Biden's already eliminated a ton of it. I'm glad to see he's still going on this despite the Supreme Court ruling, and I don't even have student loans.
As opposed to the conservative/regressive approach: "I suffered, therefore you should too. Fuck trying to make things better for people who aren't me."
I'm not American and have no student loans and even I'm glad he's doing it. There might be a common stereotype internationally that Americans are fat lazy assholes, but to tell you the truth, the Americans I know or have met have been the absolute nicest people I know. The ones I work with regularly are also crazy hard workers. There's a lot of potential for good in the US, but oppressive economic systems get in the way for a lot of people and it's just heartbreaking to see.
I myself would love to live in the US, I'd live a very comfortable life as a software engineer, but I just couldn't do it to my future children (there's one well on the way) - the knowledge that they might have to go into debt for medical or education reasons is just too much for me. And while I have a good career, I'll probably never be truly financially independent to the point I could just handle any unexpected expense regardless of magnitude.
Don't think of it as either-or. I doubt I will ever retire but if I do it won't be in the States. I hope my kids go to higher ed and if that happens I am most likely going to push them to go to Germany for it. I have to get dental surgery so the next time I am abroad is when I am going to get it done.
Mine will likely never be eliminated unless it all goes away because I make too much, and that’s totally fine by me. I want as many people to get relief as possible! Public colleges and universities should be free, and student debt should not be a thing. At least not the way it is now.
You deserve relief too. Maybe not all of it but just because you're one of the lucky few that won the job lottery. Still, everyone deserves an education, especially those who will use it to their full advantage.
Another guy who won the job lottery here. I agree that in principle we deserve relief, but we should be at the absolute back of the line. We may deserve it, but we don't need it. A lot of people need it. Those tax dollars are better spent on the less fortunate.
I think it's really worth noting that in the end, the most egregious abuse is the usury. Having to pay multiple values of the principle is the trap most people fall into.
Hey, Y'all Qaeda. Why aren't you focused on that sin against Gaaaaaaawd?
I don't know how many times exactly the Republicans have tried to repeal Obamacare but it's at least 70, so yeah I have no problem with Biden hammering on this issue for as long as it takes to get it done.
I definitely sympathize with people in college debt, but this feels like just temporary wins and doesn't address the real problems. This won't solve the overpriced cost of education. Forgive debt now, a new crop of students will just go into debt next, right?
We need universities to be completely free, universal single payer health care, drastically cheaper housing to rent and own, etc.
I agree but that would require Congress to do something. Trying to accomplish this through executive actions alone might not actually work, but it at least shows voters clearly which party is willing to take action on this issue, and hopefully we will end up with a Congress that is more in line with the will of the people.
I think this might be my key takeaway. He is wiling to address exactly this problem and might continue in the future. Even if you don't benefit from it, it shows a clear path he is willing to take.
Why do you want free universities for degrees that actually give a net benefit?
It is in your sentence. I want things that offer a net benefit. That's why I like fire departments for example. We all benefit from not having uncontrolled fire about.
You’re not wrong. But there are still tools available at the federal level. States also have control over their legal drinking age, but if they want federal assistance for maintaining their roads it has to be 21.
You could set a functional tuition cap by saying Federal Student Aid is only available if tuition is <$15k/year
I will maybe purchase a home before I’m dead. I don’t have a useless degree. In fact, it’s an in-demand field and the salary was considered respectable when I began. Cost of living increases have eaten away at that. But my other choice was to continue to be an assistant at poverty wage. So when the higher salaries and specialties are gatekept by a huge monetary sum you either get a bunch of people with some debt or only the privileged may access knowledge and a brighter future. We have to decide as a society which one we want and stop loathing our neighbors for the system they didn’t create.
He's doing more than he really can, but I also feel this is his way of communicating that he is in fact trying. SCOTUS and the Department of Education has both said it is not within his power, and whether or not I agree, the SCOTUS will likely continue to prevent him from pushing this through.
Realistically our government should be doing much more in aiding people through higher education, but at this point it's like threading a needle.
I am totally for free college. If we can't agree on that, the price should at least be capped or seriously reduced. It seems kind of convienient that the topic is coming up again in an election year. The problem is that both parties are beholden to the military industrial complex. With military recruitment at an all time low, they can't afford to just "give it away" (give it away, give it away, give it away now). The Rethuglicans will use their bullshit "bootstrap" argument, because they only give a shit about a problem when it affects them directly. The Demohypocrites will wring their hands and pretend to try to do something while ceding ground to Repubs so they can make a show of it. It's the corporations that own both parties, and nothing is going to change until we kick these entrenched douchebags out on their asses.
Also, look how easy it is for Congress and POTUS to approve billions for war in Ukraine and billions in money and weapons to keep the genocide in Israel going (with all of the afforementioned hand-wringing, of course).
Democrats "try" all sorts of shit they know has no chance of succeeding and then fumble golden opportunities. Joe Biden is a politician and a trash human being. He created the student debt problem.
The headline: "Biden passes new round of student loan forgiveness!"
The article: "Asian American rail workers earning between $5000 and $7000 per year, who are veterans of the Vietnam War and are currently experiencing homelessness, will now have their student loans forgiven under Biden's new sweeping legislation."
