Biden plan would forgive only 17%
By Guy Page
Vermonters currently hold $2.9 billion in student debt, Sen Bernie Sanders said yesterday.
President Biden’s plan, if implemented, would eliminate about 17% of that debt, according to statistics provided by Sanders. Individuals who earn $125,000 or less (or $250,000/household) are eligible, according to studentaid.gov. Sanders urged qualified Vermonters to enroll in the program immediately.
“Vermont, which continues to rank as one of the most educated states in the country, has approximately 77,000 borrowers who hold about $2.9 billion in student loan debt with an average debt load of about $37,000,” Sanders said. Sanders does not cite a source for his figures. “Under the Biden administration’s plan, more than $500 million in student debt would be cancelled for Vermonters and the number of borrowers in Vermont who owe student debt would drop by 45%.”
Sanders, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said he wants to make public colleges and universities tuition-free. In yesterday’s statement, he did not say how the free schooling would be funded, or whether Congress needs to endorse the program, or what impact the drastic decline in federal loan payments would have on ObamaCare health insurance subsidies.
As noted yesterday by Libertarian House candidate Ericka Redic, billions of dollars of interest received from the federal loans are reinvested as subsidies for federal health care insurance.
Worked hard, risked much for her education – Vermonters took to social media to opine about the federal student loan forgiveness plan. One of the more distinctive comments came from former Mendon Rep. Job Tate, who is a Navy Seabee. Seen in the photo above with a comrade named Cole, he Tweeted: “Cole sacrificed so much to raise her hand, defend her nation and risk life and limb to get the GI Bill, covering 50% of her tuition while she covered the rest with her overseas earnings. While millions stayed home tweeting about their debt grievances from Starbucks.”
Categories: Education
Our tax dollars hard at work helping to bail out a bunch of irresponsible wussies who took out loans that some of them should never have been allowed to take out. But why should I mind ? I’ve been paying for somebody else’s little genius to get an education since I got my first job in 1975.
Bern- man has never seen a giveaway he didn’t love.
Also if you work you are paying people to reproduce via the Child Tax Credit.
I don’t get it. I managed to pay off my student loan despite being a broke single mom with a young child. Now I get to pay off the student loans for people earning way more than I ever have or will?
Myself as well. I think this to be another ploy in the Dems grab-bag of quick-fixes to garner votes in November.
To heck with student debt.
I am holding out for mortgage forgiveness.
You mean I have to work for 40 years to pay this off???? No dinners out, no movies , no vacations, no sports cars… how fair is that? Now if I can only get you to pay for my piece of the pie everything( for me at least) will be hunky dory. My thanks in advance!
My apologies to the working peeps of the country that did not get cut on this boondoggle and choose to work and become the fabric of this nation rather than continuation of training to be on the dole. We no longer have accountability for choices made. We have children with a set of expectations saying they need to have it all now. We have educational institutions with unlimited demands and have allowed their costs to escalate beyond reasonable needs. What happened to their endowments? They hide in their tax exempt status and bleed the students and, now, the nation white.
These children have made choices. The debt is part of the educational process. How come they have not figured it out there needs to be a way to pay for this? Missed that class I guess. How about signing up and getting VA benefits, or working in Americore or joining in the Peace Corps going to night school and working during the day or some other if the myriads where you pay something back to society and get something in return?
There are choices and there are consequences. These children have made their choices. There needs to be attendant consequences both pro and con.
FYI just to show some empathy… how about reducing the interest rate on these loans to reasonable levels. This has a quick and balances effect on payments made.They will still own their debt. Unfortunately, what will also come to the surface are all the other programs these -non market -high rates are funding… more to come as this all unfolds.
Ps, since my children and I have already paid off all student debt any chance this can become retroactive????
I recall Obama handing out student loans like candy and then jacking the interest rate; another cover story for loan sharking via the US government.
Exactly Kathi, when I paid off my student loans (I went as a single mother of 3 after divorce, and low and behold the father “suddenly many health problems”, and the court (orleans county) let him off the hook..parental alienation before it was a “real” issue and I needed to support my family and my mom (who lived with us). long story short, I paid mine and middle son parent plus loan …I’m not a happy camper about this. Interest on my loans 2% by the time my son graduated 8.5, of course that was after that “Obama” thing….and government seeing so much money to be made on the working class especially, and the big bucks to be had be the financer…..they counted it in the budget. What’s going on now, not just the loans, but the actions during the “plandemic”, the so called “inflation reduction” (aka “climate change bill” which bernie had the opportunity to vote no and STOP it) and the overextended overpaid handouts from this administration (rescue plan?., destroy is more like it) are BUYING VOTES, plain and simple…see it for what it is. The propaganda we have seen, heard (thank god for this news and Guy Page, True North and various other sources staying ontop of what is really going on from another point of view)…the propaganda machine is alive and well similar, major media is bought and paid for abc,nbc,cbs,cnn,nyt,and so on (the target differs, but its the same plan) to the 30’s Germany……..I know people will disagree, but the constant telling you the story, your eyes see something different, and then most or many believe the over and over and over story ………where is this going ?? This is SCARY …
College debt forgiveness should be payed by people with viceful jobs. And given to people with needed jobs like doctors (not genital mutilators).
