Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues The Biden Administration Biden to Cancel $10,000 in Student Loan Debt

Maybe the boomer generation but not me. I didn't go to college. I was raised by a single mom and she couldn't afford to help with college. I looked into furthering my education. I didn't like what I saw so I didn't go. Crazy how much I would have had to pay back in the end! It. Was. My. Choice. I wasn't forced to go to college.

I was still able to make a living. It wasn't always easy but I did it without going in to debt. I am now only a couple of years away from retirement, and I am earning a 6 digit income and am quite happy.

The fact that something needs to be forgiven at all, makes me think something is wrong to begin with! Why. Not. Fix. That.?

The most important part of the student loan forgiveness is that 20 years of payments must be made. The rest of the loan is interest to the government. Interest = free money to the government.

The free money to the government is being done away with. I have no problem with that.

The interest on my $29,500k loan was literally $100k. THAT is outrageous.


My parents don't help me. Ergo, the student loan. When one is late teens/early 20s, 9% interest over the course of 20+ years, simply was not on the radar. Now-a-days, loans spell out just how much interested will accumulate and what the final payment will be. Back then, that wasn't done.

I wish the term "ladder pulling" got at least half as much media coverage as words like "woke".
That's precisely what all of this is, it's a bunch of rich old men yelling at kids to "stop making excuses and climb ladders of opportunity" as they giggle and pull the ladders up and over their protective walls.

It's the financial equivalent of old men in the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints kicking younger men off the compound at age fourteen and leaving them out in the Utah desert with nothing. It's like turning an entire generation into "Lost Boys".

If you think paying taxes to help folks with higher education is expensive, stop for a moment and tally up the costs of generational ignorance.
So far, I'd wager it has mushroomed into something several times larger than helping kids with their college expenses.

"Everyone's extended education for free?"
No, but I think it is reasonable if we means test the folks who need help and, if they or their parents aren't pulling down six figures or more, we owe it to the less fortunate to help them.
I think it is reasonable to want that but more importantly, it is absolutely necessary if we want society to remain stable, and democratic.

And I don't call it extended education because these days, the current generation (not the ones a couple of years from retirement) cannot get more than minimum wage work without that extended education.

There's still plenty of trades work but not everyone is cut out for it. There are plenty of minds out there that just need the chance to grow.
Not everyone can flex muscles and be a bricklayer, electrician, carpenter or plumber.

For many, this extended education is their only ticket to making a living, and if they don't have the money to plunk down toward a degree, they deserve some help.
We can check the financials and, if they are poor, we can reach into our pockets, it's cheap insurance against slouching towards Kristallnacht.

Now you're talking about fixing it. That's what I'd like to see. A solution before it swamps the student. Maybe free for the proven poor, and/or maybe some kind of low/no interest government loans. I don't agree with forgiving for everyone no matter their needs or habits - widespread giveaway. I believe there are people that would take advantage and not pay even if they are well off.

However, I am not seeing/hearing of anyone in this, or any other administration, suggesting there are controls over the process according to a students financial situation before they take the loan. I'm only hearing about widespread bailouts.

Ladder pulling: To prevent other people from having or enjoying the same advantages or opportunities that you enjoyed by taking away that advantage or opportunity.

Example: Disallowing student loans in bankruptcy when other generations were able to take advantage of doing so.

When someone pays on a student loan for 20 years, how is forgiving the 9% interest - that interest being free money to the Department of Education[ - how is THAT a bailout?

i think any time money is given to people, businesses, corporations, etc... it is a bailout. It's just a term. It could be one of several terms that would mean the same thing.

The people were bailed out during Covid too. That's one reason why we have the inflation we have today - although it has gone down dramatically now, but the prices remain high. That cost the taxpayers, everyone actually, dearly in the long run.

This forgiveness will also cost us in the long run. I've seen numbers around half a trillion dollars in 10 years.

If there is something that can be done to fix the underlaying problem, why not fix it instead? Maybe in the future, we won't need to do more bailouts.

What money is being given to student loan borrowers? The borrowers are paying back the principle.

Nothing is being given - but something IS being taken-away. That take-away is the 9% interest on 20 years worth of loan principle. It's free money that the Department of Education was to receive from the borrower.

Frankly 9% interest is usury. Then again, Congress had no qualms of charging that rate.

I absolutely agree. I once sent a letter to Biden suggesting that all interest should be applied to the loan. My problem, I suspect, is that I really never could figure out who was getting all the interest - the banks that had something to do with it was my suspicion. It was basically, however, my government in the banking business and overcharging while it was at it. I have considered the whole thing just wrong.

Did the Department of Education ever see any money? I did see where Biden recently added a third bank into the deal. One can only wonder..............