Student Debt

In this video Barack Obama discusses College Affordability and the steps he is taking to make this possible.  He discusses issues such as lowering monthly payments of student loans.  Statistics show that student loans are the 2^nd most common debt within a household.  President Obama is taking steps towards fixing this problem.

On Wednesday, October 26^th Barack Obama Barack Obama spoke to student of the University of Colorado and discussed the future of affordable Education.  His plan was to decrease the annual percentage of ones income for payment from 15% to 10%.   The plan is said to be in effect in 2012.  To qualify for this new act you must have student loans on 2012 and have had loans in one of the previous four years.   Forgiveness of all loans is after 25 years of payments but under Obamas plan all loans would be forgiven in 20 years.  President Obama has stated that his has been a thorough process is coming up with such a decision.  His administration has is worried that the student loan debt has hit 1 trillion in America.  This issue is one that has caused a lot of detrimental effects of students.  Some students have had to drop out because of their lack to afford or being denied loans.  The inability to pay for college is an issue that President Obama wants to make vast changes on.   Some college’s cost up to 40,000 in tuitions alone and parents in the future are going to monitor these aspects.

The GOP is also talking about how they would help students with loans.  It could be said that this is a tactic to gain the youth vote but whatever that case may be it is indeed an issues that needs to be dealt with.  Bachman says that Obamas “college loan plan is an abuse of power that encourages debt dodging”.   Some are annoyed that this effect that was supposed to take effect in 2014 has been accelerated by the President to occur sometime this upcoming year.  Bachman also said that this would not solve or improve the nation as a whole.  GOP candidate Michele Bachman argued that if loans are decreased and forgiven so easily this will affect taxpayers and will push costs in other aspects.  Many feel that an individual should be responsible for they college debt.  It is true that it is ones duty to pay off our debt but the reality is that when you attend a 50,000/year college for four years and then possibly graduate school son on and so forth, the idea of being able to pay such vast amount seems unlikely. 

The administration states that the plan will not cost taxpayers anything and will actually save the nation up to 2 billion.  Newt Gingrich called Obama’s plan a “Ponzi Scheme”, stating that his plan would make the nation go bankrupt.  The GOP candidates seem to hate Obamas plan and are going against it at all costs.  Barack Obama has gained the youths attention with this act.  Students truly fear the future because of jobs and our inability to pay off our student debts.  It has also become a concern in the household that we cannot continue to further our education because of the great debt we would cause upon ourselves.  Barack Obama has caught the youth’s attention while the GOP candidates have not.