Millions of borrowers will face hundreds of dollars of monthly payments after 2 years of going payment free.
This is literally the stupidest move we can make. NO one — NO ONE AT ALL Is asking for these payments to start again except the loan servicing industry. What possible reason could there be to suddenly slap every one of the Americans who voted for him in part because he promised to end the student debt crisis with a massive tax right after the holiday season?
My guess? He’s hoping it will bring down inflation, and he’s willing to pay for that political relief on the backs of poor and working class people. This move constitutes a profound betrayal. He could, today, end student debt for everyone, forever. He has the power, he has already used that power for disabled students, and he could use it for every soul in the nation if he wanted to.
This may be one of the greatest political blunders in history. Young people turned out in record numbers to support President Biden’s campaign and to give us the Senate in part so we could end the student debt crisis, and we’ve now seen two years where none of us had to pay a dime for education go by without capitalism or the world or American moral rectitude suffering a whit. And yet, in January, all of us borrowers will once again be slaves to the grind of our horrid higher education system.
Oh, and if we don’t get an extension on the Child Tax credit, that’s hundreds to thousands more dollars coming out of the paychecks of the poor and working class people of this country, again on Biden’s watch.
Do we want to lose? Do we want Republicans to gain control of government and then keep it for the rest of everyone’s lives? Do we want democracy to end? Are the pocketbooks of loan servicing companies that sacred to the Democratic party?
EDIT — Because the comments are thusfar predicable.
The average student loan payment is just shy of 400.00 per month. If you are someone with 30,000 in student loan debt, you are paying about 7% interest on that debt, and your payment is about 350.00 per month. If you decide to go on an income-based repayment plan, you’re going to be writing checks on that loan for life. Even if you go with that sort of a plan, you’re looking at 10% of your income, for decades, dumping into your student loans. If you are lucky enough to make 30K per year, your monthly payment is still going to be nearly 200.00 per month. That’s food. That’s medical expenses. That’s a car payment, or repairs, or any of the other myriad expenses poor and working class people have to manage month to month.
This constitutes a tax on lower and middle income people. Wealthy people and people who come from money don’t have to worry about this. Not only did they already have massive advantages when it comes to their primary education, but they don’t have to pay 7% on their loans for 10-30 years or more.
So, by allowing these payments — which have been suspended since 2020 without the world falling into chaos — the Democratic party is slapping nearly 43 Million Americans with a tax we have not had to pay for two years. This tax, on average, equals 400.00 per month. That’s a huge percentage of the average mortgage payment in the US in 2020 (1400.00 and change).
Black students owe an average of 25,000.00 more in student loan debt that white people. This is a tax that will disproportionately hurt Black voters.
Tell me how this data makes this anything less than a catastrophic political blunder for a party with a coalition like ours.
This was President’ Biden’s campaign promise — "Forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities and private HBCUs and MSIs for debt-holders earning up to $125,000."