Senator pushes for automatic payroll deduction of student loan payments

[Demovictory9]

https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190216/senator-pushes-for-automatic-payroll-deduction-of-student-loan-payments

What if student loan payments were treated like Social Security taxes — automatically withheld from a person’s paycheck? Fewer people would fall behind and risk having their wages garnished or credit score plummet. But some might struggle to cover living expenses if their education debt took priority.

Those are some of the central arguments for and against a novel policy gaining traction in Washington. Automatic payroll deduction for student loan repayment has long had broad support among liberal and conservative policy wonks, but it could come to fruition with the backing of Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

The chairman of the Senate education panel hailed the idea last week in a speech outlining his priorities for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act of 1965, a federal law that governs almost every aspect of the sector. Although reauthorization has endured fits and starts in a divided Congress, Alexander has pledged to complete the task before he retires next year. As a result, his support for payroll deduction is giving new life to debates over the issue.

Speaking before the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute recently, Alexander proposed consolidating the existing nine repayment plans into two options.

One would maintain the standard 10-year repayment plan, while the other would expand the Obama-era plan Revised Pay as You Earn, or REPAYE. That program caps payments to about 10 percent of discretionary income — that means earnings above 150 percent of the federal poverty line ($18,735 for a single person) — and forgives any existing balance after 20 years. Alexander would marry that option to automatic payroll deduction.

“Borrowers would never have to pay more than 10 percent of their income that is not needed for necessities,” Alexander told the audience. “And if a borrower loses his or her job and doesn’t make enough to make a payment, they would not pay anything, and it would not hurt their credit score.”

[Buckeyeblue]

1. I would only agree with this if it were paired with a bill to help decrease the cost of tuition

The cost of college has gotten out of hand. If students had to borrow less money I would be on board with the Alexander plan. But as it stands now, emergencies happen. The student loan payment might be needed to fix the car or pay for medication. And student loan payments are step enough to make a difference.

[kimbutgar]

2. Yeah a starving student has to pay off a loan before getting money to eat or pay rent

How heartless is that mf’er Alexander. Isn’t he up for re election in 2020? A great ad to get young people to vote against him.