Enter Democrat Elizabeth Warren. She plans on introducing some legislation that is going to attempt to tie the Fed to keeping the Student Loan interest levels to the loan levels that big banks receive. Currently that number is at about 0.75% rather than the 7.9-8.5% loans that many students are coping with. This is an incredibly dramatic difference—mind you the banks are not spending money, people are. Personally, I know that if my loan rates were at 0.75% I’d have them mostly paid off already, and I’d be contributing to the economy a hell of a lot more…because of my addiction to consumerism, that is. While there have been many petitions, even ones I have signed, that call for a “bailout” on Student Loan Debt—“forgiveness”—this is a somewhat more equitable deal for the banks than that, which I don’t necessarily argue with. There are some who might argue that “well why are you complaining, you knew you’d have to pay the bank back eventually…you should deal with your mistake”. That is true. After all, we took out the loans knowing we’d have to pay them back but we were also faced with an abusive interest rate or never being anything in life (or so we were told). We made a mistake based on the information we had at the time. But didn’t abusive bank policies, based on information they had at the time, cause the 2008 economic crash to begin with? Did the banks have to deal with their mistake? Has anyone been tried or jailed for the past 5 years of economic woes? Oh, yes, I remember now, they were censured with billions of dollars in bailout and stimulus tax dollars.
Warren’s Bank on Student Loans Fairness Act is a step in the right direction, and would alleviate a huge burden placed on young professionals, the would-be-middle class, and yes, intellectual and technological innovators to-be. We should support this bill, not because it’s going to help people who made a mistake, but because it will actually free up funds to get the economy moving strong and keep people from making the same mistake again. It’s good legislation that is actually designed—in premise—to help people. Provided the pork isn’t obscene and useless, this bill has the potential to do a great deal of good. If we follow the clues to who stands to benefit most from the act of this bill, you’ll find the American people and not the pre-existing elite or extra-governmental corporations standing in the black.
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