Biden Announces Plan to Cancel Some Student Loan Balances Under $12,000
Biden Announces Plan to Cancel Some Student Loan Balances Under $12,000
www.the74million.org
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18 comments
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Hopefully this doesn’t extend to people earning over a certain amount. I’m a relatively high income earner. I’d rather see up to 12 grand in relief go to folks who are earning under a threshold. Perhaps that’s literally in the article and if I read it, I would see that with my own eyes. But here we are!
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Programs should be universal. Way easier (and less expensive) to implement that way. If we don't want high earners getting benefits we can claw it back in taxes. I would rather a handful of millionaires get an extra benefit than have vulnerable people who need help fall through the cracks because of means testing.
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Means testing: for when you want to stop aid from getting to those that need it, but still want rich people to get it by gaming the system.
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This forgiveness is for people who have been paying on their loans for 10 years. I don't think there are many people who:
- Took out under 12k
- Have been paying for 10 years
AND
- Make a lot of money
Why? Interest is a bitch. If there are people who meet those three conditions, there probably aren't many of them.
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Honestly, the more I hear about the student loan crisis, the more I'm convinced that, if you're going to go with the line that outright forgiveness is politically toxic, they should just set the interest rate to 0%. A lot of people are basically just stuck paying interest without even hitting the principal, and that's the real problem.
This fixes a few issues:
- the longer you've had your loan, with inflation it'll be a smaller part of your income (provided your income raises with inflation, which admittedly isn't a given in the US)
- the conservative talking point of 'you borrowed the money, so you need to pay it back' is completely moot. Yes, you're paying it back (unlike the business owners that took out PPP loans).
- the goal of those loans should be to fund your education, not for someone to make money off, and that would accomplish this.
- it's still revenue neutral (minus the cost of administering, which really should just be done by government instead of outsourcing), even though MMT tells us that deficit spending for stuff like this would be totally fine.
Obviously the best solution is free education and universal loan forgiveness, but Democrats aren't willing to do that.
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18 comments
It's like peeing on a house fire...
Might make you feel like something is being done, but it's not going to accomplish anything.
We'll see tiny little gains like this trickle out till the election, then Biden will go back to ignoring it.
So sure, it's better than doing literally nothing, but it's not doing enough.
Were you paying attention the last several times he's tried to do more and gotten blocked at every turn by people who can't see past their own gains?
He's not even being blocked by his own party this time.
Granted, they probably would have if he hadn't waited until they didn't have a majority.
The initial 20k goal was 430bil forgiven, that the SC knocked down.
His admins "peeing on a house fire" has forgiven 136bil so far in small 5bil/10bil awards, and thats before this. The above doesnt even take into account the huge improvements the SAVE plan brings, like setting interest to 0% while you pay on your loan, doubling the minimum income before you have to pay for means adjusted borrowers so that way more people pay $0/month, and allowing anyone in default to get trued up instantly.
136 billion isn't 430 billion, but its hugely, hugely more than any admin has ever forgiven student loans. Its disappointing it didnt reach the full scope, but its more than anyone has every done.
Man has pissed a lake onto a forest fire, but yall wanted him to piss a river into a volcano and he couldn't get it done, so suddenly "he hasent done anything."
Fuck all that.
This!
For Biden's faults, what his team has done for borrowers has been great to the people who need it the most. Even in the face of the GOP trying to stop them at every turn.
That attitude of All or Nothing really pisses me off.
"Oh, you had a goal to lose 100 lbs in a year but only lost 80? You might as well have not tried to begin with, loser."
Fucking stupid
You must not have read what's actually in the plan they put through. It also includes dramatically lowered payments for low income earners, eliminated interest if you make your payments, broadens forgiveness rules etc. etc.
It's mine boggling to me that Biden didn't get more credit for this plan. One time paying off of loans is a dumb short term solution. Actually changing the rules to help current and future borrowers is so much more important. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/22/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administration-launches-the-save-plan-the-most-affordable-student-loan-repayment-plan-ever-to-lower-monthly-payments-for-millions-of-borrowers/
And this is what everyone was bitching about when he was trying to do the one time cancellation. "Well that won't solve the real problem!" And now he's doing something to address that, and it apparently still isn't good enough. It just shows why so many dissenters actually find it offensive, and that's because it helps people.