Connecticut Member of Congress Rosa De Lauro is chair of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful members of Congress. She is a staunch friend of working people and public schools.
WASHINGTON, DC – Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today released a statement following President Biden’s announcement of his student debt plan.
“Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. The biggest corporations are using their money to rig the game, and costs are on the rise.
“I applaud President Biden for taking a necessary step today to level the playing field for working Americans by cancelling $10,000 in student debt for borrowers who earn under $125,000 a year and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. This will completely wipe out debt for millions of borrowers and give many the economic security they need to invest in a small business, buy a home, or simply just take care of their families.
“Today’s announcement builds on historic actions by the Biden administration to provide student debt relief to borrowers in need. By discharging loans for borrowers ripped off by for-profit colleges, making administrative improvements to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and canceling loans for permanently disabled borrowers, the President has already approved $36 billion in student loan relief. In addition, the Biden administration is drafting improvements to income-driven repayment programs, including proposals I have pushed for in my Affordable Loans for Any Student Act, so that no borrower has to struggle to make monthly payments.
“Democrats in Congress and President Biden are delivering on commitments to make college more affordable, make student loan repayment manageable, provide relief for those in need, and hold predatory colleges accountable for ripping off students. Americans need a government that works for working families and the vulnerable – not one that answers to the wealthiest and biggest corporations. Today’s announcement is a huge step toward dealing working Americans back in.”
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How many campaign promises has President Biden kept? If you click the links and scroll down, you can see what those campaign promises were.
21% kept
compromised on 5%
1% promise broken
28% stalled (Who stalled them?)
34% in the works (being worked on after being approved – for some promises it takes time to deliver)
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/biden-promise-tracker/?ruling=true
How about Traitor Trump’s track record for keeping his campaign promises?
22% kept
compromised on 22
53% promise broken
0% stalled (Who stalled them?)
0 in the works (being worked on after being approved – for some promises it takes time to deliver)
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/
Now, what explains Traitor Trump’s 53% broken campaign promises? ANSWER: He allegedly lied to his supporters. Meaning, he never meant to deliver in the first place. He told his supporters what they wanted to hear so they’d donate money to him and vote for him.
EVIDENCE: “In his first 100 days, President Trump had 29 statements assessed by PolitiFact (17 false) compared to 12 statements from President Obama (1 false) and 4 statements from President Biden (2 false). As a raw count, Trump told more falsehoods than Biden and Obama combined.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmarkowitz/2021/04/30/who-lied-more-during-their-first-100-days-biden-trump-or-obama/?sh=59be7d21a89d
If Trump only made 17 false statements during his first 100 days, hat’s only 0.17 per day, far far below his average for his entire time in office, which is something like 21 false or misleading statements per day for every day in office.
Of course, the number of false statements increased approximately exponentially over his time in office, with a doubling time of about about 126 days, with the lies coming fast and furious during the last few days in office.
Poet-
Have you read the recent reports about the memo that Barr used to exonerate Trump in the Mueller investigation?
The memo was written by two men one of whom was Edward O”Callaghan. The Tablet, a paper for Catholic news, announced, 9-14-2017, that O’Callaghan (Georgetown grad.) had received the St. Thomas More award.
Barr, Leo, O’Callaghan….
An explanation of the benefit theocrats expect from memos like Barr’s, “The memo supports the chilling conclusions that any president can interfere with any investigation if they believe it could damage them politically.” (CREW)
Jefferson- in every age, in every country, the priest aligns with the despot.
Since leaving office unwillingly, the lying has trebled.
Yes, the lies are still increasingg liesponentially (aka Trumpsponentially)
An Atlantic article about the allegedly impending teacher shortage:
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/08/national-teacher-shortage-turnover-student-enrollment/671214/
Yes this is fair…let’s have working class blue collar people pay the bills for college degreed people making six figures and more. After all, those college graduates were FORCED to take out loans against their will, so they shouldn’t have to pay them back.
