4-23-25

Student loans are back in the news again……a new report just came out that

indicates that upwards of 5.3 million people in the US have defaulted on their

student loans……another 4 million are said to be 90-120 days late on their student

loan payments…..less than 40% of all student loan borrowers are current on their

loan payments overall……that’s a travesty…..that’s just horrible and it clearly

indicates that we have a problem…..either they should have never been given the

loan in the first place….or they took out more than they could afford…..or the

economy is just so bad that they can’t find enough work to make

payments……there’s a little bit of each I’m sure…..but I think that there’s a bigger

problem……what do you think?......I’ll give you my thoughts: I believe that what

we are watching right now is a crisis of accountability……there is a generation of

loan recipients who have been patted on the head and told that they were victims

because they took out a loan from mean people and they shouldn’t have to pay it

back…..somehow, receiving money from someone else and signing your name on

the dotted line with a promise to repay it means nothing because Uncle Sugar will

rescue you……well, the jig is up….the free lunch is no longer free…..Uncle Sugar

just turned off the trust fund tap…….

The Trump administration has just announced that it will begin working to collect

on unpaid student loan debts……Trump’s Secretary of Education said yesterday,

“Going forward, the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department

of Treasury, will shepherd the student loan program responsibly and according to

the law, which means helping borrowers return to repayment — both for the sake

of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook”…..the federal

government has been ordered to follow through on the contractual remedies that

the borrowers signed onto…..basically, if you’re in default on a student loan they

can call the note, garnish wages, reclaim tax refunds…..overall, the Department of

Education said that 42 million borrowers currently owe the government over $1.6

trillion and one department official said it is pushing the entire student loan

portfolio toward a fiscal cliff……liberals are already freaking out that the Trump

administration plans to actually hold people accountable…..it’s going to be a sure

enough wake up call when the free lunch is over…..for millions…..but let’s think

about the way we got here……let’s consider for just a minute the legal, ethical,

mental and moral twists and turns that liberals pushed to get us to the point that

an entire 14% of the United States owes money to the government for student

loans……and how it can be that the vast majority of them do it right, while a batch

of them are given a pass……

Back in 2022 President Biden went to the podium and attempted to justify his

efforts to grow the welfare state…..I know you’ve all heard about the plan to pay

off student loans….. estimates put the price tag for Bidens student loan bailout at

over $400 Billion…….ostensibly because people who knowingly entered into a

contract to receive a benefit shouldn’t have to be held accountable to their

contractual obligations because…..well, because its “hard?”…..or something

equally insulting…..the bottom line is that there is no free lunch…..these are

government bailouts that are unrelated to war, or poverty, or natural

disaster…just simply related to a neat idea of rescuing knuckleheads from their

own bad decision making…..they have to be paid for by someone…..like I said, get

a free pass on your student loan but there ain’t no free lunch……somebody had to

pay…..The Supreme Court finally stepped in and rejected the Biden student loan

bailout but he kept going…..finding key ways to work an end around and

eventually claimed to have written off over $183 billion in student loans overall…..

There are a number of things wrong with this idea…..first of all, from a legal

standpoint, Biden did not have the authority to do so…..the student loan bailout

was touted by Biden as necessary under the auspices of an emergency spending

authorization related solely to the Covid pandemic….even when the pandemic

was over…..Even if the pandemic was not over the veracity of Biden’s position

that he can spend federal tax dollars to pay off individual debts without further

justification just because he wants to is legally indefensible…..

Secondly, I would have to argue the notion of paying off someones debts who has

not solicited the payoff is ethically wrong…..not just legally, but ethically…..how

could a President, who had a fiduciary responsibility to the whole of the American

public justify the ethical position that just because times were hard that the

government needs to lighten the contractual obligations of some citizens without

consideration to those who carry similar burdens…..can the government be so far

into the notion of picking winners and losers that it can ethically look in the eyes

of a 24 year old who thought it would be a great idea to borrow $50,000 to get a

degree in underwater basket weaving …….and in a fit of misguided benevolence

pay off that debt simply because it came through a university…..while at the same

time deny any similar relief to another 24 year old who worked a night job to get

a certificate as a journeyman plumber and then borrowed $50,000 to buy the

equipment to start his own company……that’s the government telling one that

they deserve a free lunch but the other one? Not so much…..

But what about the MENTAL…..what are we to think of a Commander in Chief

who could say on one day that he intends to use $400 Billion of our tax revenues

to pay off student loans because the pandemic created hard times while at the

same time campaigning emphatically that he built a great economy for us and

there are no hard times?.....it is a mental machination that eludes most people

and the only conclusion is that he was knowingly lying…or that he was knowingly

deluded…..the same brain cannot conjure all of those conflicting thought patterns

without one of those two conclusions…..lying or deluded…..in essence, if he were

in court tomorrow to testify I would say that his testimony would be immediately

impeachable…..

So legally, ethically, mentally……I can argue against this student loan bailout

without much trouble….but there is another argument that I believe bears equal,

perhaps even greater weight……the question as to whether or not a student loan

bailout can be defended morally…..by telling an entire generation that the debts

that they incurred are really not their fault and that they shouldn’t have to bear

such responsibility the Biden Administration perpetrated the growth of a welfare

mentality ……having a welfare mentality….the kind of mentality that says “I’m a

victim and therefore I should be rescued” keeps otherwise strong and healthy

members of society from learning the value of taking calculated risks…..it tells

them there is no need to press through adversity…..they become expectant

regardless of their potential for productivity……Would we ever raise our kids to

believe that there is no hope of success without someone else’s

benevolence?......in essence Joe Biden told every kid who didn’t show up to

practice and came late to the game that they are still going to get a participation

trophy……

A healthy society cannot survive on the notion that no one should be held

accountable for their own actions……and the millions and millions of productive

citizens out there making a go of it and contributing to their communities who

take the great risks, and know the great failures, but also know the great

achievements…those are the people now being called upon to pat the poor souls

on the head that have somehow borne the ignominy, the burden, the pain of

being asked to pay their own debts……

I’m sorry they made a mistake….but my family should not be forced to pay for

it…..and believe me, someone always has to pay for it……

There is no free lunch

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!