All of a sudden many of the candidates for the Presidency of the Good Ole USofA are in a bidding war over Student Loan Debt Forgiveness…
Ø One
candidate wants to forgive 75% of all student debt.
Ø Another
candidate heard about the 75% and raised the forgiveness to 100%.
The way Washington, D.C. works don’t be surprised if the next bidder proposes 110% and calls the extra 10% a Bit of Lagniappe or Walking Around Money.
***************
No one doubts that student debt, which amounts to some $1.6
Trillion in total, is a burden. (Remember that’s 1 Thousand 6 Hundred Billion
Dollars.)
Debt Forgiveness wouldn’t make that Debt Disappear. The Debt would still have to be paid. It will simply be transferred from Student Debt to the Federal Debt (which is already more than $22 Trillion and growing every minute).
***************
Wise Guy Questioner to
Congressman: Which taxpayers will get stuck with the tab?
Congressman to Wise
Guy Questioner: Are you really going to make me get specific about which
Taxpayers? Alright, wise guy, I’ll tell you which Taxpayers will pay. All Taxpayers
will pay.
Wise Guy Questioner
to Congressman: Huh? You can’t be serious! (The Wise Guy Questioner is a
cousin to John McEnroe.) Do you think that’s fair!
Congressman to Wise
Guy Questioner: I can’t believe you will not accept “All Taxpayers” as a
sufficient answer. OK, Mr. Wise Guy Smarty Pants, you tell me which Taxpayers
you think I am being unfair to.
Wise Guy Questioner
to Congressman: No need to get snippy. OK, I will give you a list of those Taxpayers Who Would Be Unfairly Taxed If
They Were Saddled With Student Loan Forgiveness…
Ø How
about taxpayers who don’t have Student Debt of their own?
>>Why should the 98.5 Million who did not go to college have to pay for those that did go to college?
>>Why should the 106 Million who did go to college but didn’t take out Student Loans have to pay for those who did take out Student Loans?
>>Why should the 98.5 Million who did not go to college have to pay for those that did go to college?
>>Why should the 106 Million who did go to college but didn’t take out Student Loans have to pay for those who did take out Student Loans?
Ø How about taxpayers who went to college but, because of their own sacrifices or the sacrifices of their relatives, were able to come out of college Student Loan Debt Free?
>>Because their parents financed their education by working longer.
>>Because their parents took the tuition out of their own savings.
>>Because their grandparents took the tuition out of their retirement savings.
>>Because the students themselves generated their own tuition payments by working their way through college.
>>Because the students themselves generated their own tuition payments by deferring consumption and saving their money before they went to college and during their college years.
Ø Think about this point. On average, Americans who complete only high school earn $1 Million less over their lifetimes when compared to college graduates.
>>Is it fair that these people who are going to earn substantially less throughout their working lives will have to pay for those that are going to earn substantially more throughout their working lives?
Mr. Congressman, I know you are really smart otherwise you would not be in Congress but don’t you see that Tuition Debt Forgiveness punishes those who did the right thing by making sacrifices, those who had relatives who made sacrifices, those who acted wisely and frugally, as well as those who simply didn’t have the opportunity to go to college and That’s Just Not Fair!
My Dear Readers please raise your hand if you do not agree with the above paragraph.
My heavens! A bunch of you actually raised your hands! L
Are you kidding me even though I’m not kidding you?
Smartfella
Lagniappe:
Ø Back
in the old days where I come from we had... Pay As You Go.
Ø Here
in the new days we are about to have... You Go I Pay.
That’s Progress…Or is it?
3 comments:
Think we expect too much of our mentally challenged congressmen?
The issue of rising tuition is a complicated one. On one hand as an academic professor, my salary has gone up funded by increased tuition. I am not sure it has kept up with inflation, however. Yet I have been opposed to the extent to which my university has raised tuition over the past decade or so. A complicating factor at my school and I suspect at other state supported universities, is that the percentage of our budget covered by state support has decreased during this time. Economic reality says that a state needs affordable college for its citizens. (I will refrain from discussing the meaning of citizenship at this time.:-)) One step in the right direction might be to have students (and parents?) choose universities that they can afford.
Scary to wake up to. I keep thinking it will never happen but then I remember other times I have thought that and was wrong. Your headline for this expression of Foolishness is real. I really believe that colleges are just as easy to blame as congress in that they are the one factor in the overall picture that has always raised tuition and fees year after year with no concern for economic reality.
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