In some countries, such as Finland, all education is free because education is a human right. The more that people get educated, the better it is for all of society.
Mike doesn’t remember when states subsidized public
universities with significant tax dollars.
That was before Koch’s takeover.
An important point, Linda– and Mike, hope you’re still reading here. During our best economic times [1946-1979], our govt supported the public good, including college for all who could qualify. Everybody from those who wouldn’t make big salaries [like teachers and social workers] to those who would [like pre-med and pre-law], & everybody in-between– because all those fields are needed in a functional society.
Once we got hit with economic stresses– oil embargo, rise of Asian/ 3rd-world market competition, digital revolution speeding up automation– govt response was anti-public. The word was out: the pie is shrinking, we’re in a zero-sum game: quick! bust unions, cut “overhead” [public goods], deregulate to push wealth to the top & let the $cloutiest grab the biggest pieces– sauve qui peuve & to hell with the rest.
We are still living with the fallout, & the paradigm has not changed. This is the sort of society that promotes the peons to scrabble under the table, fighting each other for the crumbs dropped by the 1%-10%’s banquet table. Like Mike making out that blue-collars are supporting the 6-figure income people via their income taxes.
I have friends who have been paying back the loans for years and haven’t made a dent, due to the way they are structured. They aren’t like the loans you know. The majority of benefits will go to people making under $75,000, i.e. the blue collar workers you seem to worry about. Blue collar children are often the ones who have to take out the big loans. College costs have gone up 300% since I went, so you either borrow or college becomes the sole province of the wealthy – which is not the mark of a healthy society.
Check out this —
Republican Members of Congress whose PPP loans were forgiven:
Matt Gaetz (R-FL): $476,000
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA): $180,000
Greg Pence (R-IN): $79,441
Vern Buchanan (R-FL): $2,800,000
Kevin Hern (R-OK): $1,070,000
Roger Williams (R-TX): $1,430,000
Brett Guthrie (R-KY): $4,300,000
Ralph Norman (R-SC): $306,520
Ralph Abraham (R-LA): $38,000
Mike Kelly (R-PA): $974,100
Vicki Hartzler (R-MO): $451,200
Markwayne Mullin (R-OK): $988,700
Carol Miller (R-WV): $3,100,000
Clearly, students should have taken out PPP loans, used the money to pay off their student loans, and then waited for the PPP loans to be forgiven, just like they were for Republican members of Congress.
All student loans that have compound interest should be immediately converted to simple interest at the prevailing personal loan rate — and all interest that has been added to any loan as a result of Compound Interest must be removed from the loan balance. Compound interest has resulted in people OWING MORE ON THEIR LOANS THAN THEY BORROWED IN THE FIRST PLACE in spite of faithfully making payments each month. That’s EVIL!!!
And the applause would be much longer if the US, as is in Cuba, provided FREE education for everyone. vg
War poisons everybody. Howard Zinn (US historian)
>
Cuba provides free indoctrination for everyone – exactly what the readers of this far Left blog support. Real education – including real liberal arts education – is valuable, but a majority of so-called college education in the U.S. is useless for students, and only provides incomes for college employees. Yes, let’s hold predatory colleges accountable for ripping off students – that’s the vast majority of four year and community colleges in the U.S.
The authoritarian and GOP Jesus solution- a less educated population.
Tim– Well that’s a lot of directions you’re heading in. I’ll just pick Cuba. They have done a terrific job at teaching their kids to read, so there’s that. As far as indoctrinating their students, I’m guessing you’re right. I have only a couple of LatAm novels for evidence—most recently I read “El Hombre Que Amaba los Perros,” by Padura. It’s already a dozen yrs old, & he was describing his experiences in the ‘90s. But, yeah. Tough to get your hands on any lit that could remotely be considered anti-govt position– & your govt-assigned job will line up precisely [status & income wise] with how well they feel you support the party line. But then again, I keep thinking: my very-ill son was attended by some really well-trained Cuban doctors who migrated here. So there’s that too.
