Announcing a democratic initiative that I can support

[JD Barleycorn]

Senator Gillibrand (d) has put forth a bill to temporary reduce the interest rates on student loans. I support this and have contacted my representatives telling them so. The logic is that (from my point of view) is that the banks took government money (our money) for bailouts with the promise of passing that money onto the consumers. One place that this has not happened is in the student loan program. To complicate matters Obama has seized many student loan accounts and put them under government control. Now the government is getting it's money at interest rates of 1 of 2 percent. Why charge the students 6 percent on that money? The government is not supposed to be in the business of making a profit off people (students).

So there you have it, post a notice, I support this democratic initiative except it is only for a year so it is an election ploy. If it passed then next year in time for the elections the democrats can drag it out and wave it at the students and recent grads. If this was a real attempt at reform then it would be to extend indefinitely those low rates. So you see I can support the democrats when they have a good idea but can also see where they are playing politics again.

http://www.wkbw.com/news/NYS-Sen-Gil...208063401.html

[Whirlaway]

Simple math; the delinquency rates on student loans is higher than conventional consumer loans, they are NOT backed up by hard assets, thus the rates should be higher to reflect the risk.

You want the government to take more losses on the student loan program with artificially low risk rates?

Why are you so generous with our hard earned money ?

http://www.sfgate.com/business/artic...35-4318876.php

[JD Barleycorn]

Personally it is my hard earned money on both sides of the equation. I have substantial student debt. On a political side of the argument; this will continue to be brought up by the democrats like it was last year and this is to prepare for next year. Get the jump on them and the student vote by extending the reduction for 20 years and take away the issue. On the financial side; as I said the banks took bailouts with the idea of passing those on to the consumers (I am repeating myself here). Students and their parents are consumers. Shouldn't they be able to take advantage of those money transactions? Yes, there are people who default on their student debts more often than other loans because, frankly, it is hard to repossess an education. Change the way things are done. I can tell you from personal experience that it is scary to realize that you are suddenly going to get hit with what amounts to a new car payment every month for the next ten years. You got some pleasure out of school but it was also work. So you get to work (to some degree) for a few years and then you get to pay for the privilege for the next ten years. Finally, we have been told repeatedly that we make more money by going to school and getting degrees. It more than benefits the student but it benefits the country. We do not have to import Chinese computer students if we have our own students learning about computers. We do not have to take the chance that those same students will go back home and hack our sensitive systems for their government. We will also need a lot more healthcare professionals under Obamacare, a lot more. Where do they come from except our schools. I don't really want to go to a doctor where English is a second langauge and my life is on the line.

This approval should not be construed to mean that student debt should be forgiven. Contracts were signed but like the banks renogiated their debts so shouldn't that apply to more than home owners who are getting to refinance? Student debt is one of the largest sectors of debt in our country. Maybe if the rate was lower then default rate would lower as well. If my house payment is 3.9% for 30 years, why not make my loan rate less than 5% for ten years. Or maybe we can go 15 or 20 years. An education is a life time investment just like a house.