The U.S. keeps piling up debt at a breathtaking pace. That’s mostly because the feds are addicted to spending and no longer give any thought to the consequences of their profligacy, but a contributing reason is that the politicians are so generous with student borrowers, forgiving loads of debt they should have had to pay back.
In this Minding the Campus essay, Andrew Gillen of Texas Public Policy Foundation looks at recent debt forgiveness and observes that it’s a case of helping the rich. Gillen writes, “The Department of Education is going to forgive an additional $6.2 billion in student loans for 100,000 students through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. This adds to the $1 billion in previously forgiven loans for 11,000 students.”
Under PSLF, students who amassed a lot of debt to get degrees that led them to cushy government jobs get much of it “forgiven.”
Nice old Uncle Sam.
But Uncle Sam is being generous with our money.
If there’s ever to be a good history of the policy blunders that led the the bankruptcy of this country, it will have to include the folly of starting down the path of financing higher education.
Gillen concludes, “Why does the federal government continue to provide loans that will not be paid back, and then forgive them years later? That’s not a loan program — it’s a taxpayer-funded giveaway to the politically powerful and connected.”