That may have been so based only on how the PPP was written by the Republicans in Congress and the Trump admin, but is there any moral or ethical reason why a PPP loan should have been forgivable while student loans should not? I don’t see it. Seems to me this is just a case of choosing why one giveaway is ok and another is not. Aka hypocrisy. The bigger concern with the PPP loans were the massive cases of fraud, which is a mess of white collar cases that will take years to adjudicate (and many fraudsters will probably be acquitted or never caught in the first place). If anything, if this is a “giveaway” at least it’s benefits more people directly, and isn’t susceptible to practically uncapped fraud due to the $10k limit and that the beneficiaries are already in the student loan system. There will likely be very little fraud with something like this. The biggest people that should have an issue are those that literally just paid off their loans before the pandemic began, victims of timing. I would also understand small businesses who never took PPP loans or never took student loans being a bit peeved. But for those who took PPP, any who received forgiveness of >$10k (let alone millions), sorry but I can only see them as massive hypocrites.
Nah, can you actually make that 100k? And remember, THOSE loans are forgivable. Also, I make over 100k annually.
No but if they wipe out 10 grand those people will put themselves in debt another 10. They were irresponsible the first time, they will be again.
Swing state democrats want no part of the loan forgiveness circlejerk. Terrible politically and worse policy. Democrats in tough races distance themselves from Biden’s student loans decision
There is a legitimate issue here, so why lie by bullshitting about 80,000 armed IRS agents? People get tired of reading this kind of crap.
Next logical step in the process is to add more CI agents. I'll admit there won't be 80,000 agents (a bit of tongue and cheek) but the question becomes why does the IRS need guns and ammo? I can understand a CI division that pours through tax records and identifies fraud but enforcement should be handled by law enforcement. No need to panic: The IRS buys guns and ammo every year for criminal investigations It has recently been reported in the news that the IRS spent $725,000 on ammunition this year. It has resulted in a lot of speculation by our political leaders and the media. Consequently, it has caused many people to be concerned about the government and the IRS’s intentions. IRS Special Agents work in the IRS Criminal Investigation unit known as CI. Special Agents are law enforcement officers trained to “follow the money.” They investigate potential criminal violations of the IRS Code and related financial crimes. CI Agents will identify themselves with credentials which include a gold badge, and generally travel in pairs. They are assigned to cases to investigate criminal activity. Anyone contacted by a CI Agent should request an attorney even if they are being questioned as witnesses. Criminal Investigation (CI) At-a-Glance IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) is comprised of nearly 3,500 employees worldwide, approximately 2,500 of whom are special agents whose investigative jurisdiction includes tax, money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act laws. While other federal agencies also have investigative jurisdiction for money laundering and some bank secrecy act violations, IRS is the only federal agency that can investigate potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code.
While I’m not a fan of the policy this may be the best “fight” the Dems have given on a topic. Team Dem has had some good jabs.
Just a comment/question. Considering the interest on these loans, is it possible that if payments had been made going to principle only these loans would have been paid off already? Should the government be making money off of these borrowers? I think it’s important to also remember that these borrowers are tax payers, too.
That's a good question and one I'm still mulling over. On the one hand it seems reasonable on the other I think about institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Should they be included as well? In both instances I'm leaning heavily toward no but I would like to hear your argument for such a policy. In a sense it would be implementing tax payer free education on a limited scale. This solution however does not address the rising costs of higher education yet it assumes those that get such loans are strapped because of interest rates. My view is the people that have issues paying their student loans would still have problems paying down the debt regardless of interest rates. This solution reminds me of credit card enticements of consolidation with no interest for a year. The trick is to make payments on time and pay off the debt before years end. Credit card companies know this is not a likely occurrence as you will use the credit card to accrue more debt.
I frequently used to take advantage of the “free money” from credit card companies as I hopped from one offer to another
Correct. I've had friends pay every. single. month for years and because of the predatory interest rates, they've barely put a dent into the principle. Companies like Nelnet, Navient and Sally Mae can burn to the ground. They're preying on kids who went to college to try and better themselves and got stiffed with corporate greed practices.
You might have said 80,000 armed IRS agents tongue in cheek, but it is a Republican Party talking point to say 76,000 new revenue agents. Ted Cruz and most other Republican elected officials that I have heard talk about it knowingly lie about the number of revenue agents that will be hired. The IRS has 70,000 or so employees to handle hundreds of millions of tax returns, collect trillions of dollars of Taxes, develop 1,000’s of forms, process an enormous number of applications for tax-exempt status, audit taxpayers, find people who don’t file their tax returns, pay refunds, process elections such as for subchapter S corporations, etc. It is severely understaffed. I am a tax lawyer. I have never dealt with an armed IRS agent, and I have dealt with a boatload of agents. The ones who are armed are federal law enforcement officers. They are properly trained. You wear a gun when you decide to arrest Al Capone for tax evasion.
It's so much easier to boil it down to " you borrowed the money pay it back!" I hardly ever debate this issue with people especially people who use generic memes that disregard interest rates, education costs, unsubsidized predatory loans or how much people have actually paid back but have been drowning in interest.
