even if you go into your specialty that you went to college for you are such a low rate of pay many times.. this would really help young people who area trying to get started with so many things at once.. college pay offs, buying a home, getting married, having children.. its a load.. (BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT)

But Joe's is very comprehensive and this 5% cap would be a life changer for thousands of borrowers including me.

Total forgiveness is not something I can get behind, because I know that a ton of college students use student loan money for Spring Break or bar money. They go shopping and buy TVs and video game consoles. I don't think we should be forgiving that kind of debt totally.

My idea is that all interest is forgiven and only principle is refinanced at 0% interest. That would be a game changer too. But Joe's 5% cap per year might be a better plan.

and you are not making a dent in the principal, so your balance continues to increase, which negatively impacts your credit?

Elizabeth also has a better plan than what Joe is proposing.


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!! or
Elizabeth & Bernie 2020!!
Either way, welcome to the revolution!!!

We have a member of Congress now who is asking to have ALL student debt forgiven, including her own. Under Biden's plan, her debt could be paid up in three months. One wonders why, with an annual salary of $174K, she hasn't paid that off already anyway.

I hope Warren will finally be asked how that would be funded.

The plan also includes an $8 billion investment in community college facilities.

While compounding interest at high rates continues to mount?

From the former senator who pushed to make student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy?

This is a weak plan.

I'll use my example above - do you think that someone earning $174,000 a year should have $18-19,000 student debt forgiven?

Student debt is currently at $1.5 trillion and rising. Nearly 1 in 4 borrowers are in default. That rate is expected to rise to 40% by 2023. Borrowers who are struggling can't pay rent, can't buy homes or cars and are more likely to have their utility bills and medical bills fall into collections. It's a crisis.

And the answer to your question is yes, if it means that the "lost generation" of student loan borrowers who are saddled with debt (which cannot be discharged even if borrowers are ruined financially) can start to participate in the economy in a meaningful way.

This is a weak spot for Biden and he should have come out with a stronger plan.

They are actually very low rates.

That is far from the norm.

Pretty sure current federal loans are under 4%. Mine are about half of that.

Thank you for the kind words about my loans. It has been an excellent investment in myself.

Although that is low compared to what they used to be.

For grad loans, it is above 7%.

And when you consolidate loans, you usually get a higher rate. Think somewhere between 6.5% to 8%.

It’s still not as you described it.

to 100 percent student debt. That’s a whopper investment, considering that yes, many could pay them off. I say this having myself a fairly large indebtedness. Would rather a plan that was targeted to relieve lower income folks, for which we wouldn’t need such a huge splash out all in but one area Americans are struggling in.

Agree compounded interest is the problem. Fine. Why not propose rolling that interest back by one percent? Still, Social Security is in trouble, Medicare and Medicaid, people are suffering an epidemic of foreclosures, and social services throughout the nation are underfunded as they currently exist. And there’s this deficit thing.

I like the Biden plan because it is more doable, need not break the bank all in one place, and includes money to the colleges themselves. Community colleges are the educational workhorse. Many do not meet demand for courses and need to offer additional programs as the job market changes. Not all offer the full panoply of job preparation areas. Some are more limited in student services. Some have infrastructure needs. I don’t see that the other proposals offer help to the colleges.

Do you understand that the 25 years after one graduates college or grad school are critical years for earning, building equity and building credit?

So principal and interest continue to mount, people can't buy homes and their credit is in a hole, but in 25 years when it's too late to get a leg-up, their debt can be forgiven. Assuming that the laws don't change in that 25-year period. That makes this a good plan?

A 1% roll-back is not meaningful when you're talking about federal loans with 6.5% to 8% interest.

P.S. When that loan balance is discharged in 25 years, the government treats it as taxable income. So get ready for a big tax bill when that happens.

addresses your worthy concerns, acknowledges those of us who are burdened but can pay, and conserves part of what would be that huge investment in one pace for other equally at-risk populations and other types of debt relief as well as investment in the colleges themselves.

Affordable housing sounds good. Making it happen to the extent it needs to will be many years away. In the meantime, what of people who have worked hard and long to own a house only to see
a foreclosure because of hardship, job loss, missed property tax deadline, ill health evict them from that home, sink their investment? In my area, foreclosures occur in what was a community of color, rapidly becoming gentrified.

Across the nation, foreclosures are affecting vulnerable people, elderly, disabled.

That’s only one other area of desperate need we should be distributing our investment to, as onerous for many young folks as student debt is.

Those percentage rates are horrible. Mine is 3.5 percent. So roll back three percent. Amnesty is not the only path to relief for millions,

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And who decides how much a person has left over after expenses? A person or family could easily make it so they have exactly zero discretionary income.

Using the 50k someone stated above, if that person had 5k left over after rent, food, clothing, phone, utilities etc 5% would be $250 or $20.83 per month. That's not going to pay off shit.

ETA the only fix is to correct the underlying structural problem of why college costs so much in the first place. Where is all this money going? Not to the staff.

It's Income minus taxes minus 1.5 times the poverty level.

If you make $100K a year, your discretionary income is $73K a year. 5% of that is about $3650 or $300 a month.

Someone correctly pointed out though, if you're paying this and interest is still accruing you'll need some other relief for that.

Would pay $54.58 per month for their student loans.


150% of the poverty guideline for 2017:

FAMILY SIZE 48 CONTIGUOUS ALASKA HAWAII
1 $18,090 $22,590 $20,790
2 $24,360 $34,435 $28,005
3 $30,630 $38,280 $35,220
4 $36,900 $46,125 $42,435
5 $43,170 $53,970 $49,650
6 $49,440 $61,815 $56,865
7 $55,170 $59,660 $64,080
8 $61,980

https://www.studentdebtrelief.us/student-loans/discretionary-income/

People making under $25K wouldn't have to pay loans or accrue interest.

Income is income. Anything you are paying income taxes on.

I think some details of his plan still need to be revealed. But anything that can give all borrowers reasonable monthly payments no matter how much they needed to borrow is the key. We've got people right now making $40K a year paying $1800 a month in student loans, it's a hopeless situation for them.

And we already subsidize a large portion of Stafford Loans, where borrowers simply pay principle and the government picks up the fees and interest. I say expand this to all loans and then cap monthly payments like Biden wants to do.

Also think interest should freeze during hardship, forebearance, reenrollment. And no garnishing
social security from low income seniors. Happens in greater numbers than one might think.

And next to impossible to discharge in bankruptcy - thanks to you know who.

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