c'mon Ocho, seriously? You're still surprised after that trainwreck DeVoss and her push to distribute fed monies to private edu? After the SCOTUS win to appropriate fed. moneys to religious schools? After the continuous attacks via CRT and every other made up right wing nonsense to push "school choice" and "vouchers"? I get these loans were way back maybe pre-Obama, but the Trump university grift is an old one. Sounds to me like Joe's keeping a campaign promise rather than buying votes. The executive does have the authority to wipe student debt. Whether peeps will sue and obstructionist SCOTUS will usurp further power from the executive is a different matter entirely.
WaPo: Biden’s student loan announcement is a regressive, expensive mistake The loan-forgiveness decision is even worse. Widely canceling student loan debt is regressive. It takes money from the broader tax base, mostly made up of workers who did not go to college, to subsidize the education debt of people with valuable degrees. Though Mr. Biden’s plan includes an income cap, the threshold does not reflect need or earnings potential, meaning white-collar professionals with high future salaries stand to benefit. Student loans, moreover, are a poor proxy for household income: An analysis by policy researcher Jason D. Delisle found that, in 2016, students from high-income and low-income families were just as likely to take on debt for their first year in an undergraduate program — and students from high-income families borrowed the largest amounts. Mr. Biden’s plan is also expensive — and likely inflationary. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that extending the loan pause to the end of the year would cost $20 billion, while forgiving $10,000 for households making less than $300,000 would cost $230 billion. Together, these policies would nullify nearly a decade’s worth of deficit reduction from the Inflation Reduction Act. Moreover, it is unclear that the 1965 Higher Education Act even grants the president the legal authority to take such a sweeping step, given that it was historically understood to permit only more targeted relief. True, Mr. Biden did not go as far as many on the left wanted: Democratic lawmakers and activists had urged the White House to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt, with no income limits. Mr. Biden was right to rule that out earlier this year — and would have been wise to focus on reforms that help the neediest.
I’m going to cross post this as there are two threads going with this… Transactional politics may never be so clear as Biden’s student debt forgiveness and Trump’s tax cuts:
It turns out that many Republican politicians have not paid back their loans. Rep. Jim Jordan's Cry To Repay Loans Unintentionally Targets Fellow Republicans The Twitter account linked to the Republican congressman was slammed with replies that pointed to GOP colleagues who haven't paid back their debts. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jim-jordan-gop-loan-repayment_n_630705ffe4b0e323a25bcf33 For example... Trump says report that he failed to pay $287M debt tied to failing hotel shows he’s a “smart guy” Trump boasts about taking out hundreds of millions in loans and then strong-arming banks into letting him default https://www.salon.com/2020/10/28/tr...-tied-to-failing-hotel-shows-hes-a-smart-guy/
Love how the GOP forgets all the time they bailed out corporations who were failing in paying money they owed as well...
Some more details about the loan plan --- including other aspects of the plan such as capping monthly payments which assists people who don't have loans cancelled (or portions above $10K cancelled). Biden announces new plan to cut some student loan payments in half https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/08/24...eness-new-proposal-cuts-payments-in-half.html The highly anticipated update on student loans is here: The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for individuals making less than $125,000 a year or married couples or heads of household making less than $250,000 a year, and up to$20,000 for Pell Grant recipients who meet the same income requirements. The pause on student loan repayment, interest and collections will be extended "one final time" through Dec. 31. Additionally, the Department of Education proposed a new income-driven repayment plan that could cut monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans, deliver forgiveness for some borrowers 10 years sooner, and make it easier to enroll in such payment plans. How the repayment plan would work Capping monthly payments First, the program would cap monthly payments on undergraduate federal loans to 5% of a borrower's discretionary income, down from the typical 10%. Borrowers with both undergraduate and graduate loans will pay a weighted average rate. The White House expects the average annual student loan payment will be lowered by more than $1,000 for current and future borrowers. Increasing threshold for non-discretionary income The plan would also increase the threshold of what's considered non-discretionary income that's protected from repayment. The White House says this will guarantee anyone earning below the annual equivalent of a $15 minimum wage will not have to make a monthly payment. The White House gives the following example of how monthly payments would shrink under the proposed changes: A typical single public school teacher with an undergraduate degree, making $44,000 a year, would pay only $56 a month on their loans, compared to the $197 they pay now under the most recent income-driven repayment plan. This would add up to an annual savings of nearly $1,700. Covering unpaid monthly interest The plan would cover a borrower's unpaid monthly interest as long as they make a monthly payment. This ensures "no borrower's loan balance will grow as long as they make their monthly payments," the White House said. Borrowers making a monthly payment of $0 due to unemployment or low income will also be covered. Forgiving some loan balances earlier And finally, the proposed plan would forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments, instead of the usual 20 years, for those with original loan balances of $12,000 or less. The Department of Education estimates this will allow nearly all community college borrowers to be debt-free within 10 years. Existing income-driven repayment is 'too complex and too limited' The Department of Education provides four types of income-driven repayment plans, which cap monthly payments based on the borrower's income and household size. These types of repayment plans have existed for some time, but "existing versions of these plans are too complex and too limited," the White House said. "As a result, millions of borrowers who might benefit from them do not sign up, and the millions who do sign up are still often left with unmanageable monthly payments." It expects the proposed changes will "substantially reduce future monthly payments for lower- and middle-income borrowers." The plan will also make it easier for borrowers to enroll starting in summer 2023. Borrowers will be able to let the Department of Education automatically pull their income information, rather than having to recertify each year. The draft rule will be published on the Federal Register in the coming days and open to public comment for 30 days afterward.