He should propose that those who took out student loans should pay them back. That is what really should happen.
Fuck that. I’ve paid more than $80k+ in extra taxes in the 6 years since I’ve graduated that I wouldn’t have without my degree. This is nothing more than a tax break for me - the little guy. This is nothing compared to their return on investment. Totally why community college/trade school should be free, on condition you graduate or get a job in the field of study.
Its seems as though the sentiment among the high middle class and up is:
-
College is important to advance in our societal hierarchy. It is not absolutely necessary but generally you are rewarded for having a higher education in more prestegious institutions.
-
People can afford college because they have been saving up generational wealth. Naturally, increasing costs of living shouldnt be an issue.
-
College should be about merit not affirmative action. Giving spots for less fortunate makes us less competitive as a nation.
If you cant see how the issues in these statements affect lower classes then i believe you are part of the problem.
The problem is that the president literally does not have this power. Nancy Pelosi even admitted this. It was a blatantly unconstitutional power grab that he knew would be shut down in the courts but did it anyway since he needed something to run on going into the midterms.
Lol. Funny that you are being downvoted because you are absolutely correct.
I guess the deadbeats don’t care - they just want their free money from the taxpayers.
You call us deadbeats but what about the insane predatory nature of the loans in the first place? Most of us were forced, manipulated, or scared into taking out loans at 18. Most of us also didnt have the education in the first place to understand what the loans all meant, either. “Go to college or you’ll be working the mcdonalds drive-thru at 35” kind of stuff. The brain doesn’t stop developing until like 27, so regardless of what society has decided, 18 year olds are still very much children.
We were tricked/manipulated/sometimes outright lied to, and now 3/4 of the $400 payment goes to interest.
I want to pay back what I borrowed, but at 2/3+ just going to interest, the principal never goes down. For many its still more than they borrowed years and years ago. That’s what’s criminal.
I have a hard time seeing how this program is not unfair (not American so might be missing something).
My understanding is that there are 2 programs. One that helps reduce loans by 1k a year, and another one that forgives loans with less than 12k left after 10 years.
The first one seems to be ok as a measure for new students taking out loans because then it would work as a tool to encourage higher education. But as a blanket help it seems unfair as the benefitting people already made their choice and got (or are getting) their education. For the special case of people who are struggling financially I think a program that is specific to them and helps them relative to their struggle would be more appropriate, and it would surprise me if it doesn’t already exist.
As for the second program it seems to just be a gift to people who have already made their choice and completed their education, and is not fair at all to people who have consciously chosen to not pursue this because they couldn’t afford the debt. If someone is financially struggling see my previous point about more appropriate tools to help them, otherwise if they’re not struggling then what is the point of this?
Furthermore the second program also seems to be a one-off? I’m not sure here so please correct me if I’m wrong. If that is the case then it doesn’t even encourage people to pursue higher education.
Why does it need to be fair? By that logic, we should never change a ton of things, such as tax codes, simply because they’re not retroactive (“how dare the government offer a rebate on solar panels after I’ve already paid full price!”). There isn’t really a good way to make something like student loan forgiveness retroactive and to try and do so would make it excessively expensive.
Why should we hold back on doing a good thing just because it doesn’t help 100% of people ever?
I do agree with you about the core of what you’re saying, that in the end it’s a good thing to help people. For sure. But when talking about public funds you have to keep in mind priorities. In this case I can see how this doesn’t seem like a priority to some people, money is not unlimited and these funds could be used for something else. I would personally be more on board if this program targeted students who are about to get loans, I just think it would have more value to society in general than helping someone who is 10 years into their loan and not struggling financially.
Now as I said I’m not an expert on US public finance so if you tell me that these funds couldn’t be used somewhere else anyway and would be wasted in less important projects then sure I’d revise my opinion.
Republicans propose and pass blatantly unconstitutional stuff that there base wants right before elections all the time, then gets mad when courts overturn it right after the election. I’m glad Biden finally got rid of the “legal high ground” concept and started to do some of these “the worst they can say is no” measures.
