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Weiland Backs Warren Student Loan Plan; Plutocrats to Block

Senator Elizabeth Warren is taking another swing at student debt. She's pushing a bill to allow student loanholders to refinance:

Warren said Tuesday that many of those with outstanding loans have interest rates of nearly 7 percent or higher for undergraduate loans while students taking out new undergraduate loans pay a rate of 3.86 percent.

The Massachusetts Democrat said the nation’s $1.2 trillion in student loan debt is “crushing young people and dragging down our economy” ["Warren Files Bill to Allow Refinancing on Federal Student Loans," AP via CBS Boston, 2014.05.06].

South Dakota's Democratic candidate for Senate Rick Weiland says Warren's plan is a great idea:

The lone Democrat in the crowded race for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Tim Johnson says that loans are used to pay for technical schools, not just colleges and universities. He says three-quarters of South Dakota graduates leave school with some debt.

Weiland says South Dakota's young people would benefit tremendously from Warren's legislation as they struggle to begin their careers ["Weiland Says Grads Should Get Help with Loans," AP via KDLT, 2014.05.07].

The Warren plan will not pass, of course, because it would pay for this refinancing (the federal government would buy these loans back from private lenders, then issue a lower rate) by taxing the Republican base, the plutocracy:

To help pay for her plan, she would enact the ever-popular Buffett Rule, which would impose a minimum tax rate on millionaires [Jordan Weissman, "Elizabeth Warren’s Smart, Flawed, and Obviously Doomed Plan to Help Student Borrowers," Slate, 2014.05.06].

The GOP will block Warren's plan, because as we all know, and handful of millionaires do much more good for the economy than hundreds of thousands of young workers and entrepreneurs who will plunge their few dollars a week in savings directly into the economy.

15 Comments

  1. Cranky Old Dude 2014.05.08

    Sounds to me like they're bailing out the plutocrats -the banks by putting the debt on the taxpayers dime. Just another shuck & jive operation to stick the peasants with the tab for somebody else's bad decision making.

  2. Steve Sibson 2014.05.08

    "loans are used to pay for technical schools, not just colleges and universities"

    And the plutocrats are also getting subsidized training versus paying the cost for on-the-job training. That is the source of the problem. Instead of learning specific skills will receiving a paycheck, we are sending adults to school for two years to accumulate debt while picking up "work skills". Refinancing won't fix that problem, but returning education to education, instead of it primarily being about giving skills to human capital needed to make money for the ruling elite, will hit at the root cause of the problem. But that change will not happen as long as there is the "Education Excellence Partnership". Google that and understand who all is involved.

  3. Liberty Dick 2014.05.08

    Why not just allow students to declare bankruptcy on student loans? Shouldn't the bad debt just be liquidated which might force the education market to lower their costs? Imagine what schools would do with tuition prices in a world that brainwashed kids into believing they needed a college degree, banks able to create the credit to by borrowing it at virtually 0% interest, and no ability to write off the debt?

  4. Jerry 2014.05.08

    Why not just have public higher education to educate our people for the future?

  5. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.05.08

    I agree with everyone, even - EVEN - with most of Sibson's comment. Geez. That's scaring me.

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.05.08

    LibD, shall we declare a Juhilee year for students?

  7. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.05.08

    BTW, Elizabeth Warren is one of my heroes.

  8. lesliengland 2014.05.08

    "handful of millionaires"-cory, rick's recent emails have links to readersupportednews.org ect.-one of which identifies sean noble, a political operative "dark money" handler for plutocrat koch brothers (2.18.2014). reads surprisingly like your joop bolen/lawyers expose. wow! there is obviously a republican format for funding election outcomes, at least for 2012, which is surely alive and well in pierre. thanks citizen's united and judge alito!

  9. Anne Beal 2014.05.09

    Warren is just trying to defund Obamacare, because the student loans were one of the funding mechanisms. The interest paid is supposed to help pay for Obamacare. I can't remember what section of the ACA that's in, but Im sure you can google it. The fines the employers were expected to pay for non-compliance was also being counted upon for funding, but now that's been delayed. Bit by bit, the Democrats are chiseling away at Obamacare.

  10. larry kurtz 2014.05.09

    Mooooooo. Democrats are united while the earth hater party splinters.

  11. Daniel Buresh 2014.05.09

    Tuition will keep going up as long as schools know students can get the funding. This is a cost issue that Warren's plan does nothing to help, only furthering the raping of students by universities. It's a band-aid on an axe wound. Universities have no incentive to lower their costs. There is getting to be more administration than teachers. Then again, Warren will never address costs while her biggest donors are schools. Meanwhile, she collects over $350k/yr from Harvard and at times only teaches one class a semester.

  12. Douglas Wiken 2014.05.09

    And, Noem voted to make sure she got mileage payments for use of her vehicle. Good think there isn't a bridge to Hawaii or China.

  13. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.05.09

    Mr. Buresh, "raping" is completely overstating an unfair, even usurious financial trap for those struggling to finance their educations. Rape is on an entirely different level, an entirely higher level.

    That being said, the cost of education boggles the mind and you are on the money regarding non teaching employees. This spring I read an article in the Strib documenting the changes in the ratio of instructors vs. non teachers at the University of Minnesota. I don't recall details, but the decrease in full time, tenure track professors was paralleled by an increase in areas specifically related to student services and a sharp rise in adjunct faculty.

    Later I read an opinion piece in the same newspaper. The writer, whose name I don't recall, blamed the rapid rise in student services on 'helicopter' parenting. Schools have come to understand that student retention requires a much higher level of attention than in the past. The writer says that students are accustomed to parents solving problems for them.

    I think there may be some truth in that. Undoubtedly there are other issues at play too.

    Fascinating.

  14. Roger Cornelius 2014.05.09

    What the hell is Anne Beal talking about?

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