Why does Biden keep pushing free handouts for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's the problem they never recognize... that people with lots of student loans almost always have valuable degrees that support very high incomes. Yet the media highlights the sob stories about the small percentage who couldn't graduate with a worthless degree from New Hampshire Backwoods Pine Tree College because their Great Aunt Wilma got sick and had to live under the poor student's front porch. Thus... forgive the loans.

Everyone I know who has had loans forgiven is either well-off or rich.

What I find most annoying about this whole debate is that the original terms of the loan stated forgiveness with 250 on time monthly payments. This was in the loan agreement I signed. The loan servicing companies did not keep track of this information. Many people met the required terms of the loan. I paid 250 payments on time. My income is irrelevant to the discussion because it was taken into consideration in my monthly payments.

I don't understand. When you get a mortgage, you know what your payments will be for 30 years, if you have a 30-year loan. You also know you can pay it off early under the terms of most loan contracts.

How did your student loan differ? If you made the prescribed payments of original amount and interest, you should have paid off the loan in the 250 payments, or what am I missing?

The loan servicing company had to abide by the terms of the contract, just as you had to.

So explain to me like I'm 5 years old why your loan was not paid off in 250 payments per the terms of the contract?

The bipartisan laws that established the federal student loan system allow forgiveness of any remaining principal + interest after 20 years of payments for undergrad loans and 25 of payments for graduate school loans.

If you’re in a “public service” job - teachers, cop, military, federal/state/local government employee, working for a nonprofit - you can get forgiveness after 10 years of on-time payments.

Prior to Joe Biden, the federal government & its contacted loan servicers were doing a horrible job of applying the forgiveness to borrowers allowed under the law. Servicers would loss payment records. The Department of Education wasn’t processing forgiveness & their loan files were a mess. Joe Biden’s administration fixed those issues.

So really, Joe Biden is just making the government abide by its laws and responsibilities. I thought you wanted “law and order”? Well, this is it.

I get it. The loan gets forgiven after 250 payments.

But my question remains. Why is the loan not paid off at the end of the 250 payment period? If you paid off the principal loan amount, plus interest, following an amortization table, there should be no need for loan forgiveness because there should be no unpaid amounts remaining. So why is the loan not paid off at the end of the 250 payment period? I need that part explained like I'm 5 years old.

Because federal law also allows for income-based repayment programs. It’s not a straight line amortization, like a 30Y mortgage. Your minimum payment amount will go up and down, depending on your employment status and earnings. Further, if you get laid off from a job, you can put your loan into forebearance. But your interest will accumulate while you’re not making payments and then get capitalized into the principal balance when you come back out of forebearance and start making payments. So then the interest is now compounding on new, higher amount of principal moving forward.

This is how people ending up paying monthly amounts for 10-15 years but barely touch the principal balance. In short, they are not making enough money to fully cover a principal + interest payment every month. Further, the previous loan servicers were HORRIBLE. They would “accidentally” put people into forbearance without authorization, the interest would get capitalized, and the borrowers had no recourse for a long time despite making payments (that only applied to interest!).

Here’s my personal example: I took out an undergrad loan in 2004. By the time I paid it off in 2010, I had gone through 3 servicers who all had partial documentation of my payments. If you’ve been paying for 20+ years, I guarantee you’ve probably had 4 servicers none of whom had complete information of your payment history. This would never happen with commercial or residential loan servicing with banks because there’s actually lawyers involved and servicers get sued. For student loan borrowers with an incompetent servicer, you actually need to sue the federal government….who can afford that?

[Anonymous]

Alright, thanks for the explanation.

[Anonymous]

Strange how Biden and Democrats are all in on college debt forgiveness, much of which will reimburse debt for tuition spent at private, even religious, universities. But somehow, they’re adamantly against any government funding to parents who want to spend such funds for their K-12 students at private schools. Strange, yet unsurprising hypocrisy.

[Anonymous]

I wonder why the Biden administration doesn’t promote the military’s student-loan forgiveness program. The armed services are reporting difficulty meeting their recruitment goals. Seems those who made the decision to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their education should be required to serve their country for four to six years rather than expecting taxpayers to take care of the loans they don’t want to repay.