Biden has been against it far longer than he's been for it. I'm voting for him, but let's not pretend he's a good guy here. He had his opportunities to do something and he refused, despite his fellow Democrats begging him to act. He refused to extend the time for the payback; him and no one else.
He has never stated that he's changed his position - he's just thrown out soundbites like he's done so far. No actual action has taken place other than what was already happening without him. He's sped up some already existing processes. Whoopee.
Which part of US leadership supports Israel, then? I mean, backing them at the UN, shipping weapons and stuff? Genuine question, just because from the outside looking in, it really seems like it's the US and only the US propping up Israel right now.
If Democrats were as persistent in pursuing the policies they claim they support as Biden has been about this issue (and only this issue), we would have a living wage nationwide and universal healthcare.
Not really a great analogy though, is it, since Biden wasn't the one who pulled the football up the first time. His administration has also been working constantly, using every way they can, to forgive as much student loan debt as possible. That's after the SCOTUS ruling.
Say what you will about him, but Biden has shown that, at least on this issue, he's doing everything in his power to get rid of as much as possible. And he's already changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of borrowers... Again, after his plan got shot down.
I wouldn't be surprised if they get this done in time for the election... They will try to get the timing right though so it motivates people to vote.
Wasn't there just an article on here about how the richest 1% of Americans (maybe it was globally) made 14.xx trillion in 2023? So 10% of that wealth from a single year could wipe out all student debt. I bet that's less than what they evade in tax liability.
You've unironically shown that he is making an impact. Since taking office the rate of increase slowed down to the point that actual debt has gone down.
Presidents can seldom make decisions that show immediate results and drop things instantly, especially if they don't also have Congress. Where you can see their effect is on the derivative of numbers like this, and that is a decidedly better graph.
I guess my wife was brainwashed into thinking that the student loan that she had been paying for 20 years and was still well into 6 figures was forgiven because of Biden.
Get the fuck out of here with your bullshit. This policy is giving relief to real people.
Why is this college tuition money so hard for Biden to obtain when he is currently going over the head of a different branch of government to get large amounts of money. What's stopping him in this specific case? What works in the other case?
Oh, just in time for another election...gee, what a coincidence.
And, if by some miracle, he doesn't lose to Trump, he'll be just fine and dandy when some "administrative/process complication" blocks it, just like last time.
You must have missed it. When he tried the first time, the Supreme Court stopped him. It wasn't a conspiracy by Biden's administration. And since then his administration has been successfully canceling student loan debt for certain subsections of the population.
That darn court, jeepers. If only Democrats had other levers of power at their disposal...gosh, just bad luck that they're always able to help out their donors, but just can't push through major legislation for the rest of us...
I love that it looks like "biden" is the guy in the back and not the one shooting. Seems accurate for everyone blaming everything on Biden no matter what.
Also, that every single aspect of this gif is either opposite or irrelevant to the news. It's impressive.
Shame the Green Party doesn't seem to care about any races other than President. Maybe a Green majority Congress could eliminate all debt, but having Congressional representation isn't a priority of theirs. It's rather telling.
I agree. Then we should never bail out any industry without public ownership. Also having 2 part times to not pay benefits for one full time shouldn't be rewarded via public benefits for poor earners.
Until we do these things that affect the wealthier, we should get some more equity down here.
Edit: gosh I'm bad at wording this. Tldr: until we make a better plan to level the playing field: we need more and more equity.
I used to feel this way, until I heard how predatory the loans actually are. One woman on John Oliver's segment about it was paying a little over $700/month towards her student loans. Of that, only about $70 of it was actually going towards the principle of the loan, the rest was interest.
Another woman had paid $90k over ten years on her $80k in loans, and still owed $70k. That is just absolute horseshit, no other loan that I know of operates that way outside of payday loans, which an education loan should absolutely not be.
If he can't get the debts forgiven, they should at least cap the interest at no more than 2% so people can actually pay them off. Or make them dischargeable through bankruptcy, but something has to give. Until John Oliver's segment, I didn't realize how bad things were for a lot of people, and while I have no student loan debt (GI Bill for me, fortunately), I still feel for them.
It does suck, but people who go to college know how much they're going to pay. If anything, they should consider starting at a community college. Specialized schools (e.g. nursing schools, pilot school, etc.) often come with higher costs, but people need to weigh the potential benefits against the expenses. Community colleges offer more affordable options for foundational coursework before transferring to a specialized school if needed. Also, a significant portion of students already recieve some form of financial aid.
We pressure teenagers as soon as they are old enough to take on debt to take a huge predatory loan, in a system where teaching personal finance is not a requirement of the education system. We tell kids growing up that their lives will be miserable if they don't go to college, and make them feel that there is no other rational choice but to take on debt.
The government backs this system that prohibits bankruptcy and traps young people in extreme debt before their adult lives have even begun, all so that lenders can make fortunes off of interest payments - lenders that include the government itself.
So, yes, you're right, terrible economic decisions like that should not be rewarded. Borrowers should be forgiven 100% and the lenders who created this mess should be kicked to the curb.