Slashdot Mirror
Obama Is Forgiving the Student Loans of Nearly 400,000 Permanently Disabled People (marketwatch.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers will now have an easier path to getting their loans discharged, the Obama administration has announced. The Department of Education will send letters to 387,000 people they've identified as being eligible for a total and permanent disability discharge, a designation that allows federal student loan borrowers who can't work because of a disability to have their loans forgiven. The borrowers identified by the Department won't have to go through the typical application process for receiving a disability discharge, which requires sending in documented proof of their disability. Instead, the borrower will simply have to sign and return the completed application enclosed in the letter.
This program has been around since 2010. The only difference now is that the administration is sending out letters to people they see as eligible for this program. Up until now there have been few who have applied for it. It could be they do not know about it, think it is too difficult, or that they do not qualify. All the letter does is emphasize that they can apply and sets out the process. This is not a straight out forgiveness. Each disabled person must apply and be approved to have their loan forgiven.
Ever known someone who was disabled who applied for Social Security benefits based on it? It's not easy to get them to admit that they are disabled. It seems unlikely to me that successful disability fraud would be all that common, because it's so damn difficult to get disability payments with a genuine disability. Got any references?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
97% of student loans (or something close to that) is from the Federal Government, not a bank. The loss is on the taxpayer, banks did not loan out this money.
The ACA passed by placing all the interest collected on student loans to pay for the ACA. In order for that to be enough they had to take over pretty much every single student loan in the country. If they forgive student loans that means the ACA will not be fully funded. So we are taking money away from giving health insurance to poor people in order to give it to disabled who have student loans that they are not paying back.
The poor are paying for it. If you think that is the best you can do, go ahead and cheer for it.
1) you can thank congress, Obama has tried and he's still trying to close Gitmo, but apparently, senators think muslims who have been tortured are some kind of super villain and will lay waste if they end up in a normal prison. Conservative senators are the biggest fraidy cats.. they are all bluster.
2) We only assisted with non-military aid on a number of conflicts, and we put no troops on the ground. I think the only significant event that we bombed was Libya. Even with ISIS we've reacted with restraint. Compare that to the last guy in office.
3) Obama has never ran on a campaign of taking guns away from people. In fact, he allowed guns in federal parks so you got a little more freedom. What he is incensed about is school shooting, and you should be too. A middle school filled with young children was shot up with many young children killed and the nation has done nothing about it. If we can't even take action when our children die, don't expect anything on guns to happen soon. Luckily, video games are removing the need for the upcoming generations to have guns. Over time, nobody is going to give two shits about guns except old codgers and hunters.
4) Moves or made. Perhaps you've forgotten that there is a very hostile conservative congress who do nothing but put obstacles up. Even balancing the fucking budget is political football.
Just like how you start to get very mad at people who are able to abuse handicapped parking spots because the govt is totally lax about who get to use this benefit (not just who has the placard, but who uses it). Trust in the appearance of public institutions is just as important as actual functioning -- a small number of cases of fraud and abuse can undermine it.
I don't get mad at ANYONE who uses a handicapped parking spot (with the proper permit). Maybe they're parking the car for a disabled person they dropped off at the front door? Who knows. It's not my place to judge and I have seen someone who was legitimately disabled accosted by someone who didn't think they were disabled enough. It was a young guy I knew that had 4 inches of bone removed from his leg after a drunk driver almost killed him. So why get angry at people who use handicapped permits? Even if you have your own handicap permit that person you're angry at may need it more than you think.
2) We only assisted with non-military aid on a number of conflicts, and we put no troops on the ground. I think the only significant event that we bombed was Libya. Even with ISIS we've reacted with restraint. Compare that to the last guy in office.
US forces have been directly involved with both Libya and Syria. There's nothing magical about "boots on the ground" as direct involvement is direct involvement. Our planes or ship flown and sailed by our pilots and sailors have send shells, missiles, and other ordinance into those conflicts. Thus far, Obama has been responsible for lobbing ordinance at Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Syria, and the Philippines.
Also interesting of note is that the usage of ordinance in Afghanistan rose under Obama.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
The only thing Obama is doing is proactively canceling disabled people's loans. Its always been the case that if you are officially disabled that your can get your loans forgiven. The only thing he is doing is making the loan servicers proactively do it instead of waiting for the disabled person or family to do it.
OMG Ponies!!! with Glitter!!!! I miss Pink
Disability is the new welfare. It is another place we hide true unemployment numbers. In a time where every business has to be handicapped accessible and when most of us that earn a good living do so by basically sitting on our arse all day in front of a monitor, the term "permanently disabled" with the possible exceptions of quadriplegics and such strikes me as pretty ridiculous.
I have to say that your post made me pretty angry. I have a degenerative neck injury. While I am perfectly capable of getting around and living a relatively active lifestyle, there are days where I can't get out of bed. Eventually I will probably have to go on disability. Sure I sit at a desk all day but what employer wants to put up with me being unable to work randomly because I'm in too much pain? As it is now I take more time off work than I'd like going to doctors appointments and for treatment. Every 6-18 months I have to have a nerve ablation. It's a pretty painful procedure but I'd already be on disability now without it. I've managed to hold down a job despite my injury for the last 7 years. If I'm lucky I'll be able to make it another 20 before it becomes too much. I have no interest in going on disability but I will be surprised if I can avoid it my entire life. Crack a few vertebrae in your neck and tell me how you feel even when youre "just sitting on your arse all day."
Not treating loan forgiveness as income is a great way to pay someone without it being taxed. "Would you rather I pay you $100,000 for this job (out of which you'll have to pay taxes, etc) or I 'loan' you $90,000 and then forgive that when the job's finished?"
There's a reason the IRS treats forgiven loans (under some circumstances) as income. Ditto if the interest rate on the loan is unusually low.