President Biden’s latest Executive Order which would forgive the first $10,000 in outstanding college loans, benefiting 150,000 borrowers is unfair to those who paid their way. This would add another $1.2 billion to the previous $138 billion in previous loan forgiveness he has approved.
TANSTAAFL - There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, or in this case a student loan. Too many elected officials promise “so called” free stuff from Washington. There are millions of American parents who saved and sacrificed to put their children through college. Many students worked at part-time jobs to attend college. Others worked full-time during the day to afford attending undergraduate, graduate or law school classes at night. Some first attended less expensive community colleges and later transferred to four year colleges.
Millions benefited from being able to attend college on student loans. This has given them access to the middle class. How many students then stuck Uncle Sam with the bill? Despite being successfully employed for years at well-paying jobs, there are several hundred thousand former students with ample income who refuse to pay off their student loans. Taxpayers are left with billions of dollars in uncollected debts. Biden wanted Washington to just write off several hundred billion in outstanding student loan debt.
Colleges and Universities that are tax exempt have endowments worth over $800 billion. Why does Biden never ask them to contribute reducing their own graduating students debt instead of taxpayers? It was previously estimated that full implementation of Biden’s forgiveness program would have cost taxpayers $400 billion over the next 10 years. Collecting some of these outstanding debts from those who can easily afford to is only fair. Uncle Sam faces $34.3 trillion in long-term debt. Why not deny federal and state tax refunds to those deadbeats holding good paying jobs who look for a free ride at our expense? The White House and Congress can introduce appropriate legislation to assist in collecting these outstanding debts from those who can afford to pay.
Larry Penner
Great Neck