Obama's Parting Gift to Taxpayers

I stand by the premise if you take out a student loan, then you are supposed to pay the entire amount of the loan back, not get a free ride (at tax payers expense) if you decide to work in a given field. What ever happened to personal responsibility?

Oh well. I tried. People who save lives and run into burning buildings don't pass drmilled's character test. Their loss.

Is it any coincidence that the loans are forgiven for people who are mostly members of unions?

Obama has a going away gift and Trump has a welcoming package. Very soon cooperations who have been manipulating the tax code will be forgiven over a trillion dollars in owed taxes on money they bring into the US from foreign shelters. And oppressed trust fund brats will be forgiven billions of dollars in oppressive estate tax bills (and Paris Hilton deserves it too! She's worked so hard.)

On behalf of Donald trump Sam Brownback says, "Merry Christmas!"

DonDiego apologizes. He neglected to include the GAO Report reference: Federal Student Loans.

Here's the initial summary of the GAO opinion of Education Department estimates of the costs of the IDR Student Loans:
"For the fiscal year 2017 budget, the U.S. Department of Education (Education) estimates that all federally issued Direct Loans in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans will have government costs of $74 billion, higher than previous budget estimates. IDR plans are designed to help ease student debt burden by setting loan payments as a percentage of borrower income, extending repayment periods from the standard 10 years to up to 25 years, and forgiving remaining balances at the end of that period. While actual costs cannot be known until borrowers repay their loans, GAO found that current IDR plan budget estimates are more than double what was originally expected for loans made in fiscal years 2009 through 2016. (the only years for which original estimates are available). This growth is largely due to the rising volume of loans in IDR plans."
boldface added - DD

i.e. The Education Department methodology systematically under-estimated the costs of "forgiving" the loans.

The majority of the GAO report is a discussion of the inadequacies of the Department of Education estimates.

Nonetheless, one of the Charts demonstrates just what The Obama could accomplish with his "pen and phone". The Obama dramatically increases the availability of IDR loans with his pen in 2010. Loan applications immediately skyrocketed. Somehow folks can recognize a great giveaway when The Obama offers it !

The obama gift is to spend money, while Trump's gift is to increse revenue. Which do people think is the better seal?

It isn't costing the government anything. They will take in less revenue this year, because the repayments are stretched out. A person who might have paid $5,000 a year for ten years can now pay $2000 a year for 25 years. While revenues will decrease in years 1-10, there is now a revenue stream in years 11-25, where before there was none. The next step is to sell bonds backed by these future revenues.
Just wait until Trump and Ross do that thing they do.

What would a "character test" have to do with getting a student loan? And even when the initial deal is to repay, as long as the recipient remains in school at some level, i.e. re-takes flunked courses over and over, going for multiple post-graduate degrees, etc., the debt can remain "in abeyance" indefinitely.

Character? I say those who repay demonstrate good character. Those who are forgiven, well, lucky them, and I guess they can't be faulted. If somebody knocked on my door and said the remainder of my mortgage was forgiven, I wouldn't complain.

But IMO the student loan has become similar to 'welfare' of yore, starting out with good intentions (the elderly poor) but expanding to include every crack whore and their many children. Not saying those who get student loans are bad people, but the programs have run amok, and we who paid our way through the old fashioned way (and appreciate what we got for it) and now paying for everybody elses, even those who could and can make the payments but are just glad they don't have to.

I can't help but wonder how many of these forgiven loans have or are going to the flag burning brats who got all the flags taken down at a 62K a semester college? Or all the ones who need play doh and puppy's to deal with the tragedy of things not going their way?
I suppose it doesn't bother me near as much forgiving students who actually went to school to learn and not be indoctrinated snowflakes.

Gotta love the "pen and phone" doctrine.

$62,000 a semester, eh? I'm beginning to think you are allergic to the truth, or perhaps don't understand the meaning of a semester.