1890

I’m gonna throw an anecdote in here and say that yes, getting people like myself out from under a mortgage-sized monthly loan payment and letting them participate in the economy with even a thought of owning a house and starting a family before 35 would be a positive for the economy and spur growth.

1891

The other thing I see out there regarding student debt is a fundamental misunderstanding of exactly how crippling it can be. “Student debt” for people in their 20s and 30s isn’t the student debt that those of us in our 40s and 50s and 60s wrestled with. Generationally, I’m not sure people who went to college 25-30 years ago fully grasp all of this, unless they have kids themselves who are facing it.

1892

No, this isn’t true.
A larger percentage of minority students who go to college end up taking out loans, but far more white kids go to college. The vast majority of this debt is held by reasonably well off white kids.

Canceling student debt is a hand out to folks who aren’t the poorest members of society.

I’m not skipping over that at all. It’s a different part of the plan. We’re allowed to evaluate the different parts individually.

I acknowledge that this is often the case, but we’re still talking about handing out a trillion dollars to folks who are not poor. There are a LOT of folks in the country who are much worse off than folks who have college tuition debt, but we’re talking about spending a massive amount of money to cancel that debt.

I think that for this to be considered a good play, it really needs to be laid out, in detail, exactly how this is going to spur economic growth in order to cover that cost.

I don’t think Warren’s plan for the wealth tax fully covers that cancelation of debt, in addition to the other things like free pre-K and free tuition moving foward.

1893

I consider myself a fairly progressive dude but I am with Timex on this one. Most likely because I’m not impacted by student debt in any capacity, have an obvious empathetic blindspot on this issue, and think this appears to be a big giveaway to appeal to a specific, particular demographic.

1894

Before we all go deciding which income/wealth/cultural backgrounds benefit most from student financial loans, and which of those groups hold the most debt, perhaps some cites are in order?

1895

While not speaking to the merits of the plan, because you do have a good point, Warren does say that this student debt is preventing young professionals from buying homes, forcing them to take multiple jobs, etc. I think the plan is that they would spend the money they’d otherwise be using to pay down their debt on stuff that most people spend their money on when they’re in their 20s and 30s. Not a lot of saving going on during that time, so I think it’s safe to say that most of the forgiven debt would be plowed back into the economy.

Warren does have salary-driven phase-outs for forgiveness, but someone making $130k/year still would get some amount forgiven. I’d be for lowering the thresholds or perhaps only forgiving the debt for people who went to public colleges instead of private. I’m not super interested in forgiving the student debt of a Harvard graduate, for example.

1896

If this were to go through, I would have just missed the boat as I’ve been throwing every spare dollar I have towards my student loans for the past 5+ years (been paying on them longer than that, but not overpaying with such zeal) and I’m almost done. Still fully support it, though. That money could have been going into the local and national economy instead.

1897

Yes, I’m in the same boat as you - paying down my loans with every spare dollar since graduation, living in a cheap apartment for the past 5 years to keep my costs low (and living with my parents before that, because of the reality of my finances) - and am thankfully at the point where I could finally lump sum the last of it if I wanted to tap out my savings at 32. And that includes some help from my parents.

I am still 100% for this because no one deserves that kind of stress and inability to live your 20s after making a decision at 17 or 18 that’s supposed to be a huge benefit, without understanding (or being given the tools to understand) the ramifications. Plus, from what I’ve heard it’s only gotten worse in the last 10-15 years.

1898

I think that this is a valid argument, and there’s a good chance that such a change would in fact spur significant economic growth. I just haven’t seen anyone do the math on that yet.

1899

My girlfriend owes the feds $90,000. She makes $40,000/year before taxes/insurance. Which isn’t poor by any means, especially when I make a couple thousand less and we cohabitate (though we don’t intermingle our finances, she initially planned to pay me about $1000/mo to help cover mutual costs like rent, utilities, groceries, cell, internet, etc., though that total’s gone down to about $600 thanks to her student debt and car loan obligations).

Technically they’re just garnishing her now after she ran out of hardship deferrals and made some mistakes in her first years out of grad school while dealing with unemployment and constant illness. And since it’s garnishing on behalf of two different bundles of defaulted loans, they’re taking something like 25% of her paycheck each time.

It’ll probably be repaid in, oh, about 20 years at the present rate. Maybe 12-15 if we can double-pay for a year straight to get out from under garnishment and rehabilitate all the loans, potentially losing some of the accumulated collections fees.

So, you know, just knock out half of her income for a year straight, then probably something like close to a a third of it going forward for well over a decade more. We look forward to being essentially solvent sometime in our mid-40s.

I’m not gonna pretend we have it exceedingly hard. But that kind of debt is ludicrously crippling, and an ADHD-riddled 18-year-old with delusions of academic grandeur wasn’t in any reasonable position to sign on for it. If I weren’t around to help carry the load the last few years, I genuinely don’t know what would have happened to her.

1900

I mean this is basically a plan to take over a trillion dollars from the uber rich and give it to people who will spend it on homes, cars, TVs, childcare, and higher education.

My student loans are paid, and I don’t think I would blink an eye at having others get theirs paid off by multimillionaire families.

1901

When do we expect some of this field consolidation to happen? Will the first wave be after Iowa? Or will it begin after the first debates? Obviously most of these candidates don’t think they can actually win, and are just trying to raise their profile for cabinet positions or a VP slot… right?

My unscientific gut feel is that Mayor Pete pulls in most of the scraps, Biden’s support continues to erode, and that ultimately it comes down to Pete, Sanders and Harris

1902

A future without EWarren is the saddest future :(

1903

Don’t count out Warren. I think once she gets more exposure as the field dwindles, more focus is placed on the campaign, debates, etc. voters will see what she has to offer and gravitate towards her. She is smart, caring and does a great job explaining things. She doesn’t back down so I don’t expect her to drop out early.

1904

More Klobuchar weak sauce:

1905

Isn’t this an argument against any student aid at all? After all, most people who go to college are more advantaged, so you’re just giving a handout to those who don’t need it as much as others.

Personally, I liked Atrios’ version of the Warren plan. Give every single adult person a check for $50k they can use for whatever they want. People with student debt can pay it. People with care loans can pay them. People who haven’t gone to school yet can use it to fund that. No losers.

1906

And a stupid take from Buttigieg:

I mean, everything that happens in prison is part of the package, so if you can’t remove anything from the package, goodbye prison reform.

1907

I’m really not sure how you come to this conclusion from that blurb?

What I get is that he doesn’t want convicts in prison to be able to vote, full stop. Has anyone asked him what he feels about prison rights reform? Or drug policy reform? Etc? The things that actually would make a huge difference? I think voting rights for prisoners has got to be very far at the bottom of things that we need to do to have a more fair justice system.

1908

I just feel like Warren is one of the few candidates that Trump would actually beat.

1909

He doesn’t want them to be able to vote because that is one of the consequences of being incarcerated, so no, we can’t change that. If you take off the table anything that is currently a consequence of being incarcerated, there’s isn’t anything left to reform.

He’s triangulating.