The convicted felon Donald Trump’s first 100 days back in office have been a train wreck.
He inherited a healthy economy and drove it into a brick wall. He destroyed generations of American leadership in the free world. He claimed powers for himself (not really for his office, but more for himself personally) that are clear violations of the constitution. He’s used the powers of his office (and some he’s invented) to go after everyone who might have crossed him — even civil servants who were just doing their jobs. He’s lined his own pockets and those of his family. Every other day the man commits an impeachable offense — while the complicit congressional Republicans do nothing. In three months Trump has taken the country that has been the greatest force for freedom in the world and turned it into a nation that is one click away from being a banana republic.
But, hey, let’s look on bright side.
It’s painful for me to admit that this guy is right about anything. But he’s dead right on student debt.
Trump is reversing Joe Biden’s wrong-headed policy to forgive student loans. What’s left of Trump’s Department of Education is gearing up to start collecting them again and to go after those who are in default.
It’s simple. You take out a loan. You promise to pay it back. So, pay it back. Trump, of course, wouldn’t apply this rule to himself. Nonetheless, it’s the way adults should act.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has written a well-reasoned and sensible explanation in the Wall Street Journal. She explains that the department will work with debt holders to find ways for them to comply. Like all promises made by this administration, we shouldn’t take this at face value. If we see those in default with shaved heads being duck walked to planes taking them to an infamous prison in El Salvador — and I wouldn’t put anything past these guys — we’ll have to revisit this assessment.
Long-time readers of YSDA will know that there are few things for which we have more contempt than student debt forgiveness, though Trump himself tops the list and NPR is right in there. We’ve outlined a dozen reasons why this is a bad idea, including: it’s a huge transfer of money from the less well-off to the better-off, it’s unnecessary because the average debt amount isn’t onerous, it encourages colleges to increase tuition, it doesn’t solve the underlying concern about the costs of higher education, it doesn’t do anything to address new debts accrued after some are forgiven, it’s unfair to those who didn’t go to college or who dutifully paid back their loans, it encourages irresponsible behavior and there are better ways to spend billions of dollars — if you just had to pay off personal debts for some reason, why not medical debt?
Let’s face it. This was just a blatant payoff from the Democratic Party to its new base of college-educated voters. I get the politics but, as a matter of public policy, it never made any sense whatsoever. And even with regard to its politics, it just pushed blue collar voters further away from the party. Polls show that Americans are split down the middle on this, so it was hardly a clear political winner. It was senseless — I even found it offensive — on so many levels.
When Biden was stopped by the Supreme Court from his most blatant and expensive plan, he found ways to forgive a lot of debt through various back doors. Not only will Trump slam those doors shut, he’s reversing the policy so that the simple idea that when you take out a loan you pay it back will once again be what’s expected. (It would be nice if this expert in bankruptcy would apply that expectation to himself.)
Trump’s wrong — so very wrong — about so much. He’s right about this.
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Trump and the most extreme of his supports hate education. They fear an educated population. There is a big difference between this decision and Biden’s. You might say Biden was buying votes, but there is another possibility: that he was saying what many other people believe. That education is good for people and for society and for many is one of the best ways to get ahead. So obtaining an education should not be just for people who can afford it and kids shouldn’t get into crazy debt to get that education. I feel strongly enough, and so do many other industrialized nations, that it’s important for people to be educated, and think its a great investment, that I’d be happy to pay for everyone to go to school. So maybe, just maybe, Biden was making that point…not trying to fix the system that has education costing what it costs. Plus, those loan providers use some predatory tactics on young people. So there’s that.
Anyway, in other places where education is provided to everyone, through college, their taxes aren’t that much more. But they get so much more, including healthcare. Why does the word socialism bother people more than fascism, or authoritarianism…..America honestly is just getting to be a worse and worse place to live. So much so, that Canada just made that point big time with their election.
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I’d like to see student loan debt forgiveness – provided the Universities pay for it.
In many cases they sold students a product they knew had no value. They should have to pay for it. If that were to happen there would be some long overdue scrutiny on who gets loans and for how much. Same result occurs if the government gets out of the student loan business.
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“it’s a huge transfer of money from the less well-off to the better-off….”
I haven’t paid attention to the details of Biden’s specific policies but there are ways to target student loan debt relief in a way that doesn’t disproportionately benefit the most affluent debtors.
But the idea that student loan debt is inherently a preoccupation of the privileged is patently false. It’s really disorienting to see this narrative emerge about student loans being welfare for the affluent. The affluent don’t take out loans!
Also, lots of non-college graduates have student loans.
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The average college grad makes $1.5 million more over the course of a career than does someone without the degree and the gap grows much wider with advanced degrees. But another way to look at this is why COLLEGE debt? If, for some reason, you thought it was a good idea to pay off personal debt, why not medical debt? In that case, you’re likely to disproportionately benefit people who are less well off, as they’re the ones who can’t afford insurance. I could even make a case that it’d be more fair to pay off car loans as rich folks pay cash for their cars. College is the one form of debt which can be thought of as an investment. Maybe you went $30k in debt (the average) but that’s a good investment for a $1.5 million boost in income.
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