Biden Quietly Forgives Student Loans for Government Workers But Millions of Others Remain Crushed by Student Debt

 

Only old Joe Biden and his friends are permitted to prosper in his country.  Why does it seem like a communist takeover of the US?

Red State reported:

Throughout Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, he pledged to tackle America’s student debt crisis by reducing the cost of attending college and canceling up to $10,000 of debt per borrower.

More than a year into his presidency, Mr. Biden has come up short on both counts. Not only have he and Democrats in Congress failed to pass legislation forgiving student loan debt, data compiled by U.S. News & World Report indicate that “tuition rates at both private and public National Universities have increased by at least 2%” from the 2020-2021 school year to the 2021-2022 year.

However, despite these failures, one group has benefited substantially from the Biden administration’s student loan policies: nonprofit workers, the largest group of which is those employed by federal, state, or local governments.

While tens of millions of other Americans remain burdened with massive student loan debts, government and other nonprofit workers have enjoyed substantial amounts of student debt forgiveness, and at a rate we’ve never seen before, thanks to a combination of policies most voters know very little about.

Under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which was created by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, federal student loan borrowers who work full-time for a nonprofit organization, including a government, can have their entire student debt balance discharged after making 120 qualifying monthly payments, a requirement that takes at least 10 years to complete, but could take longer.

Prior to receiving forgiveness, many of these borrowers enroll in a federal income-based repayment plan, which ties student loan payment amounts to income, allowing borrowers to “pay” as little as $0 per month without penalties, and as much as 15% of a borrower’s monthly discretionary income.

Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in early 2020, President Trump and Congress agreed to temporarily pause federal student loan payments. But rather than require PSLF borrowers to continue making payments in order to make progress toward the 120-payment threshold, Trump and Congress allowed the paused “payments” to count.

Initially, the federal government’s stated goal was to provide several months of payment relief at the height of the pandemic, a time when millions of Americans were losing their jobs due to government-imposed lockdowns. If it had remained temporary, the payment pause would have had a limited impact on PSLF.

However, instead of allowing the “temporary” deadlines to pass, Biden has continued the pause three times since becoming president, the most recent of which came in December 2021, when the White House announced the pause would continue until May 1.

 

In total, the US has forgiven over $1 billion in student loans for over 471,000 individuals who are mostly government workers.  

Government jobs years ago used to be low-paying but there was the promise of good benefits once retired.  Over the years government workers’ pay has increased exponentially.  Now government workers make better money in many cases than the private sector with incredible benefits as well.

One article from 2018 says this:

Studies using different methodologies have been published both supporting and refuting that government workers tend to earn more. And while the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that government workers are indeed paid more on average than their private sector counterparts, the outlook really depends on what branch of government you work for and the type of occupation you pursue.  

While the government and big business were pushing manufacturing jobs overseas, the average American job was making less and less.  At the same time, there has been little restraint on government jobs with annual increases and still the best benefits.  Then during the crisis created by the government, government workers were without risk of losing the family income and paid throughout the crisis.

The one ultimate challenge for government workers was Biden mandating all these workers receive the potentially deadly COVID vaccine.

What an upside-down world we currently live in.