Thursday, August 25, 2022

Student Loan Hail Mary

So Biden decided to forgive $10,000 in student loans for most people, and up to $20,000 for some others. This forgiveness cuts off at income levels of $125,000. All told, it will cover about 45 million people to one degree or another. The media is trying to sell it as something amazing, but it's not. In fact, it really shows the combination of cowardice and stupidity which afflicts Team Biden. Here are my thoughts.

1. First, let's be clear, this is an attempt to bribe young people to vote. That is all this is. It is not an attempt to improve the "system" in any way.

2. Let's also be clear, it won't work. Why?
(a) This does not apply to college students. You need to be paying it back already, so it entirely misses the "young people" they are trying to attract. Stupid.

(b) Check out this quote from the Miami Herald, a Democratic operative, meant to tell you how the "Biden-Harris" (Harris??) forgiveness will bring Heaven on earth:
"With billions of dollars of student debt cleared from the books, millions woke up today to a different financial world. One where they have a higher net worth, more purchasing power and better access to financial products, like mortgages."
That's the sales pitch. The thing is, that's utter crap. Most people have far more loans than $10,000. The average for people with loans is $57,000 and when you owe $60k, having $10k forgiven doesn't mean squat. It doesn't change your financial position in the least. You still owe years of payments. Your payment may go down, but we're talking $20 a month or so. Big whoop. In fact, forgiving $10k feels more like an insult to these people after being told there would be some genuine forgiveness. As for having better access to mortgages and more purchasing power, student loans never really stopped you from getting a mortgage before, so that's nonsense. And the rise in mortgage rates easily offset whatever benefit this gives. So, nice try. As for net worth, net worth is an illusory concept no one thinks about except near-retirees. Don't believe me? What are you worth? And purchasing power, as we said, is like a $20 a month raise. Short answer: this is a big yawn. Just like all the other bills they passed which the Democrats couldn't understand why they didn't win people over either. Way too little... way too late.
3. Now let's talk the politics.
(a) If Biden really thinks this will help, why announce it in the summer when no one is paying attention? Announce it before the election when people care.

(b) By ending the moratorium in January, he's ruining Christmas.

(c) The left is irate because this is regressive: it's working men and women paying off the debt of lawyers and doctors and elitists. That is kind of sh*tty if you think about it... but then, all socialism is.

(d) I think it probably isn't inflationary like some are saying because it won't actually work to give people more money to spend.

(e) People who paid off their loans are pissed because they aren't getting this.

(f) People who didn't go to college are pissed because they get to pay for it.

(g) How is it that once again, big rich institutions seem to get off scot-free? Big Banks, Dodd Franks. Big Health, Obamacare. Big Pharma. Big Auto. Big Tech. Big Billionaire. Now Big College, they all seem to do extraordinarily well when the Democrats claim they are helping the people. In this case, we're talking about colleges who have grown huge and fat and rich on pushing these loans on students with no choice, and yet they don't even get a slap on the wrist out of this? Why didn't Biden pay for this with a tax on college endowments? They have trillions. They could pay for it. They caused it. That makes sense. It makes no sense a McDonald's worker should pay for this so Harvard doesn't have to. Terrible policy, terrible optics.
This is one of those moments that shows that Biden's a fool. If he was going to do this, he needed to go big: forgive it all, not just a piece of it. Failing that, makes this meaningless. And if he was going to do this, he needed to take the money from the people who wrongly took it in the first place: colleges. Fix the system. Doing that would have been popular even with people who never had loans or paid them off. Instead, he put the cost on the least deserving people. He has no balls and no brains, so he tried to split the difference between bold action and doing nothing and he got virtually nothing but a lot of anger for his trouble, and he protected his Big friends once again.

This is utter crap. Oh, I will take his money, but this only makes me like him even less.

As an aside, Biden's approval is "up" to 44%. Keep four things in mind when you see the next flood of articles claiming momentum. First, if you were told a President's approval was 44%, would you see anything good in that number? It only appears "good" because it's been down to 42%. Secondly, 44% and 42% are in each other's statistical margin of error, which means it hasn't actually moved. Third, it's summer. As I told you last time, things drift up in the summer because people lose their intensity while they are sitting at the beach. The real number that matters is when people come back -- just like the stock market, which always rallies in low volume trading over the summer and then tells you reality in September. Fourth, if Biden's "string of victories" (as the media is calling it) or "momentum" can only produce a 2% increase well below the natural level of support for a candidate of either party then his victories are Pyrrhic at best. A real victory usually comes with some benefit.

Student loan forgiveness won't help this.

Thoughts?

17 comments:

AndrewPrice said...

LOL I just read that Harris was on vacation. Add that to the politics. How is it a Biden-Harris bill if she was on vacation when it happened? That's something you do to hide someone the consequences. These people are fools.

AndrewPrice said...

Here's an article that just happens to focus on a guy who paid off his debt and won't be getting anything forgiven. Surprise, he doesn't feel ripped off! Oh no, he's happy for anyone who gets something forgiven. Imagine that. No propaganda here, no sirree...

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/millennial-paid-off-100k-student-171708516.html

Anonymous said...

