(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Dear Mr. President: Please Suspend ALL Student Loan Payments and Interest INDEFINITELY [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-05-14

Come summer, those owing student loan payments will probably look like THIS.

It appears that relief for those owing student loan payments is rapidly coming to a halt.

According to The Hill, those owing a collective $1.7 trillion in student loan debt will have payments re-started no later than 60 days after June 30th:

“The emergency period is over, and we’re preparing our borrowers to restart,” Cardona said at a Senate Appropriations hearing on Thursday, as the national COVID-19 public health emergency was set to expire at midnight.

For those already struggling with nagging inflation and the negative effects of higher interest rates (which lag and mount over time), the timing of this development could not be worse. Consumers are already relying on credit cards to make ends meet to the tune of nearly $1 trillion aggregate dollars.

I’m not going to drone on about the virtue of giving working-class student loan debt payers (many of whom are minorities already competing in an inequitable economy) grace as they struggle through challenging times.

I’m not going to launch into a diatribe about how foolish it is politically to saddle Americans who can afford it the least with crippling payments while balanced owed remain stagnant heading into the most important electoral fight of our lifetime (i.e. 2024).

What I will do is point out that siphoning off hundreds of dollars of consumer spending per month in an ever-extending cycle of never paying off what is owed is both pointless and destructive to the economy.

Accordingly, since the right-wing Supreme Court majority seems intent on quashing President Biden’s student loan forgiveness action, here is what I suggest:

President Biden must indefinitely suspend ALL student loan payments and interest...giving credit for months paid every month of the suspension.

Not only will this ease payment demands, but it will allow those who owe student loans to pay bills, save for homes and better transportation, and essentially reinvest that money back into the private sector .

I can imagine what you might be thinking:

HUH????

Reinvest that collective $1.7 trillion — which would otherwise be collected by the federal government — into the private sector????

In a word, YES.

In a few more words, that money will grow sectors of the economy that pay taxes...which is not only advantageous from a growth perspective, but also helps with the solvency of essential government programs and spending...all while ensuring more equitable economic outcomes instead of a never-ending loop of unsustainable student loan debt payments, most of which only pay interest (which, again, is rising by the minute).

Let Republicans try to argue against that logic.

Are those feckless thugs REALLY going to whine that those payments are better served being collected by the federal government as opposed to the private sector ?

I dare them. I DOUBLE dare them. All those twerps do is rail on about the virtue of free enterprise and the private sector (Andrew Wilkow, I’m looking in YOUR direction).

What’s more, it would take an equal but opposing action by a future president to reverse the order.

Who here is betting against President Biden in 2024? Vegas sure isn’t.

Maybe I’m on Pluto (wherever that is) with this idea, but I think it has merit...and it doesn’t appear court-reviewable since it doesn’t actually “forgive” the debt.

Your thoughts, dear community?

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/14/2169295/-Dear-Mr-President-Please-Suspend-ALL-Student-Loan-Payments-and-Interest-INDEFINITELY

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/