We need to stop fooling ourselves about the stakes for which we are playing. The United States of America is coming apart at the seams. We have been hoping that voters would realize that the Republican Party has gone insane and will vote to restore normalcy. This has not happened. If anything voters have become so afraid of Republicans that they worry that voting for a Democrat will single them out for retaliation. Think of it as the kill me last strategy of political survival. Voters might vote against their best interest but, as long as Democrats can offer them no protection, it is better to vote for the madmen than to self select as their victims.
Our politics has taken to punishing anyone who has relied on government assurances. This includes military veterans who find pension promises now being broken and those who were on the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan - whom saw their insurance changed from affordable to a high deductible plan midstream. It includes millions who find that they will not be receiving Medicaid aid under Obamacare. Now it will include those whom have gone into public service in reliance on promises made when they took out their student loans.
From The HuffingtonPost
For those unfamiliar with PSLF, the program began in 2007 and provides for those who work in "public service" (defined in this case as a government worker, an employee of a 501c(3) non-profit or a teacher) to achieve federal student loan forgiveness after 120 monthly payments. Basically, it allows people to go on income-based repayment programs, and if they hold public service jobs, whatever is left of their federal loans is forgiven after a decade of payments. Unless, of course, the current budget proposal for PSLF passes, and the forgiveness will be capped at $57,500, which will have extraordinarily harsh effect on an already near-burst student-debt bubble and a struggling higher-education rate in the U.S.
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Worst is that the provision currently makes no mention of grandfathering anyone in to the original PSLF terms. There are people who started their public service careers in 2007 or 2008 to take advantage of the program and now the carpet could potentially be pulled out from under them. No one has even been able to see the fruits of the program because 2017 is the first year anyone would be eligible for forgiveness. Without a grandfather clause, everyone who was relying on PSLF will be out of luck, and back in a degree of debt that will severely affect their future financial choices and capabilities. People have planned their lives around this program, and ¾ of the way to what they thought would be freedom from debt, they could be left with loans nearly as large as when they began paying in the first place.
By taking party in the federal loan forgiveness program those involved have aligned themselves with a Democratic policy. Many of those with a high level of debt will have gained it by seeking education for high paying careers: law, medicine and the like. Now we are planning to tell them that, in deciding not to seek to make top dollar whatever the cost to society, their economic futures are forfeit. How will this look to voters? A Democratic President created the PILF plan, lured people into public service, then reneged or his promises in a way that utterly destroyed not only the graduates financial future but, most likely, that of their families as well. Remember, you cannot get parental student loans to send your kid to college if you still owe outstanding student debt.
With a Democratic Party that weak what are voters to do? Republicans might destroy the country, but at least if you vote for them you are less likely to become a victim. If the Democratic Party cannot protect its supporters against political retaliation from the Republican Party-what use is it? If the Democratic Party cannot protect its supporters how can it ever hope to win elections?