“A new federal report shows that the government is expected to forgive at least $108 billion in student debt in the coming years. The relief is part of an Obama administration plan to help borrowers, but is proving far more costly than previously thought. WSJ’s Lee Hawkins explains.” …
Video report, active at time of this posting.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-plans-forgive-108-billion-204202016.html
Will this proposed relief be by Executive Order before Obama leaves office in January?
Can’t open the video from this device.
Try this:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/11/30/us/politics/ap-us-student-loans-forgiveness.html
Executive orders are unfunded. Unless Obama’s writing the check, he can’t forgive the money by executive order.
This is forgiveness because of death or disability, or after being on a payment plan (or perhaps for public service forgiveness) so already scheduled to be forgiven. The Dept of Education just calculated the amount incorrectly.
It’s a national disgrace.
“It’s a national disgrace.”
Why?
What’s a national disgrace? The fact that many borrowed money that they probably shouldn’t have borrowed? Or the fact that taxpayers will take the hit if these loans are forgiven?
First that the federal government would use tax dollars on bad bets.
Second that a college education in the USA would be a bad bet.
Subsidized blank checks are rarely a good idea.
“Second that a college education in the USA would be a bad bet.”
No, I don’t agree.
Those kids are unable to repay their loans. For them it is clearly a bad bet.
I have mixed feelings about this. Agree that death/disability is a good reason to forgive loans, but why not apply potential IRS refunds to federal student loan repayment. What message is this sending to students, if one can borrow money and then not repay it. IF they did this with a car, it would be repossessed, and with a house would be foreclosed on.
The problem with confiscating refunds to pay off student loans is that the refund is for tax not owed i.e… it would be theft. But I agree that simply “forgiving” the debt is a bad deal. The other side of the coin is adjusting who gets the aid in the first place.
I can’t tell you how many people I have seen get aid to go to college or community college and they have no intention or hope of graduating and certainly a very low likelihood of entering the workforce. It is good for the person that he has the diversion and opportunity to go to school but it is not a good economic deal for taxpayers.
@WISdad23 Federal tax refund offsets are used to recoup federal student loan payments that are in arrears… Its not “theft”. http://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/collections/government-collection-tools/tax-offsets/
One third of college graduates are working at jobs that do not require a college degree. This drive to push as many kids as possible to go to college is a tremendous mis-allocation of resources.
@jym626 good point.
I believe the lessons many families and students learned over the years with student loans has had pretty wide ranged impact. Are some still making mistakes borrowing money they will have great difficulty repaying? Yes.
Parents and students signing what they don’t understand is a big mistake. And don’t get bullied into signing/co-signing!
I was not complaining about the defaulting borrower. They are the smartest people in the room - take what you can get and never pay it back. Perfect.
I was complaining about the indiscriminate lender.
When the US gov’t backs the student loans, the lender doesn’t lose $$. If we tightened some of it, the lenders would tighten too, because they are not wanting to write off loan defaults.
“What’s a national disgrace? The fact that many borrowed money that they probably shouldn’t have borrowed? Or the fact that taxpayers will take the hit if these loans are forgiven?”
Well, if it had been my post, I’d answer ‘the latter’. My brother-in-law shouldn’t borrow money to buy waterfront property on Mercer Island, and even if he finds a bank stupid enough to do it, the consequences of his inability to repay should be on his shoulders, no mine.
This isn’t predatory lending. I know what that looks like.