None of this debt is “cancelled.” It remains alive and well in the national debt, paid for by taxpayers. Thanks, Biden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strange how Biden and Democrats are all in on college debt forgiveness, much of which will reimburse debt for tuition spent at private, even religious, universities. But somehow, they’re adamantly against any government funding to parents who want to spend such funds for their K-12 students at private schools. Strange, yet unsurprising hypocrisy.

College is optional. Public school are funded by the government. Parochial schools are optional. My tax dollars should not be going to fund your otherwise mandatory christian/Muslim/Jewish <insert religion here> education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why the Biden administration doesn’t promote the military’s student-loan forgiveness program. The armed services are reporting difficulty meeting their recruitment goals. Seems those who made the decision to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their education should be required to serve their country for four to six years rather than expecting taxpayers to take care of the loans they don’t want to repay.

None of this debt is “cancelled.” It remains alive and well in the national debt, paid for by taxpayers. Thanks, Biden.

Please see the lengthy post above to understand why the bolded is horseburgers.

And sure, if we want to have a national service program, I think a lot of people on both sides of the aisle would be supportive. But is should be for everyone, not just those who are "taking" from the government. The right doesn't like "socialism" and the right wouldn't want their kids to be compelled into service, so it will never happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange how Biden and Democrats are all in on college debt forgiveness, much of which will reimburse debt for tuition spent at private, even religious, universities. But somehow, they’re adamantly against any government funding to parents who want to spend such funds for their K-12 students at private schools. Strange, yet unsurprising hypocrisy.

College is optional. Public school are funded by the government. Parochial schools are optional. My tax dollars should not be going to fund your otherwise mandatory christian/Muslim/Jewish <insert religion here> education.

So are you for or against “forgiving” student loans for people who have gone to private and/or religious universities? Because yes, college IS optional, and I’m not interested in paying for other people’s kids to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why the Biden administration doesn’t promote the military’s student-loan forgiveness program. The armed services are reporting difficulty meeting their recruitment goals. Seems those who made the decision to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their education should be required to serve their country for four to six years rather than expecting taxpayers to take care of the loans they don’t want to repay.

None of this debt is “cancelled.” It remains alive and well in the national debt, paid for by taxpayers. Thanks, Biden.

Please see the lengthy post above to understand why the bolded is horseburgers.

And sure, if we want to have a national service program, I think a lot of people on both sides of the aisle would be supportive. But is should be for everyone, not just those who are "taking" from the government. The right doesn't like "socialism" and the right wouldn't want their kids to be compelled into service, so it will never happen.

DP. Not sure what you’re trying to say. Do you think taxpayers enjoy being compelled into paying for other people’s college loans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why the Biden administration doesn’t promote the military’s student-loan forgiveness program. The armed services are reporting difficulty meeting their recruitment goals. Seems those who made the decision to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their education should be required to serve their country for four to six years rather than expecting taxpayers to take care of the loans they don’t want to repay.

None of this debt is “cancelled.” It remains alive and well in the national debt, paid for by taxpayers. Thanks, Biden.

+100
Exactly this.

[Anonymous]

This is the reason I'm sitting out in 2024. There are others like me. We just don't respond to polls honestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason I'm sitting out in 2024. There are others like me. We just don't respond to polls honestly.

Nothing bold about letting other people speak for you. People fought and died for the right to vote. Are you ignorant or are you a troll trying to encourage voter apathy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's the problem they never recognize... that people with lots of student loans almost always have valuable degrees that support very high incomes. Yet the media highlights the sob stories about the small percentage who couldn't graduate with a worthless degree from New Hampshire Backwoods Pine Tree College because their Great Aunt Wilma got sick and had to live under the poor student's front porch. Thus... forgive the loans.

Everyone I know who has had loans forgiven is either well-off or rich.

What I find most annoying about this whole debate is that the original terms of the loan stated forgiveness with 250 on time monthly payments. This was in the loan agreement I signed. The loan servicing companies did not keep track of this information. Many people met the required terms of the loan. I paid 250 payments on time. My income is irrelevant to the discussion because it was taken into consideration in my monthly payments.

I don't understand. When you get a mortgage, you know what your payments will be for 30 years, if you have a 30-year loan. You also know you can pay it off early under the terms of most loan contracts.

