Biden pushes new student loan repayment plan as bills loom for tens of millions
Biden pushes new student loan repayment plan as bills loom for tens of millions
The effort to boost enrollment in the income-driven repayment program comes as student loan payments resume for the first time since March 2020.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a promotional blitz for his new program that helps student loan borrowers repay their debt, just weeks before millions of Americans are set to receive a loan bill for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Biden administration is mobilizing to convince borrowers across the country to sign up for the new income-driven repayment program — dubbed the “SAVE plan” — which caps interest accrual and lowers the monthly payment amount for many borrowers.
“It’s the most affordable student loan plan ever,” Biden said in a video released by the White House on Tuesday, describing the program as a major reform to a student loan system “that hurt borrowers for much too long.”
“If you’re eligible for the SAVE Plan, sign up now so you can lower your monthly payments in advance of payments resuming this fall,” Biden said.
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This is (i) welfare for the well-to-do, (ii) great incentive for colleges to keep pushing up their tuition fees, and (iii) fiscal stimulus during a critical juncture in the fight to tame inflation. Let it not be said that the Republican Party has a monopoly on bad policy ideas.
I disagree with you, but your position has some sentiments I can understand. So instead of getting angry, downvoting, and throwing a fit, I am just going to respond calmly:
If you look at the actual details of the plan it’s pretty reasonable.
Lowered interest rates for everyone who are making their payments.
Higher threshold for low income earners to get some forgiveness. This counters your “well-to-do” argument.
Explain how you came up with point one. The well to do will not qualify or benefit from this at all. Its based on income and is definitely skewed to benefit well off people at all.
College graduates receive a big wage premium; over a lifetime, average earnings of graduates exceed those of nongraduates by about $1M. Yes, people who just graduated may not be earning high incomes today, but project things out over decades and it's clear this is not the group in need of support.
In fact, given the magic of compound interest, we would expect a college loan forgiveness programme to greatly increase the net financial position of graduates versus nongraduates, on top of what the graduate earnings premium already achieves. Hence increasing the overall level of wealth inequality in the country.
Not sure how you decided this seeing as this benefits people at the poverty line and not the wealthy. Sure, anything can encourage schools to push up tuition prices, but there's literally a bill in play right now to cap tuition prices. It's not loan forgiveness, but it's far better than nothing. Also, the financial impact is a pittance. It's not the 50k per borrower floated in 2020. It's not even the 10k the scotus shot down.
My parents were/are (Mom's still alive) well-to-do. I was lucky in that I didn't have to take out student loans. No one is giving me welfare.
My wife, on the other hand, could sure use some relief from the student loan debt she incurred because her family is not the privileged one mine is.
We're fiscally responsible. We pay our bills on time. We have a fixed-rate mortgage. We have two cars, but one is paid off.
We're in our mid-40s and she still has a ton of student loan debt. That's insanity.
Sounds like you have plenty of money but only pay the minimum payments on her loans, which is a questionable choice at best.
It may sound like that, but that would be false. We live paycheck-to-paycheck like a majority of Americans.
We pay what we can afford to pay.
Believe it or not, people who grow up with wealthy parents aren't necessarily wealthy themselves.
You’re wrong about (i) and (iii) - seriously who does that? - but as someone whose kids will be starting college in a few years I agree with (ii).
We need to find a way to get everyone who is capable a college education without needing loans. Apart from my own personal interests, there is a huge amount of brain power wasted by not having education freely available.
I'm well to do now? This is for me and I consider not eating for 48 hours at a time because the price of food rn is bonkers to be a solid financial decision.