WaPo reports, based on what "four people familiar with the matter said."
Biden has drawn the ire of activists and some student loan borrowers who were growing tired of promises of a decision that stretched over more than a year. Biden had previously expressed reluctance to grant forgiveness to people who attended elite universities, while moderate Democrats and Republicans derided the policy as fiscally irresponsible....
“It’s great to see the president take action to forgive the crushing debt burdens of borrowers from the most disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning think-tank....
“Canceling student debt is expensive, inflationary, and unfair to those who paid their student loans and most likely illegal,” said Brian Riedl, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, a center-right think-tank. “It does nothing to prevent universities from raising costs and students from borrowing more money in anticipation of future loan forgiveness."
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1 – 200 of 217 Newer› Newest»Another huge cash transfer from the poor/middle class to the richest.
Just like the 2008/9 bailout and the lockdowns/big pharma boondoggle (and about a hundred other things).
Is it too late to take out a loan and have the kids file taxes individually and not as dependents? Hate to leave money on the table.
based on what "four people familiar with the matter said."
Begging the question whether Biden is one of the 4 aware of this.
Interesting how suddenly, in the US, the dictator of our country can dispense with the need to run spending through Congress and just give rich people our tax dollars directly.
Should come in handy once the racist Democrat Party is placed in the dustbin of history starting this November.
If true this is a large mistake both in policy and politically. From a policy perspective, go after the colleges first for selling a fraudulent product. From a political perspective, the ads write themselves. Find someone who paid off his or her loan and ask them what they think of this. Find someone who is a plumber and ask what he or she she thinks of paying for someone else's college expense. And then of course what happens to those who graduate next year with fresh debt load.
This is truly a bad idea. I eagerly await the Republican pounce.
Whatever stupid thing he's going to do, I wish he'd do it already. I'm tired of all the "he's about to" stories.
The beauty of it (and it's a very stupid policy, even assuming he has the lawful power to do it, which I can't even fathom) is that he's going to piss off almost everybody.
A giant middle finger to tax payers and responsible people - who by the millions, have paid back their debts.
This is more grift and gifts to the soi boi me me me victim generation.
How does a President have the power to cancel private contracts?
And the lefties cried that Trump was autocratic.
He doesn't have the constitutional power to do this.
Last April, Pelosi herself said so. On the record.
Expect legal and political fur to fly, in all directions.
As someone who sacrificed to pay off my student loans, this pisses me off. Where's my free $30,000? That would just about be enough to pay my house off. The worst part is that so much of this money is going to people getting crap "studies" degrees.
In May I spent a week hiking the Smokey Mountains National Park. (Day hikes only! Getting too old for backpacking.) What a magnificant creation. At one of the country's lowest moments, the national government decided to think big and create massive public parks that nearly a century later continue to give joy, wonder and respite to people. Today, the big big big dream of the left is to give more money to folks with college and graduate degrees -- a flash in the pan whose effect will vanish in months, as the recipients increase their spending at Starbucks and add one or two new streaming services and upgrade their phones. Feels like an absolute calamity. Biden is the guy from Scranton. Would love to read a poll of folks in Scranton as to their views.
It's not cancelling debt, it's transferring debt to the lender, which is the taxpayer.
It would be hard to think of a better example of the government helping relatively well-off people who have their ear. But modern liberalism (in the American sense of the word) just loves to do good under its nose while ignoring the harm caused elsewhere. Look, we helped these people! (Yes, and I don't doubt they appreciate it, but at what cost?)
I miss Obamaphones.
In May I spent a week hiking the Smokey Mountains National Park. (Day hikes only! Getting too old for backpacking.) What a magnificant creation. At one of the country's lowest moments, the national government decided to think big and create massive public parks that nearly a century later continue to give joy, wonder and respite to people. Today, the big big big dream of the left is to give more money to folks with college and graduate degrees -- a flash in the pan whose effect will vanish in months, as the recipients increase their spending at Starbucks and add one or two new streaming services and upgrade their phones. Feels like an absolute calamity. Biden is the guy from Scranton. Would love to read a poll of folks in Scranton as to their views.
In May I spent a week hiking the Smokey Mountains National Park. (Day hikes only! Getting too old for backpacking.) What a magnificant creation. At one of the country's lowest moments, the national government decided to think big and create parks that nearly a century later continue to give joy, wonder and respite to people. Today, the big big big dream of the left is to give more money to folks with college and graduate degrees -- a flash in the pan whose effect will vanish in months, as the recipients increase their spending at Starbucks and add one or two new streaming services and upgrade their phones. Feels like an absolute calamity. Biden is the guy from Scranton. Would love to read a poll of folks in Scranton as to their views.
In May I spent a week hiking the Smokey Mountains National Park. (Day hikes only! Getting too old for backpacking.) What a magnificant creation. At one of the country's lowest moments, the national government decided to think big and create parks that nearly a century later continue to give joy, wonder and respite to people. Today, the big big big dream of the left is to give more money to folks with college and graduate degrees -- a flash in the pan whose effect will vanish in months, as the recipients increase their spending at Starbucks and add one or two new streaming services and upgrade their phones. Feels like an absolute calamity. Biden is the guy from Scranton. Would love to read a poll of folks in Scranton as to their views.
The country is being looted full on now. No reason at all to play by any of the old rules, is there?
This is why I no longer contribute anything to this government, and will spend the rest of my life actively bleeding it dry. I am done enabling this shit.
This came into focus for me in the shower.
One of Obama's early acts was for the executive branch, to take over the administration of college loans. The loaning of Govt money.
Now it is clear, it was a path to spend $billions without having to stuff it into a reconciliation bill
Very simply, loan out a lot of money, then forgive the debt. The executive branch gets to spend limitless amount of money, by simply calling it a loan, then forgiving that loan.
The stench reminds me of Solyndra.
Another huge cash transfer from the poor/middle class to the richest.
Wrong. It was a transfer of cash from taxpayers to colleges. And it is only for people making a low income, so if you went to college and got a job that was worth going to college; your debt isn't being cancelled. Then again, $10,000 isn't much for most large colleges, so...
go after the colleges first for selling a fraudulent product.
That happened earlier this month with the Biden Administration cancelling $4 Billion in debt for students who attended ITT and DeVry, because for-profit technical institutes must be fraud. For example, according to Forbes, ITT:
"abused the federal financial aid system and left students weighed down with student loan debt"
"misrepresented placement rates for graduates"
"used aggressive recruiting tactics to enroll students"
"little focus on ensuring students were enrolling in programs that interested them"
and my favorite line,
"One of the contentious regulations up for discussion is Gainful Employment (GE). This rule is intended to ensure that students enrolling in career-focused programs will earn enough to pay back any loans they take out to pay for their education."
If that's fraud, then woah. And why is it taxpayers are having to pay the students for the fraud?
This is what the 78,000 new IRS agents are needed for--auditing the millions of people who forget to declare the loan forgiveness as income. Mostly the poorer people, because all the wealthy beneficiaries have accountants.
