By bawintern1
(Source: Atlanta Daily World)
Cash dollars money with note written Pay Off Student Loans – on red background – financial management goal to clear student loan – clarify financial goal, make smart payment strategies, and seek forgiveness resources to clear the debt.
While most folks hip to the game understand President Trump won a second nonconsecutive term largely due to the rampant misogynoir ingrained in American society, white folks will swear with their whole chest they elected a failed businessman because they believed he would fix the economy. So far, he’s done a bang-up job by laying off thousands of federal workers, implementing an erratic tariff policy, and now his approach to student loan repayments has resulted in credit scores plummeting for millions of Americans.
AP reports that the Trump administration has begun referring unpaid student loans to debt collection firms after 90 days of non-payment. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has said that 2.2 million student loan recipients saw their credit score drop by at least 100 points, and another 1 million saw their scores drop by over 150 points as a result. That is not an insignificant figure, as that could be the difference between getting approved for an apartment and having to live at home. The bank also reported that 1 in 4 people with student loans were 90 days behind or more on their student loan payments.
As someone who’s still paying off the last of their student loans, I can tell you firsthand that the messaging around repayments has been inconsistent at best post-pandemic. The Biden administration tried to forgive up to $10,000 in loans for people who earned under six figures, but because the GOP refuses to let working-class Americans have nice things, they filed a lawsuit against the plan.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Department of Education didn’t have the authority to forgive the loans. While repayments restarted in 2023, the Biden administration implemented a one-year grace period. The former administration also launched the SAVE plan, which tied payment amounts to the loan recipient’s income.
Whereas the Biden administration took a thoughtful, worker-centric approach to student loan repayments, the Trump administration has taken more of a Stewie Griffin approach to the issue.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced it would garnish wages from those delinquent on their student loans. Last month, five million people were sent a notice informing them that their wages and social security checks would be garnished to pay back their student loans.
Clearly, they didn’t think that was punishment enough for people who made the egregious mistake of trying to get an education. In addition to garnishing wages on those who fell behind on their student loans, the cost of payments has skyrocketed for millions of student loan recipients after a federal judge put a block on the SAVE plan. Layoffs at the Department of Education have made it harder for student loan recipients to get in contact with anyone who can provide them with more information or guidance on how to make repayments.
It’s increasingly clear that the Trump administration is fueling its tax cuts for the rich by punishing the poor and working class. But please, tell me again how the Trump vote is fueled by economic anxiety.