How did your student loan differ? If you made the prescribed payments of original amount and interest, you should have paid off the loan in the 250 payments, or what am I missing?

The loan servicing company had to abide by the terms of the contract, just as you had to.

So explain to me like I'm 5 years old why your loan was not paid off in 250 payments per the terms of the contract?

The bipartisan laws that established the federal student loan system allow forgiveness of any remaining principal + interest after 20 years of payments for undergrad loans and 25 of payments for graduate school loans.

If you’re in a “public service” job - teachers, cop, military, federal/state/local government employee, working for a nonprofit - you can get forgiveness after 10 years of on-time payments.

Prior to Joe Biden, the federal government & its contacted loan servicers were doing a horrible job of applying the forgiveness to borrowers allowed under the law. Servicers would loss payment records. The Department of Education wasn’t processing forgiveness & their loan files were a mess. Joe Biden’s administration fixed those issues.

So really, Joe Biden is just making the government abide by its laws and responsibilities. I thought you wanted “law and order”? Well, this is it.

I get it. The loan gets forgiven after 250 payments.

But my question remains. Why is the loan not paid off at the end of the 250 payment period? If you paid off the principal loan amount, plus interest, following an amortization table, there should be no need for loan forgiveness because there should be no unpaid amounts remaining. So why is the loan not paid off at the end of the 250 payment period? I need that part explained like I'm 5 years old.

Because federal law also allows for income-based repayment programs. It’s not a straight line amortization, like a 30Y mortgage. Your minimum payment amount will go up and down, depending on your employment status and earnings. Further, if you get laid off from a job, you can put your loan into forebearance. But your interest will accumulate while you’re not making payments and then get capitalized into the principal balance when you come back out of forebearance and start making payments. So then the interest is now compounding on new, higher amount of principal moving forward.

This is how people ending up paying monthly amounts for 10-15 years but barely touch the principal balance. In short, they are not making enough money to fully cover a principal + interest payment every month. Further, the previous loan servicers were HORRIBLE. They would “accidentally” put people into forbearance without authorization, the interest would get capitalized, and the borrowers had no recourse for a long time despite making payments (that only applied to interest!).

Here’s my personal example: I took out an undergrad loan in 2004. By the time I paid it off in 2010, I had gone through 3 servicers who all had partial documentation of my payments. If you’ve been paying for 20+ years, I guarantee you’ve probably had 4 servicers none of whom had complete information of your payment history. This would never happen with commercial or residential loan servicing with banks because there’s actually lawyers involved and servicers get sued. For student loan borrowers with an incompetent servicer, you actually need to sue the federal government….who can afford that?

"By the time I paid it off in 2010, I had gone through 3 servicers who all had partial documentation of my payments. If you’ve been paying for 20+ years, I guarantee you’ve probably had 4 servicers none of whom had complete information of your payment history. "

These two sentences are a lie. I guarantee they are. This would violate so many state and federal statutes, it's not funny. Nope. Not buying that for a second.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason I'm sitting out in 2024. There are others like me. We just don't respond to polls honestly.

Nothing bold about letting other people speak for you. People fought and died for the right to vote. Are you ignorant or are you a troll trying to encourage voter apathy?

I'm a different poster who also won't vote for president this year. My kid paid off her student loans by working two jobs, while her friends are getting these handouts. I also don't respond to polls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason I'm sitting out in 2024. There are others like me. We just don't respond to polls honestly.

Nothing bold about letting other people speak for you. People fought and died for the right to vote. Are you ignorant or are you a troll trying to encourage voter apathy?

I'm a different poster who also won't vote for president this year. My kid paid off her student loans by working two jobs, while her friends are getting these handouts. I also don't respond to polls.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason I'm sitting out in 2024. There are others like me. We just don't respond to polls honestly.

Nothing bold about letting other people speak for you. People fought and died for the right to vote. Are you ignorant or are you a troll trying to encourage voter apathy?

I'm a different poster who also won't vote for president this year. My kid paid off her student loans by working two jobs, while her friends are getting these handouts. I also don't respond to polls.

I think there's a lost of people upset by these forgiveness schemes but who are keeping quiet because a small number of people w/ debt are super loud. This will come back to hurt Biden in November.