Student loans remain the only debt that cannot be forgiven in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Sarah K. Burris
December 2, 2024
RAW STORY
First-generation college students face uneven prospects well after college. Nirat.pix/www.shutterstock.com
Many student loan borrowers could see their bills double under Donald Trump's second term if his administration chooses not to defend the SAVE plan in court, or if Republicans in Congress eliminate the plan, according to a report.
President Joe Biden's student loan repayment plan capped the monthly payment requirements at 5% of the borrower's income, which is half of what they were under the REPAYE plan. But President-elect Trump can change that.
CNBC reported that of the 8 million student loans, 4 million are enrolled in the SAVE program, which helps those making less than $15 an hour, by reducing their payments to $0. Biden's plan also cuts the repayment period from 20 to 25 years down to 10.
Business Insider previously estimated that Biden has used several programs to cancel $175 billion in student loan debt for approximately 5 million students. Trump has objected to this, calling it "vile" during the 2024 campaign. When he was in the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump called the program "a total catastrophe."
ALSO READ: The real reason Republicans oppose efforts to cancel student debt
Trump has also advocated killing the entire Department of Education, which manages $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt. Education Week reported that a bill has already been filed.
Salon pointed out that over the past four years, Republican-led states have attacked the SAVE plan, even going so far as to sue the Biden administration to stop it.
Bob Eitel, senior counselor to the secretary of education, told CBS News that he expects everything will be rolled back.
"The Trump administration may pursue different avenues of loan relief, but it will not be the mass, blanket types of forgiveness that the current administration has pursued," Eitel said.
Currently, the SAVE program is on pause after many legal challenges.
"When Trump returns to the White House in January, borrowers enrolled in SAVE should be prepared for that forbearance to come to an end," CNBC cited consumer bankruptcy lawyer Malissa Giles.
Student loans remain the only debt that cannot be forgiven in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Read the full report here.
Trump privatization plan will add thousands a year to typical mortgage: expert
Matthew Chapman
December 2, 2024
Donald Trump. (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)
A proposed deregulation of the home loan market that Donald Trump is widely expected to pursue could have massive consequences for new homebuyers — particularly those with low incomes, reported CNN on Monday.
Specifically, Trump is likely to try to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-backing giants that the federal government took a stake in following the 2008 financial crisis. He attempted to do this in his last term, but was unsuccessful.
Fannie and Freddie's function is to repackage existing mortgages to investors in order to ensure stable cash flow and allow loans to be issued affordably to people with lower incomes. They were brought under government conservatorship in order to stabilize the housing market during a period when the market had severely misjudged the risk of subprime loans.
The federal government's stake in these programs is worth billions of dollars, so re-privatizing them would be an immediate windfall — but it would also introduce significant new complexities into the mortgage market and, according to some economists, would result in homebuyers paying a lot more.
If the spinoff is not handled carefully, it could also scare off bondholders into seeing mortgages as riskier investments, driving up the price of 30-year fixed home loans for everyone.
Mark Zandi, who heads up economic analysis at Moody's, "estimated that full privatization of Fannie and Freddie would cost the typical American taking out a new mortgage $1,200 annually." However, home prices and interest rates were lower back then — adjusted for today, it would be "between $1,800 and $2,800 per year for a typical mortgage holder, Zandi told CNN after updating his original paper’s calculations" — with the heaviest cost falling on people with lower incomes and credit scores.
Republicans have sought to privatize Fannie and Freddie for years, noting that the federal conservatorship was never intended to be permanent. They have also blamed these institutions, and their mandate of making home loans more accessible to lower-income people, for causing the 2008 financial crisis in the first place. This is not true, as Fannie and Freddie's share of the highest-risk category of mortgages actually decreased during the housing bubble.
Trump's re-election already injected new uncertainty into mortgage markets with, rates seeing a sharp uptick to 6.8 percent.
Matthew Chapman
December 2, 2024
RAW STORY
Donald Trump. (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)
A proposed deregulation of the home loan market that Donald Trump is widely expected to pursue could have massive consequences for new homebuyers — particularly those with low incomes, reported CNN on Monday.
Specifically, Trump is likely to try to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-backing giants that the federal government took a stake in following the 2008 financial crisis. He attempted to do this in his last term, but was unsuccessful.
Fannie and Freddie's function is to repackage existing mortgages to investors in order to ensure stable cash flow and allow loans to be issued affordably to people with lower incomes. They were brought under government conservatorship in order to stabilize the housing market during a period when the market had severely misjudged the risk of subprime loans.
The federal government's stake in these programs is worth billions of dollars, so re-privatizing them would be an immediate windfall — but it would also introduce significant new complexities into the mortgage market and, according to some economists, would result in homebuyers paying a lot more.
If the spinoff is not handled carefully, it could also scare off bondholders into seeing mortgages as riskier investments, driving up the price of 30-year fixed home loans for everyone.
Mark Zandi, who heads up economic analysis at Moody's, "estimated that full privatization of Fannie and Freddie would cost the typical American taking out a new mortgage $1,200 annually." However, home prices and interest rates were lower back then — adjusted for today, it would be "between $1,800 and $2,800 per year for a typical mortgage holder, Zandi told CNN after updating his original paper’s calculations" — with the heaviest cost falling on people with lower incomes and credit scores.
Republicans have sought to privatize Fannie and Freddie for years, noting that the federal conservatorship was never intended to be permanent. They have also blamed these institutions, and their mandate of making home loans more accessible to lower-income people, for causing the 2008 financial crisis in the first place. This is not true, as Fannie and Freddie's share of the highest-risk category of mortgages actually decreased during the housing bubble.