Given that the President lacks any statutory or constitutional right to do this: A couple of questions:
1. Could a career civil servant simply refuse to obey any such presidential order?
2. Would any person or organization have standing to sue? Or is the only recourse, impeachment?
1. It is a transfer of money from poor people who work to rich people who went to school.
2. I paid off my loans. I want my 10000$ back. Fuck all these fucking douchebags that are just taking money from other people and giving it to your friends.
3. All of this money should be reposessed from the University system. It is time to start nationalizing endowments and burning our university system to the ground.
I read that this also will essentially undo the recent IRA debt reduction effort.
This is an illegal move, and a national injunction needs to be put in place immediately to stop it. He does not have this authority, period, and best not to let anyone think that this is a done deal.
I suspect this number of people outraged by this far exceeds those outraged by the Dobbs decision.
Whatever effect dems were hoping to get from Dobbs will likely be swamped by this boneheaded move.
Someone made the argument that this is being pushed by Abrams and Warnock, because they need to encourage black voters in GA to turn out.
4. The President can't just give money to people. There is no statutory power enumerated anywhere that makes this a Presidential Power.
This is completely lawless Banana Republic bullshit.
My entire student loan debt was $20,000. I work through university to pay rent, food, and expenses. I had to repay every penny just when the administration cut school funding for teachers of the arts. I took any job I could get, didn't matter that it wasn't my career path, anywhere near my salary expectations, or was beneath me. Even when I had to declare bankruptcy, the student loan remained undischarged. You borrow, you give it back.
In Ohio, over $2billion annually is provided to state colleges and universities to (hopefully) reduce costs of attendance. The tax revenue comes from income and sales tax (and state lottery). So people who decide not to go to college are already paying to reduce that cost for others. Biden is just using a more direct route to getting money from one group to another. And if it buys some votes…..
A patently illegal action. Biden, or more correctly, whoever is pulling his strings, is really getting off on turning the country into a dictatorship.
So lazy ass kids don't have to pay back a legally binding loan?
We paid cash for our kids' college because it was the right thing to do.
Romney was right; there are givers and takers.
Unfortunately, there are far too many takers.
We are all suckers.
The government is not your friend.
Let's go Brandon.
The biggest problem with the student debt relief is it allows Colleges and Universities to continue to cost grift without addressing cost controls like every other business in the country (except medical of course, but they are a grift too). These people make ZERO effort to control costs for their customers.
They are so arrogant, they refuse to consider students and their paying families as customers, which they are.
This $10K is more a gift to the loyal, liberal tenured PDHs and University Administrators than it is the students and their families. Those are the people that REALLY need/want these kids to go into massive debt to support their careers and sheltered lifestyles.
The administrative bloat at Universities is ridiculous. Universities are run by people who pat themselves on the back as altruists, but basically are ok with robbing 18-25 year olds. They are so self-centered, the can’t even absorb that as a current reality.
Also, these “schools” have turned into marketing prestige rather than real education. It's a sad scam.
Allow me to pounce, then do the nuance.
I sent 3 kids through college this decade, and by combinations of their academic scholarships, work-study funding, and my prior two decades of savings in tax-shielded investments, all three were able to avoid taking loans and so emerged debt free. We combined hard work, the kids' and the family's, with good luck. We had God's blessings, I believe. I know not everyone is so lucky. But I would disagree that fairness dictates the unlucky be compensated by imposing a burden on either my young (now working) offspring or burdening me with higher taxes on my retirement savings withdrawals. Take that load and burden somebody else.
This ant is tired of the grasshopper's whines.
That said, the colleges (3 different ones, in my direct experience) rig the "financial aid" racket to impose debt on the young, unwary, and inexperienced. They prey upon families already burdened with financial illiteracy. The aid "applications" tend to bundle small discounts on the list price of admission, with small grants, with very large loans, with -- here's a kicker -- a Commerical credit card. A teenagestudent is prompted on a webpage to "click here", and accept debts that will crush them a decade later. All under the label of "aid".
It's "aid" in the sense that an anchor is a floatation device.
Tax or impose a burden on colleges, proportionate to their endowment reserves, or tuition rates, or the average income of their alumni. Congress and the IRS are certainly not strangers to the process of crafting a complicated tax scheme leaving nobody at all happy. But if we're to relieve the burden on unwary students we should shift as much of that burden as possible onto those institutions who profited from the predatory process.
This is another example of rewarding bad behavior and punishing good behavior.
Do we really want to teach our young adults that if they roll up a large debt that the rest of America owes them debt relief? They are being rewarded for their irresponsibility.
Like many others, I put 5 kids through college without meaningful debt. Why am I and my children being punished for being fiscally responsible?
What ever happened to bedrock American concepts like personal responsibility and deferred gratification?
Listen to the news on this mess. The media is being very careful to avoid talking about fairness and personal responsibility.
It was a huge mistake to make student loans guaranteed by not allowing them to be wiped out in bankruptcy court.
First it allowed and unlimited influx of cash flowing into the Universities which eliminated ANY incentive to control costs. This the main reason for the waste of money administrators. We have learned he same lesson all our life watching gov’t spending and fed money printing drive inflation.
University employees are as greedy anyone else, if not more. They have enjoyed this endless flow of money ride. Nobody is happier than the accounts receivable department at the University of Wisconsin.
The banks will loan money to anybody because it is with you for life, no matter what happens. Saddest grift are the kids admitted to universities that have no chance at graduating. They drop out sophomore year and go home without the degree and $50K in debt.
Maybe it is time to remove student loans from the government entirely. Have banks make the loans with zero government protections.
And the working class rotates further to the Republican party in 3, 2, 1....
This will surely make as many enemies as friends, but the blue state SALT crowd is getting a covert payoff.
https://www.rebelnews.com/obama_top_economic_advisor_slams_biden_student_loans
The daughter said she'd pay me back some day. Where do I sign up to get my $10,000 check?
As per CNN:
"Plus, loan cancellation won’t address the root of the problem: college affordability. There is currently $1.6 trillion of outstanding federal student loan debt. The amount of outstanding debt would return to that level in just four years after $10,000 per borrower was canceled, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Student loan cancellation also could increase inflation...."
When Biden has lost CNN...
It's good to be a senile King. My wife is beyond apoplectic about this---How can he do that?
Isn't it illegal?
Well what the heck--if Joe's supporters can manufacture votes to get him elected, why can't Joe help them out by just going out and buying votes? Joe is the helpful senile man.
And the law that authorizes FJB to do this is,
This is designed to cause an uproar but really amounts to nothing. What benefit is a $10,000 reduction of what amounts to a six figure debt. BTW I’m against it.
It works on a feelings level. What else do you need.
So much wrong with this stupid, stupid idea. It pisses a huge range of people off for $10K each? THAT'S ALL? That might pay for 1/2 of one semester of a gender studies degree. Definitely helpful.
And WK is right--how quickly can I get my three in college to apply for a loan to get their free money?
Meanwhile the college endowments grow, and grow, and so does tuition along with the ever-multiplying fees. But we don't want to talk about that.
And those of us who saved the money...or decided not to go to college...or actually got training and started working...get to pay for this stupid, stupid boondoggle.
I wish I could vote against this man multiple times.
Considering none other than right-wing firebrand Nancy Pelosi had declared this to be illegal, this should be interesting.
