To use political jargon, Nikki Haley—who has lost primary contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and her home state of South Carolina—does not have a snow ball’s chance in hell of winning the GOP nomination for president. Still, she is apparently intent on not going down without a fight, and to that end, the former governor has a message for voters: Anyone who votes for Donald Trump has a death wish for America.
Honestly Biden has been pretty great, and the only really liberal thing he’s doing is forgiving student debt. That’s not that radical or expensive.
He doesn’t go far enough, imo, but with this Congress he can’t. I’d love to see a top marginal rate of 80% for earnings over 4 million per year.
I’d consider voting for someone slightly worse and younger, but that candidate doesn’t exist this year. There’s a hell of a lot worse, more loyal to Putin than America, fascist, and still about the same age.
I disagree that forgiving student debt is a good thing. They signed a contract and they should abide by it. I do think that he should be fixing the root cause: why is college so expensive and what can we do to make it more accessible? Also, why are student loans so predatory? Why can the interest rate exceed inflation?
I would also love to see a high marginal tax rate, but I disagree with the 4 million cut off. We shouldn’t write in 4 million. It should be an equation of X times the poverty rate.
And yeah, there’s no good candidates this year
I don’t understand: if you acknowledge that the loans are predatory, why shouldn’t the victims be entitled to relief, as is perfectly normal under contract law? Furthermore, about 92% of student loans are considered “federal loans,” made up of money from the government.
What is the proper way to handle the situation?
They should be entitled to refinance from their initial principal to a loan with an interest rate of not more than inflation.
If they’ve paid off more than that amount, they should get a check. If they haven’t, they should keep paying the new loan.
It seems like this is just another way to do the same thing though except with more paperwork required by those seeking relief.
What good does it do to effectively make borrowers pay with their time when the government already knows who should be entitled to that relief?
Moreover, it wasn’t blanket student loan forgiveness in the EO. The recipients include:
Borrowers with Income-Driven Repayment Plans: The administration proposed changes to income-driven repayment plans to make them more generous. These changes could result in lower monthly payments for borrowers and eventual forgiveness after 20-25 years of qualifying payments.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program Participants: The Biden administration temporarily relaxed the requirements for the PSLF program, allowing more types of payments and loans to qualify. This program is designed for individuals who work in public service jobs for either a government or a non-profit organization, offering forgiveness of remaining debt after 10 years of qualifying payments.
Borrowers Defrauded by For-Profit Colleges: The Biden administration has been discharging loans for borrowers who were misled or defrauded by certain for-profit institutions, under the Borrower Defense to Repayment program.
Total and Permanent Disability Discharge: The administration has also taken steps to streamline the process for borrowers who are totally and permanently disabled to have their loans discharged.
Targeted Forgiveness Initiatives: President Biden announced a plan for broad student loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 for individuals earning less than $125,000 per year, or households earning less than $250,000, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
These seem like good measures to me to get people to be able to afford homes and retirement; from a consequentialist perspective, it seems like a faster and more effective way to improve our nationwide economy.
Forgiving student debt would provide financial relief for 50million+ (a good chunk of the country) and would quite literally provide an economic boon instantly. Not to mention the millions of POC that would give immediate upward mobility. If the govt can bail out big business and forgive their PPP loans during the pandemic they can afford to cut student loans. I agree with you on your other points though.
Here’s the thing. We shouldn’t have bailed out big businesses in the first place. We should claw back that money. We shouldn’t have to bail out people with student loans. We should fix the root cause and give them a non-predatory option.
Also, we need reparations for black people.
I completely agree with all of that. Forgiveness is merely a bandaid for a broader solution, but providing intermediary relief is not saying we shouldn’t also address the root cause.
What would you say to pausing the payments until a solution can be found?