Tim, I have to add: “free indoctrination for everyone – exactly what the readers of this far Left blog support”– huh? Where’s the “indoctrination” part? Don’t get mixed up between generally left political bent here [tho not really “far left”]– vs what we talk about as teachers re: best structure for schsys, curriculum, pedagogy, etc. If there’s anything the regulars here agree on, it’s that fed & state govt should not be micromanaging curriculum, & should keep politics out of the classroom. We are about presenting kids with facts, and challenging them to think critically about them, engage in discussion, learn to think for themselves. Not “indoctrinate” them.
I don’t know what red-state legislators actually think/ value about pubsch ed, but the ed laws they’ve been promulgating for the last two years show: (1) they’re spreading a message claiming that pubsch teachers are indoctrinating students [without proof/ documentation], and (2)the laws they’re passing amount, in fact, to indoctrination, in this sense: they are forbidding certain topics and/or ways of discussing those topics. In addition, some states are promoting state standards that eliminate multiple viewpoints, while inculcating their preferred viewpoint.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m confused by the coverage of student loan forgiveness. Everything seems to be about an infusion of at least $10k into the economy by the recipients. But it’s really just an accounting issue that makes the amount these individuals own go down, in some cases significantly. That relieves a lot of anxiety about the future. I know if $10k disappeared from my mortgage, it would make me feel good and perhaps plan a little differently for the future. But don’t assume I’m going out and spending $10k anytime soon.
Sometimes paying off or even reducing the amount owed on an I stalling loan can actually make ones credit score go down.
So it is at least possible that the student loan forgiveness could make credit less available in some cases and hence lead to loser spending.
Installment loan
Lower spending
I made very careful choices with respect to my college education. I lived at home while attending my local community college and finishing my degree at a local college. I paid my way through graduate school by working as a TA. Without the TA I wouldn’t have gone. My husband and I are are late in our careers and our combined salaries would qualify us for debt relief, if we had any. We’ve encourages our daughter to make the same kind of careful choices. I’m having a hard time with the idea of paying for someone else’s poor choices.
C,
You obviously did not read Michael Hiltzik’s article, which I posted yesterday morning.
He says to people who have no college debt or who paid their debt, if we based all government policy on those who never needed help, we would not have Medicare or Social Security or any other government program to help people. I don’t have college debt; my parents sacrificed to pay my tuition. But I’m thrilled that the government is offering some help to kids who are drowning in debt. There used to be many free colleges. Government subsidized them. All public education, in my view, should be free.
I support states subsidizing public colleges and universities and am concerned that colleges are not as well supported as they were during my time in college. However, there are students who are making bad choices respect to where they choose to go and how much they borrow. For example, one of my kid’s classmates qualified for free tuition at a state school, but chose a private school and an impractical major that will leave him $90,000 in debt.
I have some concerns that completely free college may lead to restrictions on who can go. There are countries where college is free, but opportunities to go are not universal.
Given the censorship, book banning, gag orders and other assaults on our rights and freedom, I never worry about the American people getting too much education. I worry about them being indoctrinated by religious and private schools.
Over the past 50 years, states have shifted the cost of college to families and students. That’s where you should direct your anger. The person with $90,000 in debt will soon have $80,000 in debt. That’s his or her problem. The college debt industry will keep him or her in debt for many years.
I did the same. However, the cost of education has gone up so severely, our method would no longer suffice. My niece is a full on instructor at a large state university while she finishes her PhD., and it does not pay enough for her to survive and pay her bills, plus tuition. She has no choice but to borrow. I object to your idea that these are “poor choices.” These are young Americans trying to better their lot, and make the entire country stronger. Your taxes cover lots of things, some of which you will never use, but that is the price of living in a fully realized society. If you are late in your careers, soon you will be covered by Social Security and Medicare. You do realize your contributions actually went to seniors back then, and these young people’s contributions will be supporting YOU.