References: Maura Healey leads AGs in calling for Biden to cancel student loan debt (bostonherald.com); Pressley proposes guaranteed jobs – The Boston Globe
We have a repeater in this article, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who we noted previously (What’s The Difference Between Liz Warren, Ayanna Pressley And A Bag Of Hammers? Hammers Have A Use, February 8, 2021) won one of our “dumber than a bag of hammers” awards last week for her (and her buddies’) demand that the federal government simply write off all student loans up to $50,000, regardless of the need of any particular borrower. See our post of November 15, 2021, Yes, By All Means Let’s Throw Away Money On This Phony Elitist Student Debt “Crisis”. Not to mention that she also wants $2,000 recurring payments to people as part of a “stimulus” bill, every penny of which will have to be borrowed by the government and will impoverish generations of Americans yet to be born. See If Being An Economic Illiterate Is Required For A Congressperson, Then Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush Are Well-Qualified, January 23, 2021. Now, her most recent idiotic cost-be-damned proposal is to guarantee each person in the country a job – mostly on public works projects, it sounds like. Boy, that would probably take care of the student loan “crisis” going forward, why bother with college then? Y’know, sometimes things politicians say (and most other people actually) are so stupid they don’t really need much commentary pointing that out, so we’ll lay off here. If you happen to think that’s a good idea, then you’d better stop reading now before you have a stroke.
But we have a new entrant this week, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who has pivoted back to the phony student loan “crisis,” which as we have explained before is no crisis at all. She claims that “student loan borrowers were already struggling before the COVID-19 pandemic and recession . . . . The existing repayment system for federal student loans providers insufficient opportunity for struggling borrowers to manage their debts or recover from the current economic crisis . . . . Broad cancellation of federal student loan debt will provide immediate relief to millions who are struggling during this pandemic and recession, and give a much-needed boost to families and our economy.”
What a load of bolongna! Why is this bologna? The following is adapted in summary form from our post of November 15, 2021, Yes, By All Means Let’s Throw Away Money On This Phony Elitist Student Debt “Crisis”.
First, people accumulated their student debt knowingly. They took on this debt, maybe even unwillingly, because it paves the road to a better tomorrow, supposedly. But they agreed to it, and they agreed to repay it. What is wrong with, in general, making them do just that?
Second, what do you say to all the millions of responsible people who worked hard after graduation and paid off, or are paying off, their student loan debt without whining about it being excessive? Even if it caused them hardship. Do we just write them all a check?
Third, what do we say to all those responsible (and irresponsible) people who never had any student debt in the first place, but who are somehow managing to take care of themselves at real jobs doing useful work. Is that a crisis? Well, it might be pretty quick if all these college students who ran up debt get a big money payday (roughly 13.6% of the population) and the non-college people (roughly 86.4% of the population) get nothing. After all, isn’t “equity” is one of the cool buzzwords these days – is that equitable? Or what is the carrot that the non-college crowd are going to get that we haven’t heard about yet?
Fourth, this amounts to paying off the debt of all these leftist, antifa, BLM spoiled college brats-turned-graduates who believe that free speech is the most wonderful thing in the world UNLESS you don’t agree with them, in which case violence and property destruction are legitimate political alternatives and you are a monster needing immediate cancellation.
Fifth, this proposal is a pretty transparent and cynical attempt to capitalize on this health crisis to implement one of progressive’s pet political projects – basically it’s buying votes for the Democrats with your money.
No doubt not having to pay one’s voluntarily incurred obligations would be a delight to most money-grubbers, though there may be few outliers who were brought up to live within their means and to pay their bills. But if you look at the numbers, this is just giving people a gift most of whom don’t need it. The big number everyone points to, of course, is the total student loan debt, which is running at about $1.56 trillion dollars. Yes, that’s a big number. But it is spread over 44.7 million people, so the average debt per person is $32,731. The median student debt (meaning half owe more and half owe less) is only about $17,000. That leaves, of course, about 285 million people who won’t receive anything from this wealthy upper-class boondoggle. Did they vote to forgive the debt of college kids who don’t need it? Doubtful. Of course they’re probably white supremacist racists so no one need be concerned about their view.
Now let’s think about that. Half of people with student loan debt owe less than $17,000, not even close to the average price of a new car these days. So just how is that some sort of crisis? The answer is, it isn’t. Forget about the BMW and take the bus or subway and pay your debts first, like millions of others have and do. Yes, there are certainly bunches of people with student debt that is a lot higher, many owe over $100,000, which are the sad heart-string-pulling stories the media and “progressives” harp on.
But the fact is that less than 2% of students have over $50,000 in debt. Almost a quarter of borrowers owe between $20,000 – $40,000 (roughly 9.5 million borrowers). Only 3 million have debt over $100,000. Remember, there are 330 million people in this country, so that is not even one percent of the US population. And dollars to donuts, a good portion of those with gigantic student debt like that got it by going to post-grad places like medical or law or MBA school, so they are much more likely to have the later income to pay it off. So how is that a crisis? Again, it isn’t.
Yes, an increasing percentage of graduates have “excessive student loan debt” and that number has roughly doubled over the past 35 or so years. “Excessive student debt” was defined as monthly payments consuming 10% or more of income, though obviously that depends on what income class you are in. Yet that still isn’t even 15% of all borrowers. So is that a crisis? No, it isn’t.
Now this all puts aside the basic notion of personal responsibility, which of course is no concern of Healey or the Democrats since they jettisoned that notion decades ago. Why should people act responsibly when the federal government will cushion them from every bump and bruise life may inflict on them?
Yes, for-profit and some two-year schools are notorious for scamming students, exhorting them to take out all kinds of loans including private loans, and those people make up about 40% of all student loan borrowers. These folks also end up with much less debt since their schooling period is shorter, and/or they drop out and never finish. But sadly they often end up in dead-end jobs that make it extremely difficult to find housing, health care, food, etc., never mind repay back money that they never really benefitted from and were more or less coerced into borrowing.
If anyone needs a helping hand it is this group. And if the “progressives” were to focus on this group – the actual needy rather than the higher-income and more-likely-to-vote group – then perhaps there is something to talk about. But part of that discussion has to be to go after these schools, who really end up just being money-printing businesses for their owners. And some limited progress has been made on that front.
But the notion of some broad-based cancellation of student loans, with no consideration given to how the student got into difficulty in the first place or even needs any help, is misguided and a complete waste of money, unless of course, you’re a Democratic politician planning to run again in 2 or 4 years and want to buy some votes. There are other pressing needs. It surely seems inequitable to pass a budget-busting proposal worth over $1 trillion that isn’t going to do anything for the 285 million Americans (only 13% of the population, by the way) that don’t have any student loans and aren’t bellyaching about it.
Since the election it’s been “gimme, gimme, gimme” with these progressive morons like Healey and Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez and Talib and the rest of the imbeciles who plainly don’t know anything about anything other than how to print money (that is, borrow it) and then give it away. $1.9 trillion for “stimulus,” PLUS forgiving student loans, PLUS making all businesses pay at least a $15/hour minimum raise PLUS goodness knows what else.
Therefore, today’s winners of the “Dumber Than A Bag Of Hammers Award” are our very own Congressional Representative Ayanna Pressley, and our very own Attorney General Maura Healey (probably soon to be a gubernatorial candidate or successor to Senator Warren if she ever gets a real job with the Biden administration). Congratulations to the two of you! One would hope you actually read this post and become educated about these and other issues before you take positions on them that you have trouble backing away from.
