Hot damn: Biden rolls out Medicare and student debt proposals

[mike_c]

66. there is a demographic this will really help

I'm 65. I'm partly retired (my employer has an early retirement program that lets me collect my modest pension while still working part time). I started Medicare eight days ago. I'm putting off claiming social security until I reach full retirement age in about a year and a half. That's also when my early retirement program ends (for me).

I borrowed money for college and grad school 30 years ago. Those programs were utterly predatory, designed to attract lots of private investment in education lending. The interest rate on my consolidated loans is 8.25%. I've been making monthly payments for 25 years, i.e. during my entire career in higher education, and the loan principle has barely declined. I still owe almost as much as I did when I finished grad school, but now I'm going to be on a retiree's fixed income. When I cannot make full payments-- and that's a when, not an if, they will garnish my social security benefits. I wasn't eligible for loan forgiveness despite a career in qualifying public service because my repayment plan isn't one of the qualifying plans, but Trump's Dept of Ed isn't forgiving even the loans that do qualify so that's a moot point.

Loan forgiveness will make a huge difference for my wife and me.