Trump's re-election already injected new uncertainty into mortgage markets with, rates seeing a sharp uptick to 6.8 percent.
Trump's $20M-per-mile border wall can be bypassed with simple power tools: report
MEXICO STILL HAS NOT PAID FOR IT!
Sarah K. Burris
December 2, 2024
RAW ST0RY
President Donald J. Trump arrives at a border wall site near the Texas-Mexico border near Alamo, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, and is greeted by border patrol agents and guests. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
Immigrants seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border wall — which cost an estimated $20 million per mile to build — can wield simple power tools to saw their way through.
That's according to a new article in the Independent, which added that in some southern Arizona sections, severed pillars of the famous border wall can be pushed open by hand. In other sections of the state, the terrain is too rugged to build and the wall stands unconnected.
During Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, his favorite slogan, "Build the wall," never came up. Now, there's a question about whether he's giving up the cause.
The Independent recalled the longest government shutdown in history, triggered by Trump's demand for funding for his border wall. Ultimately, he got it. Still, the "wall" he promised hasn't been built. But it doesn't mean he will return to ensure the structure is built.
Instead of the wall, "Trump now wants a "bloody" mass deportation operation immediately removing millions of people, including by potentially reviving family separation," the report quoted.
ALSO READ: Trump planning ‘largest mass deportation operation’ — on day one
The report pointed to a local advocacy group in the Rio Grand Valley that says the "wall" has taken away the residents' little green space. Michelle Serrano, who runs Voces Unidas RGV, noted that another problem is that the "wall" has made local flooding worse and terrified its large Latino community with around-the-clock surveillance.
“This is like a rights-free area,” she told The Independent. “We’re talking about an area where they freely racially profile us. It feels like a separate but equal situation.”
The Republican Party still has building the wall as a key piece of its platform, but the topic isn't surfacing amid discussions about immigration.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden pledged not to build any more of the wall, but the efforts on the border continued. A court then told the White House they must spend the money allocated in 2019-20 on building the wall. There was then a problem with environmental disasters that the Biden White House tried to side-step, only to be told by the courts that they had to do the environmental cleanup prior to building the wall.
Also Read: People expecting Trump voters to turn on him are fooling themselves
While Trump wasn't in the White House, GOP governors funded their projects to build Trump's promised wall. In Texas, that's 50 miles of state-funded wall.
"It’s an incredible amount of effort and spending for a piece of border policy that hasn’t been shown to make any meaningful difference in reducing migration overall," the report continued.
Trump's new plan is to orchestrate the deportation of 11 million documentary immigrants. The Trump team claims they'll start with criminals. Crossing the border illegally is a crime, however. So, Trump's team will be able to argue that anyone who crossed without claiming asylum or beginning the immigration process is technically a "criminal."
Given the mass deportations are part of his flagship 2024 campaign promise, Trump could request funding for that over the wall when making his pitch to Congress.
Read the full report here.
Sarah K. Burris
December 2, 2024
RAW ST0RY
President Donald J. Trump arrives at a border wall site near the Texas-Mexico border near Alamo, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, and is greeted by border patrol agents and guests. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
Immigrants seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border wall — which cost an estimated $20 million per mile to build — can wield simple power tools to saw their way through.
That's according to a new article in the Independent, which added that in some southern Arizona sections, severed pillars of the famous border wall can be pushed open by hand. In other sections of the state, the terrain is too rugged to build and the wall stands unconnected.
During Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, his favorite slogan, "Build the wall," never came up. Now, there's a question about whether he's giving up the cause.
The Independent recalled the longest government shutdown in history, triggered by Trump's demand for funding for his border wall. Ultimately, he got it. Still, the "wall" he promised hasn't been built. But it doesn't mean he will return to ensure the structure is built.
Instead of the wall, "Trump now wants a "bloody" mass deportation operation immediately removing millions of people, including by potentially reviving family separation," the report quoted.
ALSO READ: Trump planning ‘largest mass deportation operation’ — on day one
The report pointed to a local advocacy group in the Rio Grand Valley that says the "wall" has taken away the residents' little green space. Michelle Serrano, who runs Voces Unidas RGV, noted that another problem is that the "wall" has made local flooding worse and terrified its large Latino community with around-the-clock surveillance.
“This is like a rights-free area,” she told The Independent. “We’re talking about an area where they freely racially profile us. It feels like a separate but equal situation.”
The Republican Party still has building the wall as a key piece of its platform, but the topic isn't surfacing amid discussions about immigration.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden pledged not to build any more of the wall, but the efforts on the border continued. A court then told the White House they must spend the money allocated in 2019-20 on building the wall. There was then a problem with environmental disasters that the Biden White House tried to side-step, only to be told by the courts that they had to do the environmental cleanup prior to building the wall.
Also Read: People expecting Trump voters to turn on him are fooling themselves
While Trump wasn't in the White House, GOP governors funded their projects to build Trump's promised wall. In Texas, that's 50 miles of state-funded wall.
"It’s an incredible amount of effort and spending for a piece of border policy that hasn’t been shown to make any meaningful difference in reducing migration overall," the report continued.
Trump's new plan is to orchestrate the deportation of 11 million documentary immigrants. The Trump team claims they'll start with criminals. Crossing the border illegally is a crime, however. So, Trump's team will be able to argue that anyone who crossed without claiming asylum or beginning the immigration process is technically a "criminal."
Given the mass deportations are part of his flagship 2024 campaign promise, Trump could request funding for that over the wall when making his pitch to Congress.
Read the full report here.
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