We have been discussing how both parties in Washington have been spending wildly for years in pushing the country to unprecedented and crippling debt levels. We recently passed the “red line” of 106 percent of our GDP. The roughly $27 trillion debt has not however deterred members who continue to push proposals to tack on trillions. That was the case yesterday when Sen. Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren are calling on President Trump to cancel $50,000 in federal student loan debt next year. Some 43 million Americans hold more than $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt. Such proposals may have merit but my concern is over the lack of any plan on dealing with the debt as well as the fact that this massive increase would be done by executive order.
The proposals may be a foreshadowing of a greater push to use unilateral executive powers under Joe Biden if he wins the election. The senators insisted that the Secretary of Education has “broad administrative authority” granted by Congress to cancel federal student loan debt under section 432(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Thus, they are arguing for the president to simply wipe out the debt by taking “executive action to broadly cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt.”
I have long been critical of such unilateral executive actions to order massive increases in debt or the negation of federal laws. We need a serious debate over the leveraging of the future on the mounting debt for this rising generation. I am worried about this college debt but I am also worried about these students facing decades of debt that must be paid off by the government. We need a comprehensive debt plan. Politicians are casually referring to trillion dollar increases in a variety of different packages. Many long-standing goals are being refashioned as “stimulus measures” but they would pile more debt on an economic recovery that could already be difficult after the pandemic.
Not true that there’s an equivalent in how the Dems and repubs handle the issue of deficits, Turley, As we know, after the initial stimulus and QE policy of Obama’s first year in office deficits came down. That’s never happened in republican administration in modern history. Hell, Dick Cheney was even quoted famously as saying deficits don’t matter. So…, convenient omission on your part and a completely Turley-esque venture into ‘what aboutism’.
But you’re just working in the Repub talking points for when Biden takes office, I know, I know…, it’s your job.
Hey, maybe be brave and talk about the fact we have a president who is saying openly now he’s not going to respect the tradition of peaceful transfer of power???
What a great possibility. I have deposited tens of thousands of dollars into 529 funds so my grandchildren won’t be swamped with college debt. Now I’ll wait for Biden to be sworn in and forgive the debt, cash in the 529s with penalty only on earnings, and let the government absorb the debt from the loans. Vote Biden, everyone!
Unfortunately, I have been doing the same thing for my grandkids. But, since my Grandkids are still about eight years from college, by that time there will be no more loan forgiveness, and the colleges will have raided their tuition greatly, because of the Government loan forgiveness. This phony grandstanding by the Dems, is strictly to get people who have these outstanding loans to vote for Harris/Biden in November.
They don’t have a clue, that when they go to work and pay taxes, they will be the ones paying back all the debt, since the Government only gets money from working people’s taxes.
FreeForAll…. Just so you know, my comment was made rather facetiously as I strongly oppose this debt forgiveness. My oldest granddaughter had her heart set on Swarthmore, but the cost was prohibitive even with the aid they offered. So she settled on a much cheaper state school. She’s now a senior, and if she had thought her debt would be forgiven, she certainly would have taken the loan and attended her school of choice. That’s what would be so unfair with Biden’s proposal. She worked throughout her high school years and in college has 3 part time jobs. Her reward for all this savings and attending a lesser college will be to watch others have their debt wiped away. Fortunately in her case I started the 529 process when she was a senior in high school, so it wasn’t prudent to set one up for her. I set her money aside in investments and have been handing her cash each year. My grandson is also in college, and I definitely will cash in the 529 if there is loan forgiveness.