Pres. Obama teams up with John Boehner to legalize robocalling harassment of student loan borrowers

[brentspeak]

Amending or outright repealing the onerous 2005 Bankruptcy Law which has prevented student loan debt from being discharged through bankruptcy? You think maybe, just maybe, that could dramatically help remedy the student loan debt crisis?

Hell, no! That would cut into Wall Street profits -- and it is Obama's primary job to protect Wall Street profits while simultaneously play-acting that he and the GOP are each other's throats. Instead, it's a much better idea to just harass student loan borrowers to death.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/robocalls-student-loans_561fff03e4b050c6c4a4e72e

Robocalls Emerge As Latest Fix For Nation's Student Loan Crisis

Shahien Nasiripour
Chief Financial and Regulatory Correspondent, The Huffington Post
Posted: 10/15/2015 06:25 PM EDT | Edited: 10/16/2015 11:38 AM EDT

The Obama administration and the student loan industry reckon they know how to fix America’s student debt crisis: Bombard Americans’ cell phones with robocalls and text messages telling them to pay up.

snip

While the Great Recession and the subsequent lackluster economic recovery play a role, the CFPB and consumer groups claim that sloppy loan servicing practices have exacerbated the situation by depriving borrowers of their right to make affordable monthly payments on their federal loans. More than 90 percent of all student loans are either owned or backed by the Department of Education and the department’s loan contractors have a business incentive to cut costs and minimize the amount of time they spend on the phone with borrowers seeking help, consumer advocates have told the CFPB.

Instead of cracking down on alleged abuses, the Education Department wants to give its loan contractors more power. In doing so, the department is aiding their quest to maintain profitability -- its four largest loan servicers have generated at least $5 billion in combined income over the last three years -- at a time when consumer groups argue the loan companies need to hire more workers and better train them.

snip

The problem, according to consumer advocates and regulators, is that there’s little evidence that opening up borrowers’ cell phones to relentless calls and text messages would help...

John Boehner and his congressional staff of lobbyists have helped make Obama's goal a reality:

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/28/boehnerland-lobbyists-win-right-to-bombard-student-borrowers-with-robocalls/

“Boehnerland” Lobbyists Win Right to Bombard Student Borrowers With Robocalls
Lee Fang
Oct. 28 2015, 7:03 p.m.
Deep inside the 114-page budget deal that passed the House Wednesday, legislative leaders tucked in a provision that will free debt collectors to bombard student loan borrowers with unlimited robocall and automated text messages where it hurts most — on their mobile devices — even when they are asked to stop.

The change is a major victory for the debt collections industry, which has retained a small army of lawyers and lobbyists for years to weaken the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the law that protects people from unwanted robocalls and pre-recorded messages. It’s also a big win for the small network of lobbyists within outgoing Speaker John Boehner’s inner circle, a cadre nicknamed “Boehnerland” by D.C insiders.

Records show that Brownstein met with FCC officials over half a dozen times this year to ask for the exemptions. The firm also collected at least $220,000 from Nelnet to lobby Congress on the issue.

As the Huffington Post’s Shahien Nasirpour reported, “the measure in the potential budget deal (Section 301) would amend existing law to allow companies to use auto-dialers when they call borrowers’ cell phones — even when federal student loan borrowers haven’t consented to them, and even if the borrowers will be charged for them.”

Lobbyists met with FCC officials over half a dozen times to help get this put into law?

These are the words of Senator Obama, in 2007:

“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over.”

[fredamae]

1. I wonder what this thread

would look like if this was a GOP POTUS pulling this crap?

Crickets?

[davidn3600]

2. Don't be shocked if the youth doesn't show up to vote next year

[niyad]

3. sighhhhhh

[Deadshot]

4. Download the Whitepages ID app.

You can block unlimited phone numbers for free.

I know, people shouldn't have to do this and they should NOT be harassed by debt collectors, but this app will help.