painesright on October 25, 2011 at 8:42 PM

More Cloward-Piven? What a great way to stress a system. Send more useful idiots to school, to rack-up enormous debt, knowing they’ll leave the government holding the bag.

John Deaux on October 26, 2011 at 9:00 AM

I hope the IRS does go after them, but I have a feeling there will be some sort of immunity granted…

The higher education bubble must remain inflated.

Sugar Land on October 25, 2011 at 4:22 PM

Yup, those bastions of Progressivism must be protected and allowed to continue to charge outrageous fees. How else will we continue to afford all those well-paid professors and academic functionaries? and teachers union members? How about protesting the pay of the University presidents or chancellors?

I guess they really earned it, as opposed to some CEO who has to meet real financial goals and can actually be fired?

Some really are more equal….

Hmm. What else happens in 2012?

Revenge.

However, this is a game of long ball by Obama and it has nothing to do with economic recovery. Right now lots of young peopleare passing on the campus experience because it is so expensive. The left needs the indoctrination factories working at full capacity to counter those who have had their eyes opened. It’s a power play for a population that is already sympathetic to the left’s cause but who is vulnerable to the lessons of reality if the exposure happens too soon.

If those responsible for those loans are forgiven, they keep their money, yes, but that trillion bucks has to come from somewhere. Do the banks eat it? Does the Fed print money to buy the loans? Does Congress appropriate money to pay off the notes? That money will be taken from the economy either in the form of taxation or inflation or absence of capital. Oh and with the promise of easier loans, expect the ethical institutions of higher learning to raise their tuitions accordingly.

This is just more government welfare that invites abuse and fraud.

True story. I struck up a conversation with a woman in an airport while waiting for our flight. The economy and the plight of recent college graduates came up. She openly (as in, without any hint of shame) detailed to me how her daughter plans to take advantage of Sugar-Daddy Obama’s generosity.

Her daughter is majoring in graphic design at an expensive CA university and already has $56,000 in student loans. She has already figured out exactly how she is going to game the system.

Realizing that the labor market is depressed, she is doing what millions of others will decide to do when Obama dangles this carrot in front of them… she is staying in school as long as she can and living off more student loans.

In her line of work, many people work on contract (1099/self-employed) and show very little income on their tax returns. Since she only has to pay 10% of her discretionary income, paying 10% of not-much is a great deal.

(By the way, who is going to sit there and calculate how much discretionary income millions of people have each month in order to determine how much they should be paying for their student loans?!?)

She has no incentive whatsoever to limit how much debt she racks-up, because she knows that she will not be held accountable to pay it back. Why stop at $56,000? $100,000! $150,000! $200,000! The sky’s the limit when you are spending free money!!

Then, after 20 years of repaying not much if any of her student loans, her debt will be forgiven. How neat! Like free money or something!!

That is exactly how the system will be gamed.

Take that example and multiply it by a millions of people.

We’ll have $2 trillion in government-guaranteed student loan debt in no time!

What a deal for the (mostly liberal) universities and vote-buying politicians.

Win/win indeed.

Too bad these kids don’t understand that they will lose in the end when their country becomes Greece.

So sad.

and Tina thought she was cynical.

Should be illegal.

/Big Gubmint.

Just like Solyndra, GM, and everything else this man has ever touched in his entire life: Nobody ever gets screwed over, except American taxpayers.

doesn’t seem that way to me.

Enroll in college. Borrow $250K. Drop out of college. Never pay back a dime. Wait for Obama to forgive my loan.