But, sure, make plumbers and short order cooks and truck drivers pay the debts of college graduates. Sounds fair.
What Jeff's Revenge said.
Politically stupid.
>90% of the people who benefit from this boondoggle would have voted D anyway, if they bother to vote.
It will infuriate the chumps who have eaten beans to have enough money to have paid off their student loans.
It will infuriate the chumps who decided against college because they wanted to avoid debt.
It will infuriate the deplorable class, who have nothing good to say about college students who lord over them.
It has infuriated me, despite my 6 figure income and 7 figure net worth, because I have children and grandchildren who will pay the price of this bribe.
"Is it too late to take out a loan and have the kids file taxes individually and not as dependents?"
Yeah the kids' "independent" status gets gamed a lot for the Pell grants, which are nothing to sneeze at esp if you're in a state school.
Oh well!
Could be a big plus ... if he can somehow get China to pick up the tab ...
There is no 'cancelling' debt. There is only forcing someone else to pay. And also making chumps out of people who make better financial choices.
In other news: College tuition to go up $10,000. $20,000 for Pell recipients.
This is completely lawless Banana Republic bullshit.
This is true. And they're going to get away with it. And our country continues its moral and financial decline.
BTW, looks like BothSidesNow is running into the same technical problem I had yesterday. You hit "publish," get the "whoops" error message, re-post, lather, rinse, repeat.
Why the isn’t any of this debt relief coming from university endowments? Why aren’t the institutions that drove the debt and the borrowing at all responsible for the debt forgiveness? What a scam.
Especially when you realize half the student debt in America is for graduate school. I have a waste of time Masters Degree in Communication from Eastern Illinois University – 1993. I partied hard. Had a great time and was able to pay cash working summer jobs.
A full year of tuition then cost $2400 (with books). You could get housing for about the same cost per year. The HOUSING is now more than the tuition.
$2400 in 1993 dollars is $4920 in 2022 dollars.
Grad School Tuition at the University of Wisconsin in Madison is now $12,000 for in-state resident for crap like Communication, Sociology etc... That’s 2.4x the real 1993 cost. Business Grad School is $27K per year, Law $33K, Pharmacy $27K, etc…
The kids these days can't make that kind of money working a summer jobs, nor working part time during the school year. They are FORCED to borrow because of University greed.
I have mixed feelings about this as I still owed $12,000 from the $50,000 parent loan I took out to send my youngest to college. I was retired by that time and had paid for all the others when I had a good income. By the way, I haven't seen her in a year and she does not speak to me.
The Biden Plan:
1. Prohibit landlords from collecting rent.
2. Pay off student loan debt.
3. Wonder why people aren't coming back to work.
2. Would any person or organization have standing to sue? Or is the only recourse, impeachment
------
Here's a pretty good overview of standing.
https://twitter.com/alexthechick/status/1562408595840540673
Makes one pine for the days of Midnight Basketball and 100,000 police.
The next debt forgiveness will occur under the next Democrat President.
Because -- if not, why not?
People will now freely borrow accordingly.
And colleges will raise their prices to capture the surplus.
I wish I could vote against this man multiple times.
Depending on where you live, maybe you can! Or at least, no one will be able to tell whether you do.
Oh, no, sorry, that only works if you're voting for him.
Tax every school endowment at 50%.
Any loan must be co-signed by the school, so they are also responsible for the loan's repayment.
Very simple...
Gusty Winds.
Agree. I recall that Senator Biden was one of the main opponents of making student loan debt dischargeable in BK. His son, the late and sainted Beau Biden, worked for a Delaware bank and I think it might have made student loans.
The other non-dischargeable debts are a very narrow category of things like child support.
As others have rightly written above, this is a transfer of money from the poor to the rich. The poor pay taxes. The poor are hit hardest by inflation. This is the Reverse Robinhood Scheme.
Same deal with the Green New Deal a/k/a Great Leap Forward.
Poor people all paying higher electric bills when utilities build out unreliable and expense wind and solar; much of which comes from China.
The people who really make the money are those that invest in partnerships and LLCs that give them a 30% federal income tax credit in year one when the solar or wind goes into production. IOW, rich people pay LESS in federal taxes.
The Reverse Robinhood Scheme is totally and completely fucked up and only today's Dems would push it forward.
I grunted as a contract employee for seven years because rolling up billable hours was the path to freedom from student debt. Up to 3000 hours in a given year. Nice to know that it was unnecessary.
retail lawyer said...
"It's not cancelling debt, it's transferring debt to the lender, which is the taxpayer."
We lost the terms of the discussion again. "Cancelling" sounds like we are just clearing some columns in a spreadsheet, without effecting any other balance sheets.
Some entity paid money to universities. The taxpayer will be paying off student loans, rather than having those loans paid by the people who signed the loan documents.
Is the loan pay-off counted as income with tax ramifications?
Remoinds me of a friend I had who kept taking UW-Mad courses and taking student jobs as opposed to moving on because of Pell grants.
So...if this happened, it would be rude to not keep it going...right?
That should help control inflation.
How did we end up with Bleeding Heart progressives spending the Treasury on domestic policies AND Neocon spending on foreign wars? Biden just announced another 3 billion in Ukraine aid. We're getting fleeced in every direction.
How did we end up with Bleeding Heart progressives spending the Treasury on domestic policies AND Neocon spending on foreign wars? Biden just announced another 3 billion in Ukraine aid. We're getting fleeced in every direction.
How did we end up with Bleeding Heart progressives spending the Treasury on domestic policies AND Neocon spending on foreign wars? Biden just announced another 3 billion in Ukraine aid. We're getting fleeced in every direction.
How did we end up with Bleeding Heart progressives spending the Treasury on domestic policies AND Neocon spending on foreign wars? Biden just announced another 3 billion in Ukraine aid. We're getting fleeced in every direction.
How did we end up with Bleeding Heart progressives spending the Treasury on domestic policies AND Neocon spending on foreign wars? Biden just announced another 3 billion in Ukraine aid. We're getting fleeced in every direction.
Wrong on so many levels.
1. Presidents don't have budgetary spending authority. This is Congress' job. So this "Executive Order" should be challenged as illegal.
2. This is a regressive tax. People who have never attended college will, on average, earn considerably less than those who have (lifetime earnings). In general, the poor taxpayers are subsidizing wealthier taxpayers.
3. Well over $500bn sits in college endowments. If the argument is that tuitions are too high relative to value, then tapping into these vast endowments for rebates is the proper remedy.
4. What about those of us who saved and sacrificed to pay for our childrens' education. Where do I sign up to get a slice of my $500k in tuition expense returned?
It's not legal but the people who like voting for Biden will love it.
Oh well. Money gets taken from people without college educations and is given to people who took out loans to go to college, from people who aren't well off to people who are better off, and most of the country won't object.
Tell me again what a threat Trump was/is to the Rule of Law--tell me how awful it'd be to live in a nation where political power is nakedly used to benefit one's supporters and harm one's opponents. Sounds spooky!
Under what authority can he cancel debt, and what say do the debt-holders get?
$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
Outrageous. Even moreso if done by executive fiat.
