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| Source:Associated Press- Sarah Binder also studies the U.S. Congress for the Brookings Institution in Washington. |
"The Senate plans to vote Tuesday on whether to start debate on a Democratic plan to keep some college loan interest rates from doubling on July 1."
From the Associated Press
I don't want to make light of the student loan debate in Washington, because it's a really serious issue. But this problem on policy grounds is actually very easy to solve. It's just the partisan politics that get in the way.
Republicans don't want to do anything about it and if they do something about it, they're going to have to get something in return that their Far-Right really wants, that has nothing to do with this issue, like eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, or eliminating some prevision of the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats simply want to raise taxes on either wealthy individuals or corporations or both, to pay for students loans. That's obviously not going to fly with Congressional Republicans.
So as result, American college students and college ready students get screwed in the process, because Republicans and Democrats can't play nice and work together.
The easy policy (not political) solution to this problem would solve the issue and would actually be pretty easy to get done. As Professor Milton Friedman (and every other economist who actually understands economics) has said, there's no such thing as a free lunch. To get anything substantial in life, you have to pay for it yourself, one way or another.
As much as left-wing Democrats might want to talk about what they call free college or tuition college, they might as well talk about the end of poverty and bigotry everywhere in the world, perhaps a cure for cancer by the end of the week. They live in Fantasyland, if they actually believe in free college. Anything that comes from government of course is not free for anyone who receives those services.
What we can do is have college affordability for everyone whose qualified to go to college in America, including high school students, but working adults who want to or need to go back to school to get additional skills, especially if they're currently long-term unemployed or working part-time now thanks to the Great Recession.
My simple policy, but very difficult political solution, thanks to the current political makeup in Washington, as well as the voters that the Republican Party and Democratic Party represents, is set up a college savings plan that anyone with kids could set up for themselves and their kids or set up one for themselves.
Americans could start their college savings plans as soon as their kids are born and keep paying into it until their kid or kids leaves school. That would give them 18-22 years for them to put enough money away for them to pay for their kids college education. They would put in a percentage of their income every week or month. Their employer would match it, you could have a Federal Government matchup as well, and perhaps have the students themselves pay a percentage once they've graduated college and start working. This would make college affordable (not free) for everyone in America.
