Showing posts with label airlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airlines. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Coronavirus bailouts for the casinos but nothing for harried student-loan debtors: Let'em eat cake!

Congress turned on the money spigot last month and spewed out cash to millions of people and businesses that were hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

The airlines are getting bailout money, the casinos are eligible for aid, and corporations are accepting loans they don't needAutoWeb, for example, got a $1.4 million federal loan and gave its CEO a $1.7 million bonus one week later.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are burdened by federal student loans they can't repay.  More than a year before the coronavirus outbreak, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos publicly admitted that only one out of four student borrowers were paying down both principal and interest on their federal loans.  One out of five borrowers, DeVos disclosed, were delinquent on their debts or in default.

Now, with the unemployment rate hovering near 15 percent, and millions of hourly workers out of a job, college-loan debtors are struggling more than ever.

And what has the Department of Education done to assist harried student debtors? Not much.

DOE is giving college-loan borrowers a six-month deferment from making their monthly payments, and it won't assess interest on outstanding loans during that time. DOE has also temporarily stopped seizing wages, Social Security benefits, and tax refunds of people who defaulted on their federal student loans.

In other words, the Trump administration is shoveling big bucks to corporations, while it throws a few crumbs to college-loan borrowers.

Here's an illustration that shows just how meaningless the Trump administration's response to the student-loan crisis has been.

Laurina Bukovics borrowed $20,000 more than 30 years ago to obtain a bachelor's degree from Wisconsin University. Through the years, she made regular monthly loan payments except during times when DOE gave her deferments or forbearances due to her financial difficulties.

Over 25 years, Bukovics repaid $29,000 on her student loans—140 percent of what she borrowed. Nevertheless, by the time she showed up in bankruptcy court, her student-loan debt had grown to $80,000—four times what she had received from the federal loan program.

How much relief does a six-month moratorium on loan payments give to people like  Ms. Bukovics, who have been burdened by student debt for their entire adult lives and have seen their loan burdens double, triple, or even quadruple?

Hardly any relief at all.  The federal government has poured out trillions to alleviate the financial crisis that was triggered by the COVID-19 virus.  But much of this money has gone to corporations and businesses. 

When corporations ask the feds for money to help them get through the coronavirus pandemic, the government responds by saying, "Where do we send the check?"

On the other hand, when beaten-down student-loan debtors try to discharge their student debt in bankruptcy, the federal government almost always opposes relief. Ms. Bukovics, for example, was unemployed while she was in bankruptcy and living temporarily with a friend. She had no car, and she was so impoverished that she qualified for food stamps and Medicaid.

And what was the response by the Department of Education's debt collector to Ms. Bukovics's plight?  ECMC opposed bankruptcy relief because it believed Bukokvics was spending too much money on food.


Betsy DeVos's summer home