Porn industry, gender studies, planned parenthood. And people that are trying to get into these practices.
Working class people should be free frome having to pay a they/them gender studies degree.
The ones with viceful jobs should have to pay the forgiveness
Do these politicians not realize that all this GIVING AWAY OF FREE MONEY is what is responsible for the inflation, the drop in stock values and the shortage of workers?
I could understand if certain professions which are in high demand and of great societal importance were given some reprieve from the debt associated with their training. We need nurses, law enforcement officers and engineers. We dont need more poets, art history experts and gender studies professors. What about the person who worked a side job while in high school to make a down payment and borrowed the rest to purchase earth moving equipment to start a business as an excavator? A loan for equipment is as much an investment in their future as is a college degree for someone else. You need somewhere to live so why not forgive home mortgages? You need transportation, so why not pay off everyone’s car loans?
Where does this end, Bernie? The US is awash in college graduates with worthless degrees…why would we subsidize something that we have too much of?
Roughly $836 Million added to the National Debt daily, on top of the (more than) $30 Trillion. We have zero money to bail out people with college debt. Even if what the person sitting in the President’s chair was doing was considered constitutional [ WHICH IT IS NOT ], there is no money to give away. Constitutionally the Executive branch has no access to the money. The House is the master of the purse, which requires legislation. Without the provisions of God to right this ship, and remove idiots from any authority; we are destined to become just like all other former empires of history.
Where is Bernie’s outrage on University price gouging via their ever increasing tuitions? He’s readily available and expressing outrage when it’s “Corporate Greed” but nowhere to be found when it’s “University greed”. We all know why since it’s the universities which supports his cultural Marxists. Now the kick in the pants is taxpayers have to pay the loans for these deadbeat students. How about having the Universities pay for the loans vs taxpayers? Let’s hope voters are hoping mad when they get into the election booth in November 2022.
I can’t figure out these people that claim they’ve been paying student loans for 10 or 12 years and now owe more than they borrowed. If you pay at least the amount of interest each month, it can’t go up. Paid my loans, helped kids out and paid mortgages for many years. Each month, the balance owed droppede
…gracious Me-O-My…is that the way loans work? …say the privileged hordes of uneducated but expensively schooled baccalaureates.
Hey sanders, its not our fault they decided to study something they can’t get a decent paying job out of. let them learn the hard way.
Just want to say Ericka Redic is totally against this. There is more to her comment you should hear.
I’m now a senior citizen trying to live on a fixed income. Divorce and lawyers, housing and other hardships as well as student loans have always prevented me from accumulating savings. I worked as a teacher for 30 years at a nationally low salary, in Vermont. Thank God for my mom who helped as much as she could . Where is my bailout?? I have a M.Ed. and no one will employ me due to age discrimination and a lack of jobs that do not involve CRT and trans gender education. I will not do it!! I still have to work to live! Instead I get higher taxes, food, gas, and less retirement because a large chunk of the Vermont Teachers Pension was borrowed by the Legislature and never paid back! Vermont and the Nation is in serious cliff hanging trouble under this Progressive/ Democrat rule. Socialism does not work!! You’ve been brainwashed and are selfishly considering just yourselves. This is a political ploy to get you to think the Progressive Democrats are giving you benefits in exchange for votes. What you don’t see is you, your children and grandchildren will be paying for this the rest of their lives paycheck to paycheck along with the Trillion dollars they have already spent. Wake up!!
Barb……Brainwashing is exactly whats going on if one watches / reads mainstream media. And politics/media is all of one now…….I said it before and say it again..The propaganda machine is alive and thriving…….Humans……Please wake up
Once again, sanders hubris is stunning. Only 17%? of course sanders the socialist wouldn’t be satisfied if it was 110%. Thats how he rolls. To remove tax dollars from a working persons pocket to gift to others is bad enough, but to declare it’s not enough? it must be quite something to live in bernie’s world. isolated and secure as a benefit of his office, protected from investigation (Burlington College) by other elitist
politicians. My- how far the USA has fallen, under the guise of this grifters alleged “leadership”.
University education has created a pervasively abusive cartel. The Federal Student Loan program has transferred trillions of tax dollars to American higher education institutions, enriching endowments, funding esoteric academic disciplines, building luxurious resorts like campuses, paying market detached salaries for a privileged tenured mandarin class of “scholars” to guide/correct us with their orthodoxy. We have given ourselves a gating system where university degrees are required for access to the employment pool and class ascendency. Students are the victims of a system that manipulates them to take extortionate loans to get a key to that gate. Once through the gate students discover they have few skills of interest to the markets before them and a loan burden beyond their potential reach. We now try to alleviate the burden of these victims at the expense of other victims of the scam who either worked harder to pay down their loans, or who are victims of the scam’s success in limiting the career prospects of those who refused to opt into American higher education. Our effort to enshrine individual liberty for citizens to “pursue their happiness” faces formidable obstacles under the banner of a “helpful government”.
