Author Topic: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief  (Read 6807 times)

dude

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Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« on: June 09, 2015, 05:55:19 AM »
for those Corinthian College students whose situation was the topic of another thread in this forum:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/govt-plans-erase-student-debt-185423683.html

Lovely.

Pooplips

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2015, 06:00:40 AM »
"It's an unknown quantity at this point," he said of the final price tag.

My favorite line in the article. Nothing is ever know. Haha

Clever Name

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2015, 07:42:08 AM »
They were victims of a massive fraud. I don't really see a problem with this.

mathlete

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2015, 07:46:18 AM »
I'm not really sure we can say that taxpayers foot the bill every time additional federal spending is mandated.

The government spends money all the time but only very rarely are taxes raised to match the spending. The treasury is footing the bill.

Patrick A

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2015, 08:06:45 AM »
Oof.  I hope that they at least go after some of the people involved, if they haven't already.  That's a lot of fraudulent money, and now apparently taxpayer money, going to some nasty people.

druth

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2015, 09:29:16 AM »
I think they shouldn't have to pay, but why can't their debt just be wiped out?  If it was fraudulent and the company is now defunct who is getting this money?

Also, I think that the gov't shouldn't have let these students get loans for colleges like Corinthians in the first place.  You can pay off their debt now, but there are still tons of schools just like Corinthians, still getting federal funds.

vivophoenix

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2015, 09:50:41 AM »
people get up in arms worried about taxpayers footing the bill for victims of fraud. no one is concerned about finding the perpetrators of this fraudulent school and making them foot the bill??



Zamboni

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2015, 10:38:37 AM »
There have been multiple lawsuits (various states and federal) won or settled and fraud investigations by states and the SEC.  There was a $30MM fine by the Dept of Educ that shut them down. Records have been seized. None of that really recovers the grant money (like pell grants and GI Bill) that this outfit bilked out of people. And now the people who did complete the programs (sounds like a minority of those who enrolled) have basically useless degrees and some of these folks paid out of their own pockets or had relatives pay.  So lots of people were victims of the fraud here, not just the taxpayers. 

In my opinion the people who founded this place and the top people (anyone making >$500K in annual total compensation) should go to jail, but they are rich & can afford good lawyers, so history says that probably won't happen.

Probably the best we can do realistically is shut them down and try to prevent another similar predatory bogus education shop from popping up in their place.   

Travis

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2015, 05:12:53 PM »
They were victims of a massive fraud. I don't really see a problem with this.

We went back and forth over this issue in the previous thread about this story.  The three main issues debated were: these people were victims of fraud, they should have known better than to send their money to an unaccredited degree mill, and why does the law allow such places to receive federal money in the first place?


elysianfields

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2015, 02:46:10 AM »
This wouldn't happen if:

  • higher education were more affordable in the US;
  • we stopped worshiping at the altar of the free market;
  • Congress actually exercised some authority on student loans in genera;l
  • Congress set the interest rate on student loans at a fixed low rate;

-Elysian

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2015, 05:44:49 AM »
This wouldn't happen if:

  • higher education were more affordable in the US;
  • we stopped worshiping at the altar of the free market;
  • Congress actually exercised some authority on student loans in genera;l
  • Congress set the interest rate on student loans at a fixed low rate;

-Elysian

Wait, how is the government guaranteeing loans "worshiping at the altar of the free market"?

elysianfields

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2015, 07:56:42 AM »
This wouldn't happen if:

  • higher education were more affordable in the US;
  • we stopped worshiping at the altar of the free market;
  • Congress actually exercised some authority on student loans in general;
  • Congress set the interest rate on student loans at a fixed low rate;

-Elysian

Wait, how is the government guaranteeing loans "worshiping at the altar of the free market"?

I was referring to the for-profit colleges that were the source of much of these bad loans.

Bob W

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #12 on: June 15, 2015, 09:58:29 AM »
Tip of the iceberg?   I can imagine Clinton 2 pushing for student loan debt relief for all people.   

MoneyCat

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2015, 01:30:23 PM »
Maybe Congress should have passed laws banning federal student loan aid from going to useless for-profit "colleges".  Then we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.  I guess that wasn't possible, though, because those "colleges" donated a lot of money to Congressional campaign funds.

music lover

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #14 on: June 23, 2015, 02:09:01 PM »
This wouldn't happen if:

  • higher education were more affordable in the US;
  • we stopped worshiping at the altar of the free market;
  • Congress actually exercised some authority on student loans in general;
  • Congress set the interest rate on student loans at a fixed low rate;

-Elysian

Wait, how is the government guaranteeing loans "worshiping at the altar of the free market"?

I was referring to the for-profit colleges that were the source of much of these bad loans.

And what exactly does that have to do with "worshipping at the altar of the free market"??  Do you think eliminating a free market system will rid the world of cheats and frauds?

Paper_Route

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #15 on: June 24, 2015, 09:39:42 AM »
As Milton Friedman said, "To spend is to tax. You can tax smart or you can tax stupid, but tax you must."

That's like saying that since your financial planner took out a personal loan on behalf of you with the bank, you can freely spend the money and won't have to foot the bill.

I would contend that eventually all federal debt must be paid back, so spending is spending.

I'm not really sure we can say that taxpayers foot the bill every time additional federal spending is mandated.

The government spends money all the time but only very rarely are taxes raised to match the spending. The treasury is footing the bill.

hernandz

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2015, 03:52:22 PM »
As Milton Friedman said, "To spend is to tax. You can tax smart or you can tax stupid, but tax you must."

That is an awesome quote, but I couldn't nail down a Google attribution.  Would you know where/when it was said?

The Money Monk

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Re: Taxpayers to Foot $3.6Bil Student Loan Debt Relief
« Reply #17 on: June 26, 2015, 01:31:57 PM »
They were victims of a massive fraud. I don't really see a problem with this.


People are victims of fraud of all kinds all the time. Why should federal taxpayers be the ones who foot the bill? The fraudsters should be the ones held liable, financially and criminally.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!