Cancelling $4T in taxes for 815 billionaires but not $1.7T in student debt for 40M Americans is the modern version of let them eat cake.
@QasimRashid It's absolutely not, though.
That's not how the government works, that's not how government finance works.
To say that those students don't need to pay for their share of the government budget isn't about letting them eat cake or whatever you think that means. It's about defunding government programs that our democratic process decided needed to be funded in that way.
No, you have that completely backwards.
@volkris @QasimRashid so the students in wherever don't pay any tax?
@pkraus The federal government treats the loans as a source of revenue, effectively as a tax.
It's not about whether you pay any other tax, it's about saying they don't have to pay their taxes in this case even though the government was relying on those revenues to fund government programs.
@volkris @pkraus @QasimRashid That might make sense (although it definitely doesn’t) if the bulk of student loan programs weren’t privately financed (but government guaranteed).
@pedrobizbikedu The bulk of student loans that we discuss for giving at the federal level are federally funded, that's why we talk about forgiving them at the federal level.
The privately funded loans aren't under the jurisdiction of the federal government, they're a completely different matter.
@volkris True enough. I think I’m living in the past.