the Student Loan Forgiveness Act

[lovuian]

the Student Loan Forgiveness Act

On March 8, Congressman Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 4170, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012.
Total outstanding student loan debt officially surpassed total credit card debt in the United States in 2010, and is on track to exceed $1,000,000,000,000 during 2012;

Excessive student loan debt is impeding economic growth in the United States. Faced with excessive repayment burdens, many individuals are unable to start businesses, invest, or buy homes;

Because of soaring tuition costs, students often have no choice but to amass significant debt to obtain an education that is widely considered a prerequisite for earning a living wage."

[a la izquierda]

1. Thanks for posting.

My federal loans have been traded around so many times that it is becoming a real pain to figure out who owns what in order to get them consolidated. The language of loan documents is incredibly confusing, loans are sold off without the borrowers consent. It's a mess.
I have in excess of $100K in debt from three degrees. I can pay them off in 10 years, but they payments will eat up about 1/3 of my monthly income.

[taught_me_patience]

3. Why not ammortize over 30 years and cut your payments substantially?

You could cut your payment nearly in half, so they only take up 1/6 of your income.

[lovuian]

4. how much do you end up paying

in the long run?

[taught_me_patience]

6. So what? It's better to have the cash flow now

instead of paying a whopping 30% of income to student loans. You can always pay more in the future if your income rises (which it typically will).

[a la izquierda]

23. explain more please.

would you pm me??

[lovuian]

2. It was a subject brought up in the Occupy Wall Street Movement

and it is a big issue for young people
America will face a massive brain Drain if they don't fix this problem
I know kids who have flown the country looking for jobs

[mythology]

5. This isn't a bad thing, but it only addresses the symptoms

Instead there should be more funding going into education and financial aid so that the costs of going to college are lowered. Allowing for this loan forgiveness only encourages more tuition increases.

[lovuian]

7. Agree the tuitions have gotten out of hand

considering the wages has gone down

[enlightenment]

8. Actually,

the bill tries to address that problem.

The repayment plan (of total debt) is for current borrowers. Future borrowers would be capped at $42500 (I think - I'm not looking at it right now).

The idea is that the cap on forgiveness will encourage borrowers to not run up as much debt AND encourage schools to stop raising tuition every time the wind shifts.

Not sure if it would work, since we're not changing the fundamental issue of viewing education as a commodity, but it's a start at least.

[Leftist Agitator]

10. You can't get an advanced degree on $42,500...

And unless you get a B.S. in Engineering or pursue a health sciences degree, you absolutely cannot get a well-paying job, period, end of story.

[enlightenment]

16. Not arguing that - just pointing out what the bill says.

I suspect the belief is that this will force schools to lower tuition (using the market based approach: students can't afford to enroll; schools lose money because fewer students enroll; schools lower tuition to get more students . . .)

Problem with that, of course, is that it is relying on the commodity concept (not to mention that flawed free-market model).

As for the rest of what you said - gee, thanks. I guess I'll take my terminal degree in something other than engineering or health sciences and go live under a bridge. *kidding - you're not too far off base with the comment*

[fascisthunter]

9. nah... the corporate crowd wants indentured servitude

they have rationalized its justification... just ask them.

[lovuian]

11. Agreed this is what the Occupy Wall street brought out

the servitude of our young educated ....being in debt and not given jobs and not good paying ones either

[lonestarnot]

12. Why introduce it now? Just wondering.

[lovuian]

13. The Occupy movement were for absolving

US student loans
they felt Wall street got a break so they should too

[lonestarnot]

14. Yes, I know, but isn't the timing very bad? Why not wait until after the election?

[lovuian]

15. Well lets see the Republicans vote against it

Another nail in their coffin

[bigapple]

17. which generation is going to pay to have

every student getting their tens of thousands written off?

[RB TexLa]

18. Does it have a plan to pay the investors in the loans?

[lovuian]

19. I think this is a plan to bail out those investors

defaults are going to happen on those loans

if they don't have jobs then they can't pay

this is the next huge default

[SATIRical]

30. Defaults are rising BUT

the vast majority still pay off that money they borrowed.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

20. Not going to happen until those idiots in the house get voted out.

While I'm optimistic, realistically, it could go either way, what with their ignorant populace.

[Marrah_G]

21. I just let them take my income tax returns every year.

Maybe some day I will be able to afford to pay them off.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. Please do exercise caution, b/c some loans allow for

wages to be garnished (and even, I have heard, Social Security checks).

At my last position, one of my staff was losing 25% of her gross pay (that's right, gross before withholdings) to student loan garnishments. I was really pissed about it and wrote my rep (at the time Diane Watson). Really smart young woman in her mid-20s who had been sold a bill of goods by a very expensive proprietary trade school while at the ripe old mature age of 19. I still get steamed when I think about it.

[Marrah_G]

24. Thanks

but if they want to do that...there isn't much I can do to stop them. I make just enough to get by.

[coalition_unwilling]

25. That's why I call the current student loan situation 'the new indentured servitude' because,

most of the time, the loans cannot be discharged through a routine bankruptcy and creditors can hound borrowers until the latter die.

[Marrah_G]

27. yup

I don't answer the phone anymore unless I know who is calling. The student loan collectors get nasty.

[Marrah_G]

26. yeah- I was one of those

I went to a school for administrative asst, certificate program. I was to young and stupid to realize I could have gotten an associates for half of what they charged me if I had gone to community college. The course was also alot more expensive then I thought it would be after all was said and done.

[MineralMan]

28. I can't see this passing until we regain control of Congress.

One more reason to GOTV in 2012.

[cbdo2007]

29. Would this be retroactive??

I worked hard (much overtime) to pay my loans off a few years ago.