Ten years ago, that would have been an article in The Onion. Six years ago that would’ve been an article in The Babylon Bee. It’s amazing how quickly reality outpaces satire.
—tryanmax

Kyle T. said...

That yahoo article you linked is pure propaganda Andrew. What a bunch of BS.

-Kyle

AndrewPrice said...

I just read the Trump affidavit... what there is of it. It's worthless. It says, (1) Trump was asked for documents. (2) He turned those over. (3) Some had classified markings (no state of knowledge that these were still classified, no mention what they are except handwritten notes by Trump). (4) There are more documents. (5) In my experience, there must be more classified documents. (6) We don't believe Trump declassified anything.

That's it. That's worthless.

AndrewPrice said...

Isn't it, Kyle? It's absolute propaganda. There is no actual news value in that. And it's entirely meant to counter the criticism. Shameless.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, It's shocking to me how fast parody has become reality. I don't understand it. There is seriously something wrong with humanity at this point.

Anonymous said...

It angers far more than it helps
Jed

Anonymous said...

Jed, That it does. I think it's a political mess. It doesn't generate much goodwill from anyone and it angers lots of people who either hate it on principle or would have liked it if it was done differently. It also does nothing for future students. And the timing is really questionable.

Did you notice it's largely already disappeared from the news cycle?

Andrew

Anonymous said...

As an aside, do you recall how I pointed out that it was a total lie that Biden's been careful never to mention Trump or talk about him? Today, Biden was out there (again) mocking Trump by name. It's funny how reality never ever ever fits the liberal narrative.

AndrewPrice said...

So, keeping score...

The media is quickly losing interest in the student loan thing. There are only a few articles on it, not the usual gushing over leftist "achievements." When they do talk about it, they've adopted the narrative and repeat it, but don't go deeper... unless they do a fake article about "what people think" which comes down to asking one supporter and no one else.

The same propagandist at the Miami Herald wrote about a poll today about what people think. According to her, 35% of people think that getting rid of so much debt and freeing people to live and love was "just about right." Another 33% thought the bill didn't go far enough. The other third thought it went just a little too far. Apparently, no one opposed it.

Funny how that poll isn't making the rounds.

At the same time, the comments section on articles (which I almost never rely on as they are the domain of idiots) are universally opposed. About half complain that it was unfair to pay off other people's loans -- that's expected. But what is not expected is the other half complain this was way too little. Even the ones who "like" it, say it fails to control college costs and is worthless.

No wonder it's disappeared... just like Biden's other "achievements." Remember the inflation act? That environmental thing? Giving money to semiconductor companies? How about the infrastructure bill? When he historically appointed a black woman to the court? Yeah, no one else remembers those things either.

Anonymous said...

Of course 😉

Kyle T. said...

Hey, Anyone watch Biden's speech last night? What the hell was that? Thoughts?

I’m not sure what to take away from that speech. It came off as a mix of Angry hatred toward anyone who is not lock step in line with Democrats; with some mild threats to boot. Add in the the pitch black/red background, it was just creepy and plain nuts.

It came off to me like Biden & the Dems are losing power and are trying to stoke up hatred and fear to keep people in line. They are punks no matter how you view this (unless your a leftoid lemming).

-Kyle

Anonymous said...

Hi Kyle,

First, it struck me as McCarthyism. It was an American political creature trying to demonize part of the electorate and get the herd to turn on them to save his own political ass. It was pretty sickening.

Then it struck me that Biden's such a piece of sh*t and he knew he was doing this all for politics, not any sort of genuine outrage -- a view confirmed today when he tried to act like he didn't really mean what he said and he was just good old happy Joe, a lover not a hater. I seriously hope he lives a LONG life to lament his failure.

But sadly, in the end, it struck me as the new normal on the mid-to-far left and the fringe right. We live in ugly times.

Andrew

Anonymous said...

Kyle, As an aside, I did kind of have to laugh. The left is a disaster and the voters would be turning them out in droves except the Trumpettes won't stop their campaign of idiocy. They are trying desperately to make sure Biden and the left stay in power, and they are going to be as awful and moronic and scary as they need to be to make sure that happens.

Biden's speech last night struck me as an attempt by Biden to fight back, to make sure that the public hates him even more than they hate the Trumpettes.

It's like a race to the bottom with both sides determine to come across as the most retarded, most hateful, most dangerous.

Bizarre.

Andrew

Rustbelt said...

Kyle, Andrew...

Nah. Forgot it was on. Had more important things to watch. Though I didn't have a dog in it, I watched the Backyard Brawl being played at Tevor...Tray...Tesco...Trafalgar...whatever the hell that stadium's name is now. (RIP scoreboard ketchup bottles)
Anyhoo...happy to see Pitt beat West Virginia.

Only read a few excerpts from the speech. Focused more on the background. Politicized the Marines just he said he would do...or, uh...wouldn't do...er, um...forget it. But, seriously, who designed the setup? Albert Speer? Nah, even he would've called it too gloomy.

AndrewPrice said...

Rustbelt, That's a great point I forgot to mention too. The use of the US Marines crossed another line prior presidents did not. That's unAmerican and frankly fascist. Ironic that our fascist in chief is calling other people fascist.

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