I selected my school based on the scholarship package to avoid debt. Now I'm supposed to pay the debt someone else chose to take on for a benefit that accrues exclusively to that person? What the hell.
Credit card debt next. Why not? Same arguments there.
@Tommy Duncan
“What ever happened to bedrock American concepts like personal responsibility and deferred gratification?”
Those are white supremacist values. Try to keep up.
Now they'll simply raise tuition and college will be even more expensive.
This administration studies actions for a long time before it finally decides to make a big mistake.
My son is entering his sophomore year in college. We are currently paying for it. My wife has already said he should take out loans if Biden starts forgiving debt.
Moral hazard is a real thing.
Ann Althouse said...
$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
--
The institution speaks.
$10,000 isn’t as much as it used to be and is getting less and less everyday.
Which brings up another point: inflation helps borrowers and hurts savers. Even without loan forgiveness these borrowers are getting a tremendous windfall as inflation takes its toll on the rest of us.
The $10k amount is just one facet of this boondoggle. The precedent it sets, the immorality of it, the illegality of it, the govt handout adding yet more dollars to tuition costs, the inflation exacerbation, and not forcing higher Ed to reign in its grift by holding them accountable for this tab. A lot is very wrong with this and is very much worth getting excited about.
Nice troll btw!
Redistributive change (e.g. progressive prices a.k.a. inflation) through single/central/monopolistic solutions. Perhaps students, past, present, and "our Posterity", and parents, too, can file a class action lawsuit to recover their capital investments from losses suffered under academic largess, financialization schemes, and government intrusions.
This administration studies actions for a long time before it finally decides to make a big mistake.
And why do people who got Pell grants get twice as much? Because they used to be poor? I got Pell grants but had a good income when I graduated and got a full time job. Why not just give the people who did not get Pell grants nothing, if they were so well off?
This administration studies actions for a long time before it finally decides to make a big mistake.
And why do people who got Pell grants get twice as much? Because they used to be poor? I got Pell grants but had a good income when I graduated and got a full time job. Why not just give the people who did not get Pell grants nothing, if they were so well off?
$10,000 is a drop in the bucket but in 1999 that was my total payoff for my boring state law school.
Probably a 40k undertaking now.
This administration studies actions for a long time before it finally decides to make a big mistake.
And why do people who got Pell grants get twice as much? Because they used to be poor? I got Pell grants but had a good income when I graduated and got a full time job. Why not just give the people who did not get Pell grants nothing, if they were so well off?
I just paid off all of my federal loans in a $20K lump sum earlier this year. I still have outstanding private loans, but they don't qualify. I sure wish I could get $10,000 of that back.
Althouse: "$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about."
$10k x how many? The trades workers and cabbies and waitresses those who paid off their loans because they were "playing by the rules" would like to know.
"$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about."
Yes, but it's the largest amount of cash the government lets you have without extra scrutiny.
Suppose there was a used-car dealer in your town, who would loan people the money to buy his lousy cars, which then broke down after a few miles, and were left by the side of the road. Suppose he had made millions of dollars of loans to the gullible young people in your city, and demanded they repay those loans, even though the cars were worthless. Wouldn't the obvious solution be to give him a whole bunch of money?
Now let's discuss forgiven pandemic loans, like the $200k Robin Vos got and was told he didn't have to repay.
$10k is chump change in comparison.
"$10,000 isn’t much."
It is to me.
"Hard to get excited about."
You live in a college town, don't you? I bet it also wouldn't be hard to find a college student with debt and cut them a check yourself, would it?
$10,000.00 and Mexico will pay for it! VA paid for my degree (military 64 -72) $10,000.00 isn't much toward a loan (daughter got her master's at 19) owes 4x that amount but it helps. Taxes and death two things you can count on! Rack it up Ya get lemons make lemonade, just don't whine.
"$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about."
If it isn't that much, you can have mine, then, and we can both forgo the excitement!
Try $10,000 times however many deadbeat slackers that are going to benefit. To Them: Your student debt is not my responsibility! You sign the papers, you read the fine print, you take the gamble - and you pay off the debt. You.
This goes against every principle of fairness, thrift, frugality, economic responsibility, and self-respect that make up the belief-set of the Middle Class. A new class of voter-grifters will have been created..
On the other hand, we all knew this was coming just as soon as Obama decided to 'take over' the student debt issue and administer with the Federal Government. Gifts of Future Past: In Case of Need, Break Glass. Your Election Assurance is inside.
$10,000.00 and Mexico will pay for it! VA paid for my degree (military 64 -72) $10,000.00 isn't much toward a loan (daughter got her master's at 19) owes 4x that amount but it helps. Taxes and death two things you can count on! Rack it up Ya get lemons make lemonade, just don't whine.
"$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about." True for you I'm certain.
But tell that to my son, who makes only $90k a year, has a young child and wife to support, and is paying back his student loan.
And he is well off compared to many who have paid/are paying back their student loans.
And the principle is wrong. Very wrong. As many have pointed out above.
I like how people keep pointing out this is a transfer from poor to rich.
The left hardly complains about regressive policies anymore. That's because the Democrats are no longer the party of the poor, but of the college-educated class.
They have become the Party of the Elite(tm). Not just the business elite, or the government elite, or the artistic elite -- they have ALL the elites to keep secure and well-fed.
Before you know it, Biden will be discussing the merits of trickle-down economics.
Political blunder. Wait until the recipients of this windfall receive their tax bill for the loan forgiveness. Ordinary income. Phantom income. The worst kind. And a good bit of the population will be thoroughly pissed.
This has a strong flavor of "Let them eat cake".
Blogger Ann Althouse said...
$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
Why do rich people need to take out loans for their education?
Ann:
If someone's pretax gross income is $50,000, then $10k is something to be excited about.
Pelosi said a President lacked the right to cancel student debt, but her talking points will flip 108 like her husbands Porche. I'm 70 and look forward to the coming Carter 2.0 years. The young folks are going to take it in the ass.
’$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.’
Can I borrow ten grand? ;)
If $10,000.00 "isn't much", why don't those of use who spent years paying off college loans get a refund? Not because it would be even more absurdly expensive to taxpayers, but because Biden and Co. are making sure Millennials and Grad students are in on the grift for the long haul. The next Dem Congress will forgive 20k, and so on. Academia and Libs profit, so what matter the cost?
I went to college as an adult and made too much money to qualify for financial aid other than loans. I didn't want to end up with a ton of loans when I finished college, so I kept the job, working 50 hours a week while getting my accounting degree. Now I get to pay off the loans for all those that didn't want to work their way through college but went to the fun parties instead.
This is another theatric ploy by the Democrats. It will get challenged in court, most likely by Republican groups, and will likely be ruled unlawful. But it will provide fodder for the D's to say how the Republicans hate poor college graduates.
Althouse said...$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
OK Boomer. Now I see where they get it.
$10K to a 25 year old $100 grand in debt making $40 to $50K is a HUGE amount of money.
What I really wish these young people would do is just STOP paying the loans. All of them at once. It would bankrupt the College scam and make them restructure and rethink their bullshit. Or, maybe not, the arrogance is blinding.
