Theft in the Name of “Student Loan Forgiveness”

 

danger-thieves

This nation’s universities are money-making machines for the leftist elites.  From their bloated administrations run by liberals to the predominantly “progressive” faculty and staff, to the liberals who dominate the lecture circuit (a la Hillary and Bill) to those who write the pricey books that are intentionally obsolete after a semester, there is a vast network of people – mostly Democrats – who benefit greatly from the machine.  Consequently they have their cohorts within our government – again Democrats – working tirelessly to find ways to feed the machine more and more of our money.

A century ago the odds were against getting a college education unless you came from a family of strong financial means or you had a sponsor.  At some point people had the idea of borrowing money to attend college, but I’m guessing that this was back at a time when banks were still allowed to expect to be repaid and, consequently, were choosy about who they lent their depositors’ money too.  Naturally this would have left out poorer people who lacked a reliable source of repayment, and naturally this would have offended our liberal friends who, naturally, would look to the government (i.e. the taxpayers) to right this terrible wrong rather than reach into their own pockets and risk any of their own money.  So the federal government was brought into the business of guaranteeing student loans which thus enabled banks to be more generous with their lending policies and – eureka – the golden goose was born!  And all the liberals were happy…..for a while.

greedy

Liberals and greed have something in common:  neither one can ever be satisfied.  With a solid income source to tap into, the liberals sought to expand their empire and, of course, increase their salaries and benefits.  They advanced the idea that everyone should have a college education, and their government buddies enacted policies that kept the student loan money flowing.  When the economic crisis of 2008 hit, however, the cost of credit increased and private lenders who weren’t seeing a profit in student loans were getting out of the business.  Ruh-roh!  Government to the rescue!  The feds stepped in with a temporary plan to keep the loans coming by promising to buy the loans.  But the liberals were nervous about the future of their golden goose.  Enter Barack Obama and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.  Democrats figured the passing of HCERA would be a great time to also solve the problem of the threat to the university welfare syndicate, as taxpayers were distracted by the even larger attack on their wealth known as ‘Obamacare.’  With the passing of HCERA the federal government essentially, and quiety, took over the student loan program that previously had worked in conjunction with private banks.

obamaking-thieves

But then came yet another problem.  It seems there is a limit on a person’s appetite for debt when they understand that one day it will all have to be paid back.   So the leftists put their thinking caps on their pointy heads and they drummed their fingers on the tables at the coffee houses and think-tanks where they like to meet.  Hmmm….what to do, what to do….. Until one little liberal pounded his puny fist on the table and cried, “It’s just not right that these poor people, so many of whom can’t find jobs in their chosen fields, should have to pay back these loans!”  I wonder if it occurred to the liberals that it’s even less fair for taxpayers – already struggling with the burden of carrying every other leftwing socialist program on their shoulders – to be saddled with debts they didn’t incur or benefit from, but I digress.  And so was born the grand and noble agenda of student loan forgiveness.  Purely for unselfish reasons, you understand.  Now the socialists would not have to worry until they ran out of other people’s money (which will probably come much sooner than they think).  Tomorrow is another day, as Scarlett O’Hara famously said.

The students feel entitled to their subsidized education, because that’s what they’ve been taught in the leftist-run universities which benefit from their sense of entitlement.  No conflict of interest there, eh?   If little Mindy wants to spend $400,000 to go to law school and become a public defender so that she make a difference and be happy with herself, who are we to selfishly expect her to repay her debts?  Or what about little Stephan, who racks up $100,000 in loans he can never repay to be a social worker who makes $35,000 a year?  Nancy Pelosi would tell us that people should be what they want to be without having to worry about the cost (or the cost of providing themselves with healthcare).  I guess if they just want to sit and watch the grass grow we should pay them to do that as well.  Why not?

money-printing

This is just the tip of the iceberg on this conversation, folks.  Anyone who wants to get into more of the nitty gritty should watch a little weekday documentary called ‘Judge Judy.’  There you’ll see infinite examples of what happens with the money loaned out given away under the student loan program.  “Student loan” is now a euphemism for “free money,” or at least the recipients think so.  These “students” lend the money to their deadbeat friends to buy cars, get caught up on their baby-mama support or be bailed out of jail.  Billions of dollars – perhaps trillions – is being transferred in this way.  I don’t like to say that it’s been “wasted” because this conjures up a picture of money being dumped down a hole or burned in a fireplace.  Alas that would be preferable.  The money has been transferred, with the vast bulk of it going to enrich the leftwing cabal running our universities and  to fuel the nation’s growing addiction to other people’s money.

I pray that Donald Trump and his allies in the federal government make righting this wrong one of their top priorities.  If that happens, you may see a battle like you’ve never seen.  What say you?

