The President has once again governed without the input of those pesky Congressmen and Senators. The White House, apparently, also forgot how to use a calculator. Yesterday the President announced new plans to help students who are being crushed by student debt… Ya know: The same students that progressives have been encouraging to take out loans and go to college. According to the Washington Post:
In an attempt to ease crushing student debt, President Obama will sign an executive order Monday afternoon that will allow at least 5 million people to cap their student loan payments at 10 percent of their income.
Ok… So our Loan-Officer in Chief, Barack Obama, has decided that student loans should be limited to a percentage of a student’s income. How do you think lowering payments impacts the term of a loan? “Congratulations, kids! Your 15 year student loan just turned into a 30 year obligation! You’re welcome.”
So how much will this cost? Meh… It doesn’t really matter. At least not according to the White House. Heck, they didn’t even bother to make up a number when asked about it during the press briefing. In fact, they simply said that, “we’ll figure that out on the back-end.” Right. I mean, why budget for things, when you can just figure out the cost as you go?
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Although, in all fairness, the question of cost is somewhat peripheral, given that the Administration doesn’t even have the confidence to say that the move is constitutional. Judging by the press conference yesterday, the President’s message really seems pretty simple: “We have no idea what we’re doing; but it sounds darn impressive, so we’re doing it anyway!”
Now – and I’m just thinking outside of the box on this one – couldn’t we just ask students to borrow responsibly, and fulfill their obligations as a consumer of credit? Or, in a world where 26 year olds are still listed as a child on their parents’ health insurance, is that asking way too much?
Of course, in the world of Obama, college is a right. And, as such, should be funded by taxpayers. (I’m still waiting for the taxpayer funding for my enumerated right to own a firearm…) Obama has fought for years to make sure that anyone with a pulse and a signature is eligible for a student loan. Shockingly (sarcasm font) such easy money has inflated tuition prices as schools quickly realized that students had almost unlimited access to credit. So after hiking education prices, and handing out loans to anyone with a credit app, we seem to have built up a bit of a bubble… Good thing nothing like this ever happened with the housing market (whew, that could have been bad).
But even if you feel that borrowing money is a reasonable thing to do to further your education (which it can be), there should probably be a little bit of long term planning. I mean, it doesn’t take a genius (or even a college graduate) to realize that borrowing $50 thousand, to major in Anthropological Feminism, could be a poor use of credit. So while Elizabeth Warren, and Barack Obama, go around explaining that everyone needs to go to college, maybe we should rethink what degree would be the best use of a student’s time and borrowed dollars.
After all, would you tell a student to purchase a $35,000 car before they graduate and find a job? Would you tell a student to apply for a home loan? So why would someone take out a loan for education, without first analyzing whether or not repayment was within their ability? Well, the answer is simple: We’ve been told (over, and over, and over) that some degree from some institution (for a mere tens of thousands of dollars) is the only way you might, under the right circumstances, possibly be eligible for some kind of employment in Obama’s America.
Which brings us to another point: People could probably afford their loan payments if we had a little thing called “job creation” going on in this economy. I mean, I hate to illustrate the obvious, but a slightly better jobs market might buoy incomes to a point where college grads could actually move out of their parents’ basement, and pay off their student loans simultaneously. Heck, they might even be able to afford their own contraception pills.
The truth is, not everyone needs to go to college. And not everyone that should go, needs to borrow money to do so. Easy money for higher education has greatly inflated the cost of education, without truly inflating the value. In today’s economy, a four year degree means far less to an employer than it did even twenty or thirty years ago, because the market is currently flooded with unemployed History, Literature, and Art majors who borrowed their way through a University. Higher education might be exactly what some people need in order to succeed in America; but before making that purchase, perhaps a little consumer discretion is advised.
Besides, we have a Presidential Administration that just implemented a “solution” to a crises invented by their progressive policies; and they did it without consulting Congress or a calculator… If they represent the brilliance of Ivy League education, I’m kinda thinking the value of college might be overrated.
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