Liberal University culture is 100% to blame for the student debt crisis thrust upon the Millennials and Generation Z. This debt forgiveness isn't fair to all other American citizens that have mortgages, car payments, credit card debt etc... This is especially unfair to people who didn't go to college which is a majority of Americans.
Biden is a weasel for doing it this way and not forcing colleges to foot part of this bill.
What does it say that this is the offer, now? I'm reminded of Ceaucescu on the balcony, tossing promises of bonuses into the growling masses, except nothing has actually been confirmed. We are governed by leak and poll and rumor through the filtering mechanism of the authorized media.
How's that working?
10 grand isn’t much except it will cost 300 billion to lay it off.
Remember when Scott Walker froze tuition for the UW System? And they freaked out like it was an attack on all education and the end of the world was coming?
Didn't happen and everything was fine. Except, the students, their families, and subsidizing tax payers were provided a moment's relief from the scam. That didn't make US System employees very happy.
That's the type of shit that needs to be done. The University of Wisconsin currently has $3.3 Billion in it's endowment. Give me a fucking break.
Tell me there's not some self-preserving greed running the self proclaimed altruistic culture.
“$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.”
In the old days we used to say, “It’s the principle of the thing.”
Those of you (us) who paid off your student loans must feel like a bunch of chumps right now.
$10,000 isn’t much.
Maybe not at the inflated price of worthless degrees today, but it was two, full years of tuition when I went to school. Where's my rebate?
I paid off my student loans in full. I wouldn't have taken out the loans if I didn't think I could pay them back. Once again, I'm a chump.
The average student loan debt is $39k, but the median student loan debt is $19k. So $10k isn't nothing for a lot of deadbeat students. On the other hand, it isn't a drop in the bucket for the most whiny with their $100k+ debt for economically worthless graduate degrees.
But then all those with this $10k loan cancellation will have to cough up $1000-$2400 cash money next April because loan cancellation is counted as income reported on 1099-C.
And, nothing is being done to stop future borrowing and clamoring for loan "forgiveness". Reagan gave amnesty to illegally in the US immigrants in the 1980s and well, that certainly didn't stop illegal immigration into the US.
Ann Althouse said...
$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
So, the people getting it aren't going to be excited by it
The people NOT getting it, because they never went to college, or because they saved / worked and didn't take out the loans are going to be pissed.
And multiple GOP AGs are going to be in court the second this is promulgated demanding nationwide injunctions against it, because it's an utterly lawless order with absolutely no legal grounds behind it.
One or more will get the injunctions (probably more than one, to give as many chances as possible that at least one will be upheld at the appeals court level), and SCOTUS will support the injunction, either 5-4 or 6-3
So it's a perfect metaphor for the Biden* Admin, screwed up in every single possible way
Dems must smell bgi defeat a-coming. They're ramming through every nightmare they have before November.
"Ann Althouse said... $10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about."
Huh? Tell that to my son living in Chicago, a wife working as adjunct prof, two kids, driving junk vehicles, not one penny to spare ... the same son who just finished paying off his college debt.
Your comment is very tone-deaf to a lot of people.
I've always supported letting student loan debt be discharged in bankruptcy, but require that the credential and transcripts be withdrawn. The individual could keep the knowledge and skills they acquired in college, but nothing other than where they spent those years would be acknowledged. Diplomas would be revoked, transcripts sealed with universities on the hook for the full debt and interest if they violate report credentials or transcripts.
This would help the 40% of students who enroll but don't graduate. It would help the 42% of those who graduate but end up in jobs that don't require a college degree. It would incentivize those with law or medical school debt to pay off their loans so they could keep their credentials. And it would give incentive to stop the unnecessary degree inflation, such as the requirement of law school, a relatively new condition, to practice law when you have to pass the bar exam to be licensed. Other exams of actual knowledge and skill could be devised to overcome the surrendering of college magic parchment.
So the executive branch can unilaterally forgive debt held by departments that sit within the executive? (In this case education) And can decide on it's own how much and who it applies to?
So if Trump decided to waive federally held debt in a manner that benefitted the rich, banks, whatever - that would be totally legal?
Come on. This is a ridiculous over-reach of government and it's blatantly whimsical in nature.
I would love to see them give a tax-credit of some sort to people who paid off their loans. With all of those new auditors, they will have plenty of new cash rolling in anyways. /s
If someone's got to pick up the tab here, I'd much prefer to see the colleges and universities that got these funds be the ones to get stuck with it. Perhaps (at a minimum) they could be denied government funds until the balance is zero.
As for the colleges and universities, some research schools may be able to pay the bills through research grants but for the rest, it's long past time their monopoly on credentialing be ended. Preferably through a system of carefully proctored and designed comprehensive exams that, upon passing, confer a credible credential- regardless of how much or little seat-time (aka credit hours) you bought.
Let the schools compete (on price and quality) to deliver the education necessary to pass these comprehensive exams rather than places from which to buy over-priced (and often over-valued) credentials.
So pay off rich people loans with taxpayer money from people who can't afford to go to college. Got it.
We should quit paying taxes. Why should we when they abuse our trust and OUR money to gift their donors and their children??
$10,000 is A LOT to people who paid off their own loans and had to work instead of play to do it. WHEN do they get paid back. I paid my own loan off...why should I pay off a lazy ass Progressive who took gender studies and can't get a job..loan?? Fuck Joe biden. He sucks progressive ass.
Greg: "So, the people getting it aren't going to be excited by it
The people NOT getting it, because they never went to college, or because they saved / worked and didn't take out the loans are going to be pissed.
And multiple GOP AGs are going to be in court the second this is promulgated demanding nationwide injunctions against it, because it's an utterly lawless order with absolutely no legal grounds behind it."
Not to worry though Greg. As we speak Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney and all the "respectable republicans" are running about and issuing more "tut tut's" and "harrumphs!" than ever before! Their statements are perfect examples of why these idiots cannot connect with everyday Americans in the working and middle classes.
This is a completely unconstitutional and impeachable act by those writing the scripts for Biden's teleprompter but Biden will never get called on it by these "respectable" republicans.
Ever.
The "respectable" republicans are far too busy covering for their democratical allies in the DOJ/FBI.
This is only part of a much larger effort to fund leftist institutions with taxpayer money.
$10,000 for every borrower. It adds up, and it's piled on all the rest of the nation's debt.
As Megan McArdle notes, "...this is a transfer to holders of student loan debt from the (on average less well off) holders of other kinds of debt."
Biden might as well be giving debt relief to those who took out loans to buy their Bentleys, Lexus, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis.
Pelosi said what she said because Congress would have had to find a way to score such a debt jubilee as revenue neutral. Now, Congress doesn't generally find that hard, but forgiving the 1.6 trillion in federally backed debt, that is a lot of pretending to have to do.
At some point, Congress will have to pony up the money to cover this, or else the executive is spending unappropriated money. We might be that far gone as a republic, though. I have predicted that in the last couple of years- that Congress will eventually lose control of the public purse.
Ann Althouse said...
$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
*************
Not a syllable from the former Con law prof about the naked illegality of this move.
