Weekly Opinion Editorial
BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN!
by Steve Fair
Last week, President Joe Biden announced student-loan forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients and other federal borrowers. Pell Grant borrowers could have up to $20,000 forgiven- non-Pell borrowers up to $10,000. Both groups have to make less than $125,000 annually ($250,000 for couples) to qualify. Forgiveness is automatic for borrowers who the Department of Education already has their income information. That could be up to 8 million borrowers. Under Biden's plan, 43 million people stand to have their loan payments reduced, while 20 million would have their debt forgiven altogether.
“There is an entire generation now saddled with unsustainable student loan debt in exchange for a college degree. We’re making incredible progress bringing relief to those that need it and fixing the student loan system so it works for working people,” President Biden said.
Biden’s executive order is expected to be challenged in court. Many believe the president doesn’t have the legal authority to cancel student-loan debt, including it would seem Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. In July 2021, Pelosi said, “People think the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone and delay, but he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.” Care to bet if Peolsi has changed her mind? Three observations:
First, Biden’s debt forgiveness is a blatant effort to help Democrats in the mid-term elections. The economy is struggling, inflation is up and the supply chain remains broken, which has resulted in high prices at the shelf and pump. The Democrats are projected to lose control of the U.S. House and perhaps the Senate in November unless something moves voters to the left.
Nothing motivates voters like getting free stuff (at least free to them), so Biden is hopeful his decree will spike voter turnout from the 43 million recipients of his generosity and keep Democrats in control of Congress.
Politicians of all persuasions/affiliations love to give away taxpayer money as re-election tokens. That’s why taxpayer funded roads, bridges, airports and buildings are named after them and not for the people who actually paid the bill.
Second, Biden’s action is blatantly unfair. The forgiven student-loan debt is not eliminated. It is transferred to taxpayers. People who made a bad decision are rewarded. Responsible citizens are penalized. It’s sad the American government and higher education duped and conned young students into borrowing money to fund their education, but it is not the responsibility of taxpayers to assume that debt. Biden’s executive order reeks of Karl Marx’s famous communism creed: “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
Third, higher education has become about revenue, not education. Colleges and universities sell unqualified students remedial (high school) classes at high prices, knowing those students will not finish college. 39% of the student-loan borrowers did not complete a degree and account for 23% of the total student-loan debt. 55% of those who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree account for 64% of the debt. Working your way through college has become an impossibility because of the high cost of higher education.
The theory that a college degree will pay off in higher income has become a fallacy. The Texas Public Policy Foundation found only half of modern college graduates will recoup their costs of going to college within twenty years and the other half will never make enough to cover what they spent to get their sheepskin.
There is no free! Someone is always paying the bill. Free doesn’t exist in any economic system. Tragically many in America don’t know that, including the current president. They wistfully wander through life, believing debt can simply disappear, and the lakes are stew and whiskey too on Big Rock Candy Mountain.
DEBT CAN'T SIMPLY DISAPPEAR- THERE IS NO FREE IN ANY ECONOMIC SYSTEM!Click the headline to read this full article, DEBT CAN'T SIMPLY DISAPPEAR- THERE IS NO FREE IN ANY ECONOMIC SYSTEM!, at FAIR AND BIASED
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