Hillary Clinton's not going to do anything about gun control.
It's the latest issue she's planning to ride while there's public interest.
She's done that a great deal in 2015 and will continue to do so in 2016.
In 2015, she unveiled a 'plan' to end student loan debt.
It was more smoke and mirrors from a woman's whose entire life has been little else.
It did nothing to address the thousands of Americans buried under student loan debt -- a burial that accelerated under the presidency of Bill Clinton and continues to this day.
Those people are just to be written off as forgotten in Hillary's so-called plan (they can 're-finance' their loans, their wages can 'only' be garnished by 10% and, after 20 years of struggling to pay, their debt can go away).
Is Bernie Sanders' plan any better?
Here's the plan;
Here are the six steps that Bernie will take as President to make college debt free:
- MAKE TUITION FREE AT PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. This is not a radical idea. Last year, Germany eliminated tuition because they believed that charging students $1,300 per year was discouraging Germans from going to college. Next year, Chile will do the same. Finland, Norway, Sweden and many other countries around the world also offer free college to all of their citizens. If other countries can take this action, so can the United States of America.
- STOP THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FROM MAKING A PROFIT ON STUDENT LOANS. Over the next decade, it has been estimated that the federal government will make a profit of over $110 billion on student loan programs. This is morally wrong and it is bad economics. As President, Sen. Sanders will prevent the federal government from profiteering on the backs of college students and use this money instead to significantly lower student loan interest rates.
- SUBSTANTIALLY CUT STUDENT LOAN INTEREST RATES. Under the Sanders plan, the formula for setting student loan interest rates would go back to where it was in 2006. If this plan were in effect today, interest rates on undergraduate loans would drop from 4.29% to just 2.37%.
- ALLOW AMERICANS TO REFINANCE STUDENT LOANS AT TODAY’S LOW INTEREST RATES. It makes no sense that you can get an auto loan today with an interest rate of 2.5%, but millions of college graduates are forced to pay interest rates of 5-7% or more for decades. Under the Sanders plan, Americans would be able to refinance their student loans at today’s low interest rates.
- ALLOW STUDENTS TO USE NEED-BASED FINANCIAL AID AND WORK STUDY PROGRAMS TO MAKE COLLEGE DEBT FREE. The Sanders plan would require public colleges and universities to meet 100% of the financial needs of the lowest-income students. Low-income students would be able to use federal, state and college financial aid to cover room and board, books and living expenses. And Sanders would more than triple the federal work study program to build valuable career experience that will help them after they graduate.
- FULLY PAID FOR BY IMPOSING A TAX ON WALL STREET SPECULATORS. The cost of this $75 billion a year plan plan is fully paid for by imposing a tax of a fraction of a percent on Wall Street speculators who nearly destroyed the economy seven years ago. More than 1,000 economists have endorsed a tax on Wall Street speculation and today some 40 countries throughout the world have imposed a similar tax including Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, and China. If the taxpayers of this country could bailout Wall Street in 2008, we can make public colleges and universities tuition free and debt free throughout the country.
In fact, it’s what many of our colleges and universities used to do. The University of California system offered free tuition at its schools until the 1980s. In 1965, average tuition at a four-year public university was just $243 and many of the best colleges – including the City University of New York – did not charge any tuition at all. The Sanders plan would make tuition free at public colleges and universities throughout the country.
It's a little better.
But not a great deal.
This site was started when five of us were in college (Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava) and our audience was mainly college readers.
The above doesn't really help our audience a great deal.
If you realize a wrong has taken place, why don't you right it?
Bernie declared last week that if a police officer breaks the law, he should be punished.
If it was wrong for the for-profit motive to enter into the loan program, how is just ending it, righting a wrong?
It's not.
The bankers were bailed out.
It's past time that the people were bailed out.
You can start with victims of student loans.