Not even a fricative about how that 300 BILLION dollars will have to be re-paid by the taxpayers.
And not even aspirate about the unfair treatment of those who paid off their debts, obviously to their detriment.
Not impressive, AA.
Models predict debt levels will return in just FOUR YEARS, it will cost each taxpayer at least $2,000, drive inflation higher and cost more than $300billion - and leaves out those who DID pay
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11142029/REALITIES-Bidens-student-loan-ploy-Models-predict-debt-levels-return-just-FOUR-YEARS.html
election time is coming.
Time to buy some votes.
Hey! Check it out. The $10K loan forgiveness is already racist.
Nina Turner tweet: (Former Ohio State Senator & Professor) “Canceling $10,000 in student debt when the average white borrower is $12,000 in debt, while Black women hold on average over $52,000 isn’t just unacceptable, it’s structural racism.”
Have to agree. If this is the case, black women are getting ripped of by universities the most. I can only conclude that liberal universities and colleges are the largest contributors to structural racism, other than the teachers unions of course.
STOP PAYING THE LOANS!!
Blogger Freeman Hunt said...
Now they'll simply raise tuition and college will be even more expensive.
The U of AZ raised tuition every year my daughter was there. By the time she graduated it was twice what it had been when she began.
Since when has the deadbeat had the moral high ground??
I hope to see this move as a transfer from poorer non-college grads to, not the defrauded students, saddled with mountains of debt for worthless degrees, but to the elite, sneering, Woke professors and administrators who induced those students into going into debt for vanity courses, such as ones on Taylor Swift's music, etc. Degrees that obviously do not have the economic value to justify the cost and often are detrimental to the student's intellectual development. Follow the money. Enrollments are declining so the professors and administrators who on the whole support Democrats both financially and by inciting students (for credit) to protest, needed this debt "cancellation" to lure in more victims.
"Social Justice is an actual impediment to the development of human capital" -- Thomas Sowell.
Nancy Cook
@nancook
NEW: As Biden weighs a student debt decision, Penn Wharton Budget Model has released its analysis of student loan forgiveness, estimating it will cost bet. $300-$980 billion, w/majority of relief going toward borrowers in top 60% of earners. More on the
@TheTerminal
.
9:19 AM · Aug 23, 2022
And last, but not least....this guy who confronted Lizzy has it right, and feels the way MOST of us feel.
Cool! So I received both a Pell Grant and a Cal Grant for the school years 84/85, 85/86, 86/87, 87/88. The rest of my tuition was paid for with work-study (campus employers were paid to hire us, so I worked the max allowed 20 hours a week for the Office of Educational Placement) and student loans. My husband and I paid off my school loans in 1999 with my husband’s first big bonus.
So how much do we get?
My husband and I invested his second bonus for our son’s college education and continued to save money for the next 20 years so my son wouldn’t need to take out loans. My son graduated in 2021. How much do we get?
Pretty sure we get nothing. Work hard. Follow the rules. Don’t get the hand out but pay for everyone else.
Gotta admit, Althouse’s Marie Antoinette comment really rankled me. $10,000 isn’t so much? Let’s just throw some to our friends?
As we sit here in a huge inflationary updraft the left has learned nothing. Nothing at all.
The bullshit is the abuse of emergency power and using COVID-19 like John Stewart’s clown-nose — “the pandemic is over when it comes to Title 42 and the border” nose off and “this ongoing emergency gives me super power thanks to 9/11 HEROES Act” nose on. Congress needs to declare the COVID era over!
POTUS....what can't he do? Are there any limits?
If the government put $10,000 into each of these people's bank accounts, how many of them would use it to pay off their student loans?
Because I think it would be near zero.
And that's how much we should care about this "problem".
Folks, $10,000 isn’t much to those whining to have their debt cancelled. If you couldn’t handle the monthly on a low interest student loan of $10,000 in 2022, then even having that much forgiven isn’t going to help you. You’re a financial disaster. Also, as many noted prior to Althouse comment, $10,000 of new student debt is hardly a year of classes.
This means the loan forgiveness is both bad precedent and useless. It’s like the 30% off solar panels, which takes them from ridiculously expensive to something you can’t afford because staple foods like eggs went up 50% with inflation.
I've seen stories about this.
I've yet to see any legal authority for Joe Biden to waste these assets of (debt owed to) THE UNITED STATES (over $250 BILLION) as his own personal property to do with what he wants.
Want loan forgiveness? Join the military. Don't qualify? Join the Peace Corps or a Florida litter pick up crew. Lots of options for followers of Lizzie Warren.
Graduated from PSU in business in June 1973. No job, economy sucked. Had $3K in school loans, coupon payment book was 1" thick, 72 payments at $51.15. Had to start paying 9 months from graduation. Scrambled and found an afternoon shift job in a large machine shop. Take home pay was $500/month. Suck it up buttercups.
$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
It is not the amount but two principles:
1. It discriminates against those who did not go to college and those (like me) paid off their debts;
2. There is no Presidential authority to interfere in private contracts.
People complained about Trump being authoritarian, but Biden is the true Soviet monarch.
I funded my kids college by loaning the money to myself via my pension plan. Luckily we had the kids early so we were done by June 2006 before costs went hyperbolic. But I agree with the other callers whom believe this is a huge transfer from red states to blue states. That might begin to put a dent in the backward unproductive red states milking federal Dollars from the industrious elite states whom generate most of the money.
Joe Biden is STEALING our tax dollars and giving them to his friends. And any Republican who promises to put him and his co-conspirators in jail once they take over the White House gets my vote.
Joe Biden is STEALING our tax dollars and giving them to his friends. And any Republican who promises to put him and his co-conspirators in jail once they take over the White House gets my vote.
It gets worse. The "legal" memo which "allegedly" supports this Biden action refers to an early 2000 statute designed to provide relief to reservists who'd been called to active duty and had to give up their civilian jobs. The "legal"memo goes on to refer to financial problems caused by Covid--and ties it back to the statute.
Well Gollee! Who did not have financial problems caused by Covid and its lockdowns? C'mon Joe, take $10,000 off the balance on my car loan. Howzabout $10K off my home mortgage? And then why not cancel $10K of debt on my maxed out American Express Gold Card.
I mean the list of people and things that need relief from the government imposed lockdowns goes on and on. Where is my $10K? I'll make it easy for Joe. When I walk into the voting booth in November, just lay $10K on the voting machine, and I'll vote Joe's way .
Or if that's too hard, I'll give the blank mail voting ballot I have (everybody in California gets a voting ballot in the mail) to your Dim party minion after they fork over the $10K. I'll even let the minion fill out the ballot for me.
"I don't know of any program created by any government at any time anywhere in the world that was to help the poor and middle class that did not end up taking money out of the pockets of the poor and middle class and transfer it to the rich." - Milton Friedman, during audience discussion following broadcast of an episode of "Free to Choose" on the BBC, February, 1980. I was watching the series again while on a 6-week business trip to England and I wrote it down in a notebook I carried for many years so I would not forget it.
Drago said...
The "respectable" republicans are far too busy covering for their democratical allies in the DOJ/FBI.
