Senate votes to kill $400 billion student loan handout, sets up fifth Biden veto

I don't know the specific of this bill, but I'm against student loan forgiveness on its face. It does nothing to address the core issues that created the debt to begin with.

 

Its going to be decided by the courts anyways, like literally everything else in this stupid country

 

It does seem to be the case often, but i wonder who would be better to decide it?

 

I don't know, maybe someone who people actually elected to make decisions?

 

Biden? McCarthy? DeSantis? AOC? All of them?

 

In this case Biden, he simply used a law that allowed him to do what he did, a law that granted him pretty broad emergency powers which don't seem in dispute. And to be honest, the idea that the people suing over his have any standing is pretty dubious. Seems like a case of throwing some shit against the wall hoping it sticks because you didnt like what happened. We just happen to have courts that are willing to give anyone standing, whether its to block this or try to ban a drug thats had FDA approval for 20 years.

 

Im not well versed on the specifics of this case, but clearly there has to be a limit to what qualifies as a legitimate of emergency powers by a president. And this limit must be determined by a body other than the president himself, or else there effectively is no limit.

I’m not saying that this move shouldn’t be permitted. Again I have no idea, but even if we decide that this is a permissible use of that power, such a decision would seem to imply that it would be permissible for the next president to single handedly revoke this decision based on his/her powers. I think I understand why you don’t want courts to be able to weigh in on these decisions, but leaving it entirely in the hands of whomever happens to be president at that moment is troublesome as well.

 

what’s the emergency ?

 

Come on dude
CoVid is always the go to boogeyman emergency. It will be for at least the next decade.

 

I’m generally against paying off someone else’s debts but it’s up to the older generation to make the path easier for future generations to follow. My boomer generation has failed miserably at that, and it’s sad that the President’s efforts at changing that are being obstructed.

 

another way to consider it…. It’s up to the younger generation to learn from the older and not repeat similar mistakes. Just my opinion but Paying off someone else’s grad degree doesn’t move the needle on learning from prior mistakes. More accurate description would be enable

 

Except that technically no one is paying off the debt. It is being erased from the books. I think that’s a more honest discussion.

Folks that have paid back the amount of the principal plus a reasonable amount of interest deserve an honest discussion of the issue. My opinion only.

 

Yes but it’s not their fault the cost of an education has skyrocketed, or that the lending agencies were so willing to give money to a poor risk. Besides why should the government be making a profit on these loans?

 

That can’t be your understanding of this issue. You understand that the money involved came from somewhere, right? It didn’t just manifest from the aether. Banks loan out that money, and it’s guaranteed by the federal government, which means the banks don’t have to bother with normal procedures, such as checking credit scores, collateral, co-signers, and such. Everyone just qualifies, providing they are legitimately in school and — this is key — give their word they will pay it back. When they default (and this is what we are talking about, a massive default), the federal government pays off the loan with tax money. So it’s real money. Not just the erasure of some phantom numbers.

But that isn’t even the disturbing part of this proposition. Let’s just say the premise is correct, that education has gotten too expensive and the burden of these loans outweighs the benefits of the education received. I don’t fully buy into that for several reasons, but let’s just accept it. How does a mass forgiveness of loans solve the original problem? Will education magically get cheaper after this, so no one will need to borrow anymore money? I assess it will get more expensive once people hazardously just crank up the borrowing even more under the assumption that — Meh! — it will just be forgiven by the next round of vote buyers.

Now if this was part of an overall reform of federal education assistance that did away with future grants and guaranteed loans, replacing them with, say, merit-based scholarships in exchange for a term of government service upon graduation, then I would be on board. Otherwise, the moral and fiscal hazard here is enormous even before one takes into account the basic fairness of it.

 

Someone decides to get a liberal arts degree with no job prospects at a 70k a year private school when they could have gone to a public, and we are supposed to eat that cost? Or more to the point, the school is incentivized to keep that crazy behavior up?

No thanks.

but Biden will veto it and they don't have the votes to override, so this is largely theater.

 

Same reason I didn't like the ACA either. This country is really good at trying to patchwork together some half measures on an issue, but never really actually solve the underlying problem.

 

I’ve stated I am not for this but not for the lame reasons above. I just think there are better uses of the money for other groups that the republicans would also oppose.

Ideologically though the Government markup on education is pretty high… I think a rebate like you get at Kohls or Tesla is just fine.

 

I am not sure where I fall on this debate, but the fairness argument seems silly.

Many people who "never chose college or paid off their own college loans" now have kids of their own in college. I for one would not scream "unfair" if my daughters loan debt suddenly vanished.

 

Or just cut the margin in the first place.