Elizabeth Warren wants to forgive student loan debt for 42 million Americans...

[Finance85]

I agree that people should pay their loans back. That said I do believe we need to change the way student loans are managed. It's interesting to me how upset people get about student loan forgiveness, when people default on other types of debt all the time. As a society we've decided that there should be options for bankruptcy for individuals and businesses. When the banking industry engaged widespread irresponsible lending we bailed them out. But the idea of bailing out students for irresponsible borrowing is seen as such a horrible idea. As I've said above I think people should pay back their loans but with a very low interest.

Two wrongs don't make a right. I was against the banking bailouts as well, but they were also of a different nature. Comparing the two is apples and oranges. Also, defaulting on other debt is also different - taxpayers aren't footing the bill. You might say other borrowers are also footing part of the bill. I'm not one of those other borrowers, so it doesn't affect me.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

The wealthy aren't undertaxed. They pay more than their fair share of income taxes, while nearly half the people pay almost no income taxes.

Of course the wealthy are being undertaxed. They may not be the only ones who are undertaxed.

How do I know? Because we can't pay the bills without borrowing.

If you rely on taxes for most revenues, and you don't have sufficient revenues to pay the bills, someone is being undertaxed. My bet is that those who are being undertaxed are those with the most money.

 

[Finance85]

Of course the wealthy are being undertaxed. They may not be the only ones who are undertaxed.

How do I know? Because we can't pay the bills without borrowing.

If you rely on taxes for most revenues, and you don't have sufficient revenues to pay the bills, someone is being undertaxed. My bet is that those who are being undertaxed are those with the most money.

We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. The top 10% are already footing a disproportionate share of income tax revenue. When the federal budget is 23% of GDP, that's a spending problem.

 

[Run&Blade]

I wonder how much taxing would need to happen for the extreme left to say they do pay enough ?

Free college
Forgive loans
Universal income
Medicare for All
Allow everybody that can walk into country and set them up financially.
Police the free world and protect everybody with our military for free because we want to be liked.
Slavery reparations

I doubt a 50% income tax with no deductions would cover all of that and pay for the debt.

It’s never enough. Somebody else will be offended and need more.

 

[83Hawk]

I wonder how much taxing would need to happen for the extreme left to say they do pay enough ?

Free college
Forgive loans
Universal income
Medicare for All
Allow everybody that can walk into country and set them up financially.
Police the free world and protect everybody with our military for free because we want to be liked.
Slavery reparations

I doubt a 50% income tax with no deductions would cover all of that and pay for the debt.

It’s never enough. Somebody else will be offended and need more.

100%. Then they will want to start confiscating property and investment holdings.

 

[Rifler]

If you rely on taxes for most revenues, and you don't have sufficient revenues to pay the bills, someone is being undertaxed.

I'm sure you realize that there is an alternate solution to this equation....

 

[Finance85]

I'm sure you realize that there is an alternate solution to this equation....

But it's not the solution he wants....

 

[Rifler]

The points I made ultimately state that we need to pay back those that were over charged for their education and then we need to figure out a system that reduces the cost of higher education for those going forward. More than likely this means that taxes would have to subsidize the cost to reduce it and in some cases eliminate it.

"Subsidizing" is not the same as "reducing". This suggested fix does not reduce the cost of higher education....

Following implementation of the above program:
1. The current student loan payer - "This is great, I'm getting a bunch of money back!"
2. The current student - "This is great, I don't have to borrow nearly as much as I used to!"
3. The college - "This is great, I'm getting paid just as much as before and the reduced student contribution makes my product even more desirable to my student customers,... Cha-ching!"
4. The taxpayer - "WTF"....

If you want to reduce the cost of higher education the college has to actually receive less money for their product...

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I'm sure you realize that there is an alternate solution to this equation....

No there isn't

The alternate solution you are (probably) thinking of does not apply to the current year. If that's the solution you want, implement it for future years. But for now the bills need to be paid. Raise the revenues and pay them.

Anything else, absent a genuine national emergency, is fiscal malfeasance.

Cutting things tomorrow doesn't pay today's bills.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. The top 10% are already footing a disproportionate share of income tax revenue. When the federal budget is 23% of GDP, that's a spending problem.

How many times do I have to smack down this stupid, dishonest BS?

The spending has already been voted on. Pay the bills. If you think there's too much spending, by all means push for budgets that call for less spending going forward.

Until you pass spending reductions, though, it's simply irresponsible to refuse to raise the revenues to pay the bills the nation is already committed to.

How absurd is it for a lefty to have to explain this to cons and Rs?

SMH

 

[grayhair81]

How many times do I have to smack down this stupid, dishonest BS?

The spending has already been voted on. Pay the bills. If you think there's too much spending, by all means push for budgets that call for less spending going forward.

Until you pass spending reductions, though, it's simply irresponsible to refuse to raise the revenues to pay the bills the nation is already committed to.

How absurd is it for a lefty to have to explain this to cons and Rs?

SMH

Spending AND taxation have both been decided for the current budget year.