Yes, but fortunately there's plenty of "unrespectable" GOP AGs out there
There is no Presidential authority to interfere in private contracts
Bingo!
Which is why it is amusing how passionate fake "conservatives" are about the former president who suspended every residential lease in America! It's different when *they* do it.
You guys are no better than the lefties that don't have the attention span to care about "kids in cages" when Biden puts them there.
For people above who asked on what statutory basis does Biden have to do this, it is the 2003 HEROES Act and the covid emergency.
So, what has happened is that US tax money was directed by Fauci to the Wuhan lab to weaponize the virus. The CCP then intentionally release the virus. The Dems steal the election for Biden. Government spending caused inflation. Economy wrecked. School kids and education wrecked. Other deaths due to suicides and drugs. People lose other medical care.
And now a $300b handout.
Unbelievable. And all because of the Dems.
Sounds like a desperate sop to the youth vote. Fortunately, the youth cohort is shrinking by comparison to the older more responsible cohort. But go ahead Joe, encourage irresponsibility.
If your instinct is "forgiving student loan debt is vote buying"; then let's look at what Biden did from the perspective of improving the November election for Democrats:
Forgiving debt that blue-collar folks never assumed and most conservative people paid out of principle is likely to piss off those voters and drive them to the polls in November.
Forgiving only $10,000 of debt for the socialist complaining about it, "isn't much to get excited about". They are likely neither to be thankful (for the loan, chance at a higher education, or) the debt cancellation nor motivated to show their thanks at the polls. They wanted all debt cancelled with no conditions and Biden failed to deliver.
Try reading Althouse (and others you come across) with that mindset. Do it more often than just today. It will help some of you from having an aneurysm in the future.
"The Inflation Reduction Proclamation."
If this last two months doesn't start a new inflationary spiral, within the next year, I will have to rethink my understanding of economics. Maybe we are special in world history. We will see.
Joe Biden is STEALING our tax dollars and giving them to his friends. And any Republican who promises to put him and his co-conspirators in jail once they take over the White House gets my vote.
Sounds like a desperate sop to the youth vote.
Good, because they're the ones who're going to have to pay for it. They wanted this...then deal with the public debt on it! Because there is no forgiveness. There is only making the taxpayers pay instead.
Tell that to my son living in Chicago, a wife working as adjunct prof, two kids, driving junk vehicles, not one penny to spare ... the same son who just finished paying off his college debt.
Well, the government is making a chump out of your son, and any of the rest of us who paid our loans. And they're sending communication to anyone else to take out debt, don't pay it off and complain about it a lot, preferably close to an election. Also, message sent to universities that they're free to raise tuition again! The Dems have open the public purse!
Its called Moral Hazard.
Apparently the power to do this comes with declaration of national emergencies. This is why Covid is still officially an emergency. We really are a banana republic now.
Got to keep the bread and circuses going.
We'll see how good they are with their timing.
They know this will probably fail to pass judicial review. But it seems that the process of forgiving the loans will not get underway until after the midterms.
Will their be an opportunity to take this into court before any loan is actually forgiven? Beats me, but my guess is that the legality will still be up in the air come election day.
Also, if you look at the other aspects of the plan, the cost over a single year will be far, far more than 300 billion. And it is amazing and contrary to common practice that we do not have a government estimate of the total cost.
The whole thing is absurd.
Also, again, almost all of the outstanding loans were made by or guaranteed by the government when issued. This obviates the private contract problem.
Dave Begley said...
For people above who asked on what statutory basis does Biden have to do this, it is the 2003 HEROES Act and the covid emergency.
************
What does it say specifically re this or directly-related issues?
Does it give the POTUS carte-blanche to "cancel" this kind of debt to the tune of $300 Billion?
What Congress gave the POTUS that kind of politically-deformed plenary power?
The Framers wanted a strong Congress, and a much-weaker POTUS.
So...where in the Constitution does the the POTUS point to claim this kind of authority, especially since it clearly spells out who does the legislating, who passes the laws governing the funding needed to implement the laws passed, and, lastly, who actually executes them?
Nancy Pelosi didn't think so last april.
serious question
remember, the olden days? Back when the President got a "Inflation Reduction Act" bill passed?
It was going to 'reduce the deficit' by three hundred Billion dollars? Remember?
So, on to the rhetorical question.. How much is today's executive action going to cost?
That's right! three hundred Billion dollars! So much for reducing the deficit
Which is why it is amusing how passionate fake "conservatives" are about the former president who suspended every residential lease in America! It's different when *they* do it.
I don't know any conservatives who supported the suspension of rent/lease payments. Any who were passionate about it were most certainly fake conservatives, better described as progressives.
Pro-tip: It's possible to support a president who, unfortunately, does something you disagree with, and would prefer he hadn't.
M Jordan, 1:34 PM:
"Dems must smell big defeat a-coming. They're ramming through every nightmare they have before November."
And bragging about how amazing Biden is for doing it.
As noted above thread Althouse had her Marie Antoinette moment and Biden is cynically buying votes with the working classes money. What the Republicans should do but won't is to abolish the student loan program and require colleges and universities to use 60% of their endowment income as scholarships and grants to their students to keep their non-profit and charitable tax status.
gilbar payed his way though college by working as a computer operator, and going to school part time
Where's HIS money???
gilbar's 401k has lost about $40 THOUSAND dollars, THIS YEAR because of Biden's policies
WHERE'S HIS MONEY???
If 21 year old losers get $20 THOUSAND dollars.. WHERE IS gilbar's MONEY???
Nancy Pelosi is leading the charge to have all bar tabs cancelled.
h/t: Babylon Bee
Hey Howard the DA
Illinois is a BLUE state. Chicago is a BLUE city. Get out of that productive City of Chicago and it turns red. Takes a while as most suburbs are still brainwashed. But an hour out...pretty much red. You know, the farmers, the people who actually work. Hard work. Not pencil pushers working from home in their PJ's.
So Howard the DA, tell me how Chicago is productive. Murders? Yeah, you got there me. Using up hospital resources for gang bangers? Got me again. Tell me Howard, how is Chicago productive. Everybody is on the take? Got me again.
Orange man bad and I hope he lives in your brain til one day you may be in the hospital and they'll say, "sorry dude, we have a gunshot wound....gang banger..........he gets priority. Take a number and shut it."
Greg: "Yes, but fortunately there's plenty of "unrespectable" GOP AGs out there"
Agreed. And thank goodness for them because the beltway boys and girls will never do it.
MayBee: "POTUS....what can't he do? Are there any limits?"
None. Unless a republican is elected. And then all sorts of previously non-existent limits start coming into play.
I used the GI Bill, savings, worked, and lived like a pauper to avoid using student loans to get my engineering degree. So is Joe going to cut me a check for $20,000 to try and buy my vote too?
Blogger MountainMan said...
"I don't know of any program created by any government at any time anywhere in the world that was to help the poor and middle class that did not end up taking money out of the pockets of the poor and middle class and transfer it to the rich." - Milton Friedman
Thanks for that quote, it aligns with my sensibilities. I think that politics enriches those with status and elevates the status of those who are already rich. The veil is so thin, and they are behind it, laughing, letting us watch.
