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Biden says he is forgiving $5 billion in student debt for another 74,000 Americans
(www.cbsnews.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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I’m not sure why this comment is so controversial. It’s exactly what’s happening. We’ve been talking about this now for forever and almost nothing is happening. It’s wonderful that 74,000 people get some relief but that’s a drop in the ocean. I want it badly but I’ve almost accepted the fact that it’s probably not going to happen.
74,000 in addition to the 3.4 million people who already had student loans forgiven. That's not nothing.
Including me under the TEPSLF. I was on track to hopefully finish paying off my loans at age 63, but with the TEPSLF it counted the ten years I had already done so they were forgiven after the ten years of public service work I did.
Thank you House/Senate Dems and president Biden!
Sure, I agree the extra 3.4 million people have gotten relief or forgiveness is not nothing, but out of the 45.3 million people (quick Google search) with student loan debt that’s only 13%. It’s great, we’re on the path, but 87% of people still haven’t seen any kind of help, and were drug along being promised help for the last 3 years.
"It's only 13% and not 100%, so it doesn't count!"
The Supreme Court blocked his attempt last year to forgive debt for another 43 million people, which was set to take effect before repayments started back up. He's trying to help but is being blocked by conservatives who want him to fail so Trump can be reelected.
The supreme court stopped them forgiving 460 billion a wide acope. Instead, his admin has forgiven 141 billion in a narrower, but still huge, scope. Its far, far more than any other admin has ever forgiven, and still going.
If 30% of "an ocean" is just "a drop," thats one hell of a drop.
Hell, if he had just promised to forgive the equivalent of 10k like he intended on the campaign trail, his admin would be more than half way there, and climbing.
3.4 million people total have had their debts forgiven (so far) out of a potential 45.3 million. That’s around 7.5% of all people who held student loans.
NOAA estimates that the oceans hold around 1.335 billion cubic kilometres of water, which is around 1.335 sextillion litres (1.335e18 litres) or 353 quintillion gallons (3.53e17 gallons). Estimates put annual human water usage at around 4 trillion m^2 per year (4 quadrillion litres or 1.057 quadrillion gallons).
If the student loans forgiven were merely ‘a drop in the ocean’, that ‘drop’ would contain 100 quintillion litres or 26.4 quintillion gallons. That ‘drop’ would weigh 100 quadrillion tonnes and would be twenty-five times the amount of water all human being use globally every year. Dumped over the contiguous United States, that would form a layer of water 12.5km (7.8miles) deep.
That’s a hell of a drop.
Sources:
This burn is so wet, I'm literally drowning just seeing it.
You're allowed to ask questions. You just don't like the answers.
In this case, the answer is that debt forgiveness is happening, but you weren't paying attention.
Before you can forgive $1.77 trillion, you need to forgive $136 billion.
Medicare covers everyone over 65, not just orphans, widows, and people with disabilities.
The reason we didn't have universal health care 80 years ago is that it wasn't popular 80 years ago. Even today, support for single payer is shaky, depending on the details.
Medicare was popular because it was specifically aimed at retired people.
It also did not pass under FDR. In fact, FDR thought health care was too controversial to include in his Social Security proposal.
Medicare had to wait until 1965, when it was signed by Lyndon Johnson.
Are you serious? There's a big difference. Anything related to student loans already has a big hurdle in that it effects a segment of the population and not the entire population. For that reason, its not going to be the #1 issue for many voters. In situations like that, incremental progress is good because its not a prioritized issue simply due to numbers. It sucks but its true. The list of things we need to fix is huge. Things fewer people prioritize need any help they can get. Same reason enshrining abortion rights wasn't a priority. People thought it was already settled law and were less likely to prioritize it if they weren't personally effected.
In the case of healthcare it artifically created a similar problem, which was probably the intent. Giving some people healthcare makes them prioritize it less, which is why there hasn't been much movement (though pretending nothing has changed is disingenuous, even requiring insurance companies to cover pre existing conditions is a big deal). It isn't even a matter of individual voters being against giving other people healthcare despite having their own, though theres certainly some of that. Its about the fact that a voter is not likely to find a politician they agree with on every position. Let alone several for various offices. The things they are willing to compromise on disagreeing about will be things they prioritize less.
It's north of $136B in total. If you couldn't find that, you may not have looked today, as it's definitely been reported. I'll let you work out the percentage, but it certainly doesn't begin with a decimal point.
Prepare to be shocked. It's close to 8%.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/19/biden-to-forgive-4point9-billion-in-student-debt-for-73600-borrowers.html
Also, if you couldn't find a source then you either didn't actually try to find a source, or you aren't smart enough to google "how much student loan debt Biden has forgiven." The answer was in the first result.