~CW



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8 replies

  1. I could not agree more! We pay for these snowflakes to demand safe spaces free from debate and the first amendment. Fewer and fewer kids are taking “harder” majors in science and math (where the money and jobs are at) and so we have to pay for their unemployment once they get out of school because they cannot find a job or pay for more years of worthless graduate level work in communications.

    Things have not changed much since I graduated College. I had tons of student debt even though I qualified for a Pell Grant. Pell Grant’s handed out numbers from 1 to 1000 to qualified applicants with 1 being the most “needy” and my number was a 2, so I got a good chunk of “free” money from the government. Once I started work, I felt so guilty about the “free” money I got and I wanted to pay it back for someone else to get a chance. I paid it back, but it was not easy to get the government to take the money. Unfortunately, the money went back into the general Treasury fund to be squandered. They laughed at me that I wanted to pay it back especially since I wanted it to be used to give another person a chance for an education. “It does not work like that” they said. Someone told me that I must be a “dope” to pay back a grant – “free money”. I was also called a “dope” for paying back my student loans, which were bought by the federal government (Sally Mae – I think), several years ahead of schedule.

    Well at least I am free from all government “money” in my life and I will never take another penny from the government so long as I live. Although I am debating taking my social security because at least I can pay that forward because the government cannot be trusted to do so – they will squander the money if I do not take it. It is the lesson learned from paying back my pell grant, but it cleared my conscious. I know I paid into social security, but it still makes my skin crawl to get anything from the government – especially from a system that is going bankrupt for future generations. Maybe because it is run like a Ponzi Scheme.

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    • Thanks for your great comment, Patrick.

      What really angers me is when I see college students aligning with leftwing politicians to protest the skyrocketing cost of higher education, and how these kids are so utterly clueless. They may as well march with O.J. Simpson to protest domestic violence. The cost of college would probably still be reasonable if not for the Left’s dominance of it.

      You are a rare breed, going above and beyond to repay your school loans. That’s very commendable. I would advise you to go ahead and take the Social Security if it’s still there when you get around to it, as I agree you would spend it better than the gov’t would.

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  2. All one has to do is watch closely the antics of the teacher’s unions to see what’s going on. Our young people aren’t being taught, they aren’t being educated, they’re being indoctrinated – by the left and we, the taxpayers, are footing the bill (and reaping the results).

    Not too many years ago, a student had a vested interest in taking out a student loan. It was an investment in him/herself, destined to pay dividends in a better-paying job or a lucrative profession. There was a cost involved in a college education and students knew that they were going to be held accountable for the bill. I remember how proud my daughter was when she paid off her student loan – she celebrated! And I was so proud of her. She got an education and is now an informed intelligent (conservative) mom who is making sure that her two kids get properly educated as well.

    But that was then, this is now. Our children are graduating from college without an education, most read at a 9-10th grade level and their writing skills are no better than a grade school child from 20 years ago. In one respect, the product (education) is adjusting itself to the student’s investment (soon to be free) and worth exactly what they pay for it. Unfortunately, we the taxpayers are paying the real cost for this leftist experiment in socialized education.

    Thomas Jefferson said, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,” and that’s exactly why future generations can’t be trusted to govern our United States as the Constitution demands – they’re simply too ill-informed.

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    • Fantastic comment, Garnet, and Jefferson’s quote really hits the mark.

      What we see unfolding is certainly a lesson in the way people’s behavior is altered by the spending of other people’s money. A person thinks very seriously about their career choice when they are the ones who have to pay for it. Not so much when it’s other people’s money.

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  3. The money they take, waste cavalierly, giving it away for nefarious purposes, thinking it’s free, demonstrates that they don’t realize how it will be paid back, in the form of their enslavement to an authoritarian dictatorship. Once the economy crashes under the weight of government induced debt; once businesses fail in record numbers and bread-lines begin to form at local food shelves, until there is no more bread; once industries essential to national security and the lifestyle of ruling elite’s, all threatened by the collapsed economy — then government will have no other choice but to demand these students — and everyone else of able-body — work at whatever job the government deems essential to it’s survival, and their lives will become as meager and bleak as have the hundreds of millions that ever succumbed to totalitarian dictatorial rule. Not a pretty picture, but one that happens with great regularity as enlightenment is dimmed by such libertine behavior.

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  4. It’s gone on for so long and the libs have taken it so far that we now have a generation of kids who expect and sometimes demand more.(“I shouldn’t have to attend class if I’m traumatized by election results.”) There’s never enough, yet they’re learning far less than the students were 50 or 100 years ago. When questioned on the street about the most basic things, they haven’t a clue.

    Like everything the liberals have labeled as ‘helpful to the people’ it always costs us money and continually expands.

    I share your prayer CW, and I think with a closer look we’d see we are paying people to watch grass grow.

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