The true rich, the old families, Boston Brahman, NY Dutch, Robber Baron Spawn, Regional Old Land, are above the fray and only want the status of privacy and immunity to law.
Joe explained it all in his press conference. This affects about 40 million people. That's a lot of votes. And a large percentage of the 40 million are also recipients of Pell grants who will get $20K, probably minority voters. He's working to simplify having loans forgiven for those working in public service jobs, reducing the percentage of repayment from 10% to 5% of monthly income, forgive the balance due after 20 years of payment. Frankly, Biden sounded very coherent for a change.
The responsible people who are pissed off weren't going to vote for Democrats in the midterms anyway.
If the law they are citing gives them the authority to cancel this amount of student then it also gives them the authority to cancel all student debt. $1.6 trillion.
And it gives this authority not to the President of the United States of America, but specifically to the Secretary of Education.
It can't stand.
56% of student loan debt is held by people with graduate (and professional) degrees. Only 13% of the US population has graduate degrees.
Democrats are for the 13%, college-credentialed with masters, doctorates and professional, read law, degrees. How many of them have degrees that are of actual economic value to themselves, to the country?
Ann Althouse said...
$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about.
Thanks, I can use the money. I'll expect your money order in the mail.
Ann Althouse said...
"$10,000 isn’t much. Hard to get excited about."
That is rather flippant, don't you think? Do you understand that this is a slap in the face of everyone that played by the rules and sacrificed to pay their debts or sacrificed to not go into debt?
@Leland
I don't think your analysis is wrong. My take is that if the Democrats think they have to do this to nail down the votes of largely white aspirants to the upper middle class by pissing off most non-college graduates (approximately 50% of the population, give or take, largely POC as well) along with plenty of college grads who have no forgivable loans then their internal polling must indicate they are going to take real beating in November.
They are thinking about handing every GOP candidate an issue that will largely unite the party behind them.
I wonder why the press reports on what this loan forgiveness plan will cost tax payers, while they never report what the costs are to taxpayers every year for the ever-increasing and already bloated annual budgets for our War Department?
Cut the War Department's budget by 80%, (which they should do, in any case), and the tax cost to taxpayers, even with the tax forgiveness plan, would dramatically drop.
After watching the news today, I don't think this policy is going to fly. Even Democrats are starting to complain.
Cook, as usual, is 70 years out of date. "The War Department" pre WWII.
What if the student is in default on their loan?
Say a student graduated from high school in spring 2015 and started college in fall 2015. Fall Semester does not go well but student does not flunk out. Student can still get student loan for spring 2016. Does better in spring but does not get GPA over 2.0. Student cannot continue to get student loan and has to pay tuition for next semester. Doesn't have money and drops out. The student loan they have is accruing interest while they don't attend class. Student hopes loan goes away and pays nothing. Loan goes to default. Student continues to ignore loan and all the letter and e-mails that are sent.
In summer of 2022, student hears that $10,000 will be forgiven. Oh wait, they also had gotten a Pell grant - $20,000 will be forgiven.
Will their student loan automatically be forgiven or will they have to bring their loan out of default first?
If default loans are included, the total cost of this executive order is higher than we are being told - based on what I saw in 15 years as an academic advisor.
On the one hand, I'll benefit to the tune of $10,000 plus the savings on interest. On the other hand I enter into that debt willingly—gladly. It enabled me to get the job I have now, and more importantly it helped me become the person I am now.
Technical education should be entered into with all financial considerations, and if you made a bad deal, that's on you. Liberal arts educations should be entered into for themselves, and if you're going to complain after the fact that they were too expensive, you missed the point. But hey, I'll accept the $10,000
Michael K: "After watching the news today, I don't think this policy is going to fly. Even Democrats are starting to complain.
Cook, as usual, is 70 years out of date. "The War Department" pre WWII."
Cookies idea of "glory days" start around 1917.
However, I'm not against a thorough review of many of the boondoggle Pentagon programs/systems. Many of which don't work very well at all, which is what we are seeing in Ukraine. All the "super weapons" that we provided at immense cost and to the benefit of the grifters and the world wide weapons black market that were supposed to immediately turn the war in Ukraine's favor and send those russki's back to Moscow in pine boxes haven't actually done that, have they?
And how many billions are we spending on Gen Milly Vanilli's Woke programs and making sure there are enough Maoist struggle sessions to get promoted and sex change operations for our "unique" military members and tampons in male bathrooms?
On the other hand, one does have to remember that you just can't lop off 80% of the Defense budget because there's lots and lots of stuff shoved into there that have to be accounted for, such as military retirements, VA expenses, military health benefits, etc. If you add all that up it represents about 25% of the total Defense budget just for that. If you just willy nilly cut 80% of the Defense budget you send tens of thousands of veterans to the welfare lines, cause permanently injured soldiers to fend for themselves with no way to get medical care, while also fielding about zero forces anywhere.
Ooooh, now I get it. Cookie calling for that much of a cut would certainly benefit the ChiComs................immensely. In fact, it would turn the ChiCom's into the only remaining superpower. Hmmmmm, a sole commie global superpower.
Easy to see the attraction for our resident Coffee Klatsch stalinist, isn't it?
Cut the War Department's budget by 80%, (which they should do, in any case), and the tax cost to taxpayers, even with the tax forgiveness plan, would dramatically drop.
Cut defense spending by 80% and our taxes will be whatever our new Chinese overlords demand.
PELOSI IN APRIL: "People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not."
PELOSI TODAY: Biden's move to cancel student debt "is a strong step in Democrats' fight to expand access to higher education."
I paid off my student loan early and in full. I won't get any of that back.
Chump I am for being responsible.
I am sure that will work out well for the greater community.
damikesc said...
Maybe it is time to remove student loans from the government entirely. Have banks make the loans with zero government protections.
You're almost there, just backwards.
The govt needs to ban lenders from loaning money for college. Force Universities to be the only licensed lender. AFTER congress reverses that stupid rule preventing student loans from being discharged through bankruptcy.
The answer is for colleges to be on the hook for the merchantability of their end product.
while they never report what the costs are to taxpayers every year for the ever-increasing and already bloated annual budgets for our War Department?
Cook, the war dept is an enumerated power of the federal government. Where do YOU find the govt power to spend a penny on education?
>>Wait until the recipients of this windfall receive their tax bill for the loan forgiveness. Ordinary income. Phantom income. The worst kind.
That issue has crossed my mind. Hey, you don't have to pay off this loan over the following decades! But, by the way, you need to pay up to 40 percent of the forgiven amount as a current year tax! That's the right answer under standard tax law, but I'm sure the folks who are illegally canceling debts will decide you can illegally ignore established tax law.
--gpm
>>f someone's got to pick up the tab here, I'd much prefer to see the colleges and universities that got these funds be the ones to get stuck with it.
I agree, though I don't see the legal means to get there.
--gpm
IRS just announced that they were going refund penalties charged in 2019 and 2020 because of the national emergency. I fear what will happen when we actually have a war or a catastrophic event.
This discussion will be good distraction from the well over inflation inflation of tuition over the years which requires the massive $$ undertaking resulting in debt.
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