George Santayana, the philosopher, poet and essayist who was born in Madrid on December 12th, 1863 and died in Rome on September 26, 1952 said this, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Over the years there have been many variations of this pearl of wisdom but the meaning is all about the same. While we should orient our minds to the future, the past must not be overlooked. For if we ignore the past, we do so at our own peril.
Our political playing field just switched from home team Obama to home team Trump. It is absolute that successors to great jobs like President of the United States inherit many of the good and bad decisions of the predecessor.
It has been reported widely that the President took over the ‘student loan program’ in 2010, placing it in the responsibility of the Secretary of Education. Like the healthcare law that was also passed in 2010, we were told that there would be substantial savings by directing the student loan program under the auspices of federal government.
Promoting the program to high school seniors, youths flocked to the program like bees to a hive. It was so popular because virtually anyone qualified for a loan to study any college level coursework they desired and for as long as they wanted to study it.
Here’s the big hook for students; as long as they took a course or two, they didn’t need to pay anything back. So rather than work through summer vacations and holidays, many lackadaisical students just kept taking courses. Some who qualified for loans had no interest in studying; many who graduated or quit became restaurant cooks and servers, janitors and parking lot attendants. Their incomes fell woefully short of having enough money or desire to pay back their student loans to Uncle Sam, the generous and wonderful loan officer. Modest delinquency reports were periodically released.
There is a high probability that many students in their early 20’s took advantage of the healthcare provision of staying on their parents’ healthcare policy until age 26, feebly approaching the market with high job skepticism and low willingness to go to work. Although we’ve been getting some relatively critical reports of student loan delinquency over the past six years, the federal Department of Education cut loose a disturbing report in early January just prior to the inauguration.
The report stated that a coding error, “led to the undercounting of some borrowers who had not reduced their loan balances by at least one dollar.” The three year repayment rate fell to 46% meaning that earlier reports had been too positive by 20%. Total student debt now amounts to $1.3 trillion to 44 million borrowers with average debt being more than $37,000. Our former president has burdened taxpayers, most of whom are middle class, with delinquent student debt that could rise to as much as more than $700 billion. Each taxpayer may have a delinquent tax burden to pay amounting to $5,846. National debt will reach $20 trillion soon.
Here’s the result that you don’t want to hear. No government official will be accountable; not the former president, not the former or present Secretary of Education, not anyone in government. Had this avalanche of unnecessary debt been caused by private institutions, there would have been recriminations, Justice Department trials, fines and perhaps even jail time for those who had been a party to promulgating this terrible debt disaster.
The prior administration has created a trifecta of financial disasters for our new administration to dismantle or overhaul; 1. The mis-named Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, 2. The Student Loan Forgiveness and Repayment Assistance Act and 3. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. All were passed in 2010.
In the hours prior to the inauguration, Mr. Obama authorized payment of $221 million to the ‘Palestinian Authority,’ much of which would have probably been used for payments to ‘Families of the Martyrs’ but reports indicate that President Trump has stopped that payment.
This means that Mr. Obama’s signature healthcare legislation is doomed and his towering legacy achievements will now be naming public bathrooms in North Carolina and restoring unconditional diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Dick Baynton
