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The Atlantic Magazine has a good analysis of the details of the student loan plan.

Oct 26 2011
The monthly impact of the president's new effort for most Americans paying off college debt will be between $4 and $8

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... ct/247411/

For the average borrower, the impact would be small. In 2011, Bachelor's degree recipients graduating with debt had an average balance of $27,204, according to an analysis done by finaid.org, based on Department of Education data. That average has ballooned from just $17,646 over the past decade.

Using these values as the high and low bounds of average student debt over the last ten years, the monthly savings for the average student loan borrower would be between $4.50 and $7.75 per month. Clearly, this isn't going to save the economy. While borrowers with bigger balances would save more, this is the average. And even someone with $100,000 in loans would only cut their monthly payments by $28.50.

The White House estimate is 1.6 million borrowers could participate. Any borrower who graduated in 2011 or earlier will not be eligible, so its effect will be felt strictly by those in school now or in the future.

Everytime I come on this site I read something depressing... but for some reason I keep coming back.

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That's what happens when you can only change things through executive order because the house is committed to ending your presidency.

SUCO wrote:Everytime I come on this site I read something depressing... but for some reason I keep coming back.

+1

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MCFC wrote:

minnbills wrote:That's what happens when you can only change things through executive order because the house is committed to ending your presidency.

Right.

The only people to blame for the lack of strength of the plan are the people that voted republican during the midterm elections. President Obama did what he could with what he had.

MCFC wrote:

minnbills wrote:That's what happens when you can only change things through executive order because the house is committed to ending your presidency.

Right.

Or a senate of your party that still wont support you?

pleasetryagain wrote:

MCFC wrote:

minnbills wrote:That's what happens when you can only change things through executive order because the house is committed to ending your presidency.

Right.

Or a senate of your party that still wont support you?

+1

I heard Barack Obama wasn't even born in America.

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MCFC wrote: Right.

Because he totally didn't have total control for 2 years.

Um, does the term "blue dog democrat" mean anything to you?

pleasetryagain wrote:

MCFC wrote:

minnbills wrote:That's what happens when you can only change things through executive order because the house is committed to ending your presidency.

Right.

Or a senate of your party that still wont support you?

looool also credited

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So everyone here thinks Obama should have given even more relief on student loans?
For what purpose? To help those that made bad decisions?
Who ultimately pays if we forgive all of those loans?

The real problem is that the current system provides unlimited student loans for degrees that have a very low probability of paying off.
We allow students to borrow without any thought given to ability to repay the loan.

This unlimited amount of money has hurt everyone because it encourages universities to just keep raising tuition rates.
There is no cost containment in the system because it is being artifically supported by an insane government loan program.

The best thing Obama or Congress could do is link loan default rates to the university.
The worst offending universities need to be cutoff.
The universities need to have some skin in the game on the outcome of students.

The twist, ITE most American grads make only little more than 10 dollars an hour.

Grizz wrote:

pleasetryagain wrote:

MCFC wrote:

minnbills wrote:That's what happens when you can only change things through executive order because the house is committed to ending your presidency.

Right.

Or a senate of your party that still wont support you?

looool also credited

Nowadays you need 60 votes to control the Senate. So, no, his party doesn't have control of the Senate.

This article is focusing strictly on the .5% income break when obviously that's not big a deal. However, the drop from 15% to 10% is a big deal where your payments could drop a couple thousand per year.

the students who can benefit from Obama's changes won't graduate until 2015. Thanks Barry (from all of us already in debt and approaching repayment NOW). THis was a political move, and does nothing for current students or the current economy.

the students who can benefit from Obama's changes won't graduate until 2015. Thanks Barry (from all of us already in debt and approaching repayment NOW). THis was a political move, and does nothing for current students or the current economy.

And this surprises/irks you...?

Given the impossibility of substantial changes to the system, what else can a brotha do but order political maneuvering executively in order to try and wait out the Congress until the next election (hopefully) yields a more amenable legislature?

Even if it was political expediancy, if he were intellectually honest and really trying tohelp he could have moved the changes back to actually help someone now rather than 3 years in the future. Thre peoplke drowning are the out fo work under employed students NOW. The victims of the recession.

He can lower the interest rates on fed loans, and he can lower the payback to 10% and 20 years on all loans outstanding now. He can make loan forgiveness pro rated rather than all or nothing. And he can lobby for better tax treatment for the loan forgiveness on the back end. All that would help.

westbayguy wrote:Even if it was political expediancy, if he were intellectually honest and really trying tohelp he could have moved the changes back to actually help someone now rather than 3 years in the future. Thre peoplke drowning are the out fo work under employed students NOW. The victims of the recession.

He can lower the interest rates on fed loans, and he can lower the payback to 10% and 20 years on all loans outstanding now. He can make loan forgiveness pro rated rather than all or nothing. And he can lobby for better tax treatment for the loan forgiveness on the back end. All that would help.

He can't do any of those things, actually. And yeah, I'm totally sure his efforts to lobby Congress would be super helpful.

In an election year he might actually get them through if he tried- but he never even tried, he just made a grandstand gesture to the press making it look like he was doing something in the face of congressional inaction and obstructionism.

These are changes that help people but cost the government very little in the long run. The sooner non dischargeable debt is paid off, the sooner that money goes back into the economy. The current approach just pushes the problem down the road, and the bubble will burst in 15-20 years when all those IBR payments result in a balloon bigger than the original principal, and the student has to pay tax on a huge number, with no ability to repay. It's gonna be ugly.

I was a huge Obama fan, but his complete inability to put forth a coherent idea that the PEOPLE actually buy into and that the republicans would look stupid rejecting is totally beyond me. It's all about being reelected and not about "doing the right thing". Yeah, I'm disapointed he's not alot better at making his case.