'Outnumbered' reacts to Biden's student loan handout plan
The panel reacted to the president's announcement and discussed the political and economic implications affecting American taxpayers.
When I was 18 years old, I enrolled at Northeastern University and attended orientation before classes began for my fall semester of freshman year. I chose Northeastern because it offered the most generous aid package of any other school to which I was accepted – over a half scholarship. As part of orientation weekend, anyone taking out loans was required to attend a workshop on financial aid.
As everyone else goofed off, I used the distributed worksheet to do some back-of-the-envelope math about how many loans I’d end up with, and what my repayment schedule would look like. I calculated the monthly payment and subtracted it from an estimated paycheck of $35,000, without even considering withholding taxes or health insurance. I felt the color drain out of my face as I realized my payments would be half of my monthly income.
I had no "home" to move back to after college, unlike everyone else in the room. My mother was deceased, my father and extended family estranged. I knew I would have to make it on my own in four years, and I simply would be unable to do so if I stayed enrolled.
At the end of the workshop, I approached my orientation leader and asked how I could drop out, before I attended a single class.
BIDEN ANNOUNCES STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT AS NATIONAL DEBT SOARS
I spent the next four years between two different public schools, working 40+ hour weeks in order to pay for as much of my living expenses as I could, minimizing my debt load to the best of my ability. After graduation, I paid down all of my higher interest debt almost immediately, eating nothing but spaghetti and pizza to make it possible. I spent the next few years making every payment on time and in full until the loans were totally paid off.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday a sweeping new debt relief program for student loan borrowers. Fox News reported: "President Biden announced Wednesday that he will cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt for certain borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, while extending the pause on federal student loan payments through the end of the year."
The Biden plan is a slap in the face to people like me, people who sacrificed dream schools and picturesque college experiences in order to responsibly take out as little debt as possible and pay it down according to the terms we agreed upon when we signed on the dotted line as legal adults.
It’s a slap in the face to most Americans who haven’t taken out any college debt. According to Pew, only 37% of Americans have a four-year college degree and only 13% have a graduate degree. More than half (56%) of student debt is held by those who hold graduate school debt. According to calculations, the Biden student debt forgiveness package will cost every American $2,000; taking thousands out of the pockets of blue-collar workers to pay for their neighbor's law school debt.
That’s not to say that there are no solutions to the debt facing millions of Americans. But that doesn’t mean that we need to transfer the debt of some onto the backs of everyone.
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BuzzFeed recently published 25 stories of everyday Americans crushed by the debt they took on as part of their education. Several stories went along these lines: "‘Graduated from law school with almost $400,000 in student loans. After five years of payments, my balance has increased to $500,000 due to interest. I make $70,000 (before taxes) per year as a public defender. If I can survive on this low an income once I have a family to support, I plan on working as a public defender for 10 years so I can hopefully get my loans forgiven. If not, I fear I will die before I can ever pay them off.’"
Instead of this wealth transfer, we should be having a conversation about reducing the inflation rates pushing Americans underwater, as well as making sure more Americans don’t find themselves in the same boat.
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It would also mean making schools, not students nor the government, responsible for default. It means making sure we’re not pouring money into an economy already on its knees due to record inflation.
There are any number of ways the Biden administration could actually work towards solving this crisis. If it were focused on solutions, these would be the conversations we would be having, instead of yet another financial handout to their wealthy base as election season approaches. It’s clear from their "solution" what the Biden administration aims to achieve from this announcement.
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