dagblog - Comments for "Student Loans: Dems vs. GOP Made Easy"

a 'pragmatic discussion' of

EmmaZahn — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:55:18 +0000

a 'pragmatic discussion' of the Social Security Trust Fund would have to include the fact that the Republican position, as presented by President Bush in 2005 is: "There is no trust ‘fund’ — just IOUs".

Not necessarily but so what if it did. The counter to that is that those IOUs are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America just like US Treasurys. Defaulting on them would trash US credit. Are the Republicans willing to do that? Are TBTF banks willing to let them? More likely a subtler way will be devised and sold to a gullible public.

Some good ideas, but a

NCD — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:06:32 +0000

In reply to I should add that I really do

Some good ideas, but a 'pragmatic discussion' of the Social Security Trust Fund would have to include the fact that the Republican position, as presented by President Bush in 2005 is: "There is no trust ‘fund’ — just IOUs".

The GOP has no intention of honoring those IOU's, because it would take revenue other than SS taxes to do so (SS taxes, which hit wages, not capital gains/dividends, must go to pay SS benefits or if in excess, to the Trust Fund).

Why do the Republicans want to trash the IOU's? Honoring the Trust Fund IOU's would require raising general revenue, income taxes, which would mean raising taxes on the rich. They would rather cut benefits or end the program. That isn't 'blind hatred of capitalism', it is crystal clear fact.

Not just student debt --- all

EmmaZahn — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 22:36:02 +0000

In reply to Student debt is stunting the

Not just student debt --- all personal debt does that when too many people borrow excessively or unwisely against their future earnings. When you incur the debt, you presume you will earn enough in the future to pay it back, no? Well, maybe not.

Certainly there was a severe disconnect between what was expected and what happened with student loans and mortgages too. Both should be addressed and I am not opposed to refinancing that includes debt reduction when reasonable but that pain has to be shared between all parties to the loan -- educator-enablers included.

I should add that I really do

EmmaZahn — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:43:28 +0000

In reply to "It was obvious even to me,

I should add that I really do not begrudge the middlemen (loan originators, servicers, etc) a fair vig. As Malcolm Reynolds said, "About 50% of the human race is middlemen and they don't take kindly to being eliminated."

I do, however, begrudge the unscrupulous and greedy ones which seems to be the majority nowadays.

Student debt is stunting the

electedface — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:43:16 +0000

In reply to "It was obvious even to me,

Student debt is stunting the growth of the economy. Student loans have increased by 275% over past decade. As the next generation graduates from college, they are plagued by insurmountable debt that places demands on their income, limiting their ability to spend their earnings in ways that stimulate the economy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRA9ndc1pCM

"It was obvious even to me,

EmmaZahn — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:33:34 +0000

In reply to Student Loans: Dems vs. GOP Made Easy

"It was obvious even to me, as an eighteen-year-old kid starting college back in the day, that this is a straight government handout to the bankers."

I think it is obvious to anyone who spends just a few minutes thinking about it but few do. And it is not just student loans but government-insured mortgages as well.

Imagine if instead of sitting in its famous lock-box, as Gore argued, or having been piddled away by Congress, per Bush, that the Social Security Trust Fund had been used to generate education and housing loans under the same terms and conditions as the safest private loans during peak Boomer years. We actually might be talking about lowering rather than raising the F.I.C.A. payroll tax. And what intergenerational war?

What really confounds me is how the blind hatreds of capitalism from the left and communism/socialism from the right make it impossible to have a pragmatic discussion of the nation's finances.