Bernie is a real “nut case” and his statements proves this! How can so many Vermonters be so stupid in re-electing this nut case! Please move to California where you belong or get a real job and see what others go through! Question, “How does a person that never had a real job become a millionaire”? 🇺🇸🇺🇸
He/She/It becomes a politician……..there are alot of them
There’s another side to this story. The cost of a college education is ridiculous. These colleges create dynasties for the administration and the professors. They build luxurious campuses to attract the students. So, for 4 years they live the life in a fantasy world with the only responsibility of making it to class and getting a passing grade. Then they graduate with a degree and $100,000.00 debt. Some meet their future spouse and together they own massive debt before they are established in a decent job. Calling them all dead beats isn’t fair. The debt that they amass is not equivalent to the earning power of the degree they received. They and their parents were hoodwinked into this or that school for little Jane or Johnny and it is the college that survives and benefits because much of the money for tuition came from the government that’s holding the debt, not the college. To solve the problem once again, get the government out of college building and being the welfare for overrated professors with tenure. I paid my college loans off in 10 years, but the amount was nothing compared to today’s rip off. Some of these colleges also have billions in reserve from donations.
An extremely important and valid point, lost on so many people. The amounts of money that just Vermont’s colleges deal with is staggering, the endowments equally obscene. This is big business, with all the corruption of government and unaccountable leadership exemplified. And not soon to change.
when you agree to a loan you agree to pay it back. did enjoy clip of Pelosi saying Biden does not have authority to forgive debt. Bernie has figures for Vermont debt but nobody knows the total amount this move would cost. guessing they know it is much more than number being given out
It’s not just about students paying their loans back. Most are. 83% nationally are in good standing. It’s about an entire generation who cannot participate in the economy BECAUSE they are paying their student loans.
The govt could just forgive the interest and not put the burden on others backs however…
Yes, Russell that’s true, but the cost of college for 4 years is almost like usury or illegal funding like a loan shark. The parents want to send their kids to college and take out enormous loans to feed a system of colleges and universities by the government making money available for loans. The colleges pay enormous salaries to the administration, build huge luxurious campuses, create huge endowments from donations and charge intuition fees for degrees that may be worthless in society and at the least are overpriced for the education product received. This scheme also displaces a large portion of the population from the work force as a necessity evil due to the amount of high school graduates every year who will need jobs or be sent to college. To receive an education a person only needs a warm room, some books, a desk and a few other items and someone to teach. The dynasty building universities have created wealth for themselves as members of the higher education industry on the backs of working Americans. It’s another scam of the highest order. No one should take out a debt that exceeds their ability to pay based on future earnings promise that may not materialize for the borrower.
I wanted to add that when we buy something that we finance, like a home or vehicle, it has a value. An item as such can be sold to recoup remaining debt. An education in the monetary sense only has value if there’s a market for that asset. In today’s unstable economic, post scamdemic most of us are reeling from the lockdowns, business closings and general chaos we are currently living. The way to prevent all of this is to stop it on the front end. Get the government out of education financing, forcing colleges to lower tuition and salaries of overpriced professors and stop the dynasty building universities from receiving government money doled out to students and parents on the promise that it will get them something in the future. College debt nationally is
1.6 trillion dollars, that’s 1600 thousand million dollars. Everything is coming undone by incompetence and greed financed by the government that has no constitutional authority to be supporting higher education. If your college degree turns out to be worthless, you can’t sell it or trade it in. These students who can’t pay are the victims of this system. Those who can pay should.
This is not going to happen. The President doesn’t have the power to do it. The leftists know this. This is all about putting the Republicans in the position of opposing it. The left just wants it to be an election issue to rally the voters who took out the loans and want others to be responsible for their debt.
Obviously, this is about buying votes. The 40 million eligible voters (not to mention that 77,000 of them are Vermonters) represent a significant voting bloc. More than enough to swing an election.
Consider Ben Franklin’s admonition to the Constitutional Convention in 1787: in which he said the U.S. Government… “can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”
And this paraphrasing of sentiment published later in the early 1800s:
“A democracy can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.”
So, here we are. As we have been before. The question to ask ourselves now is: how will this current corrupt and despotic state of affairs play out? And while I have my own suspicions and estimations in this regard, they are personal. As will be the assessments of others. But one thing is certain. A confrontation of one kind or another is fast advancing toward all of us.
Take heed…he’s right about this.
Agreed
It is totally about buying votes and pandering to one segment of the population; vote for the Dems and we’ll forgive thousands of dollars of your student loans!! As opposed to voting for the GOP which won’t. So if you were a millennial or Gen Z, what would you do? No different really than the pandering to BIPOCS that the left engages in.
Not my problem. BS in every way. Debt is a personal issue not a social issue. C’mon’ have some personal responsibility.
Nearly 8.5% of VTers owe on avg 38k each in student loan debt in a state that has repeatedly promoted anti-business legislative policy (bear in mind over 40% of the population is over 65 & under 18). Would somebody like to tell me where these college attendees (it doesn’t say graduates) will be working in VT and what % ARE working?
spending tens of thousands of dollars to get a job in the Vt service economy the progs have created seems like a poor life strategy to me.
Ol’ Bernie is stuck in a negative feedback loop, a dog chasing its own tail.