip into their endowments and real estate holdings and pay off all the debt.

But but but those billions at each school are theirs, it’s like a married couple with a pre-nup


32 posted on 12/04/2019 3:37:03 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Recall that unqualified Hillary Clinton sat on the board of Wal-Mart when Bill Clinton was governor)
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To: Reno89519

Oddly, California is leading the way in college disclosures.

As I look for a way to use my GI bill, I have found that CA colleges and trade schools must give information on number of graduates and employment numbers for those graduates. I think the stats go back for two years.

It’s an oddly sensible thing to see coming out of CA, given that the state is, on the whole, going stark raving mad.


33 posted on 12/04/2019 3:52:34 AM PST by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org)
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To: Chickensoup

You are right OBAMA screwed everyone with no bankruptcy. But no one mentions that. BUT There is NO hard asset, therefor the loan is unsecured.


34 posted on 12/04/2019 3:55:25 AM PST by Ikeon (Oops.. did I say that?)
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To: Reno89519
"Interesting idea, except the consequence is that parents end up draining their retirement, if any. And for those that don’t have one, they are left unable to help their kids."

It's a tax break if the parents want to use their retirement to help their kids. "Draining their retirement" would be their own choice.

Those that do not have a pretax retirement fund could still help their kids. They just wouldn't get the tax break.

I think it's a good idea.

35 posted on 12/04/2019 4:35:24 AM PST by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: Still Thinking
"Better to quit guaranteeing the loans. Would get taxpayers off the hook, government out of something that’s none of their business, exert a good influence on choice of majors and on tuition levels, etc, etc, etc. It’s like a win-win-win x50."

Rand's bill deals with existing debt, backed by us taxpayers.

Your idea is great! They should do both.

The government has free reign to obligate taxpayers to back up any old program they feel like creating (for our own good). That's a big problem, and invisible to most people.

36 posted on 12/04/2019 4:40:25 AM PST by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: mewzilla

Good point and spot on. What’s so interesting to me is, cities and states pretty much require the folks that go into some of those fields to have a Master’s etc., knowing that they’re going to make nothing and quit after a few years, if that.

An college roommate of mine, liberal kid from the Boston area, did a summer internship at a Legal Aid office in DC, as he was preparing to head to law school. He was telling my dad how he was going to help the less fortunate. My dad was a union carpenter that worked in NYC. He just laughed. Internship was over and my roommate came for a weekend visit before we both headed back to school. He walked up to my dad and simply said....You were right.

Point being, there’s no reason for this and everyone knows it. It has to make everyone wonder just how much money is laundered through every government program and 501c charity, etc etc.


37 posted on 12/04/2019 5:10:26 AM PST by qaz123
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To: Chickensoup
'It was secured, by their future earnings and the fact that Obama made the loan non dischargeable in bankruptcy.'

That happened before obama was a senator.

38 posted on 12/04/2019 5:22:29 AM PST by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: pepsionice

“It would help if college loans were geared toward worthy degrees (engineering, science, etc). If you were taking gender studies, you probably ought to be capped at $1,000 per year, and no more than $8k in total loans.”

There is a big area between STEM degrees and social justice degrees. What government agency would determine how much a person can borrow for their chosen degree?


39 posted on 12/04/2019 5:40:01 AM PST by suthener
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To: Reno89519
Seems like better solution overall would be to (1) End H1B and related visas to free up good paying jobs for Americans, (2) implementing e-Verify to root out illegal workers to (again) free up jobs for Americans, and (3) deporting all illegals to (again) free up jobs for Americans.

The corrupted congress would never do that and help Americans. There will be blood.

40 posted on 12/04/2019 5:44:14 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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