Lots of programs that started under the pandemic need to end. This is one of them.
Brad Polumbo writes at the Washington Examiner:
It’s time to end the taxpayer-subsidized vacation for student loan paymentsFrom the very beginning of the pandemic, we have expected essential workers such as grocery store clerks to grab a mask and get to work. Yet, for some bizarre reason, the federal government decided that relatively well-off college graduates needed a vacation from their student loan payments — at taxpayer expense, of course. The educated class’s vacation from paying their bills continues 18 months later and, thanks to an extension from the Biden administration , isn’t set to end until January 2022.This is nonsense. While some Americans do indeed continue to struggle amid the pandemic and government restrictions on their livelihoods, college-educated workers are doing just fine. After all, broadly speaking, college graduates are much more likely to work in roles that function remotely, so they were far less likely to get laid off during the pandemic.You don’t have to take my word for it. As of August 2021, the unemployment rate for college graduates aged 25 and over, the group that holds most student loan debt, was an astonishingly low 2.8% . So, even those who thought there was some justification at the very beginning of the pandemic for this moratorium on student loan payments must acknowledge that college graduates aren’t experiencing economic duress or joblessness. Why, then, should they be off the hook for paying their bills like everyone else?While the total of $1.6 trillion-plus in outstanding student loan debt owed to the federal government sounds daunting, it’s more manageable than you’d think. Most people’s monthly payments aren’t actually some crushing burden. As of 2017, the median monthly student loan payment was just $222, a significant sum but hardly budget-busting for most college graduates. Despite progressive rhetoric, it’s not a radical or ruinous move for the federal government to ask people to resume paying back taxpayers what they owe.
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