OPINION:
The theme for the first Bill Clinton presidential campaign in 1992 was Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow).” It is a song that would be anathema to the Obama administration, whose fiscal policy is one which espouses living for the present without a thought about tomorrow.
The latest economic-policy disaster in the making is President Obama’s plan to make it easy for student-loan borrowers to slide out of their obligations through use of the bankruptcy process (“Obama calls for more rights for struggling student borrowers,” Web, March 10). The federal government is currently on the hook for most of the whopping $1.3 trillion in student-loan debt. Nearly a quarter of those who are out of school and carrying loan balances are delinquent in their payments. All that is keeping a large amount of student debt from being written off as uncollectable is the fact that, as it stands, the bankruptcy process generally may not be used to wipe the slate clean.
When I left college 33 years ago, I had debt that required some years to repay. I made my payments faithfully even at times when my income was not substantial, and would never have thought to try to walk out on my obligation.
When one group is enriched, another pays. It is laudable to make going to college affordable both during and after graduation, but a debt is a solemn obligation that should be repaid rather than stuck on one’s neighbors. Perhaps individuals should be more careful about where they go to school and how much they borrow rather than having the government absolve them of responsibility to repay the amount that they promised.
Far too often this administration has told the American people, “I am from the government and I am here to help,” to which I would respond, “To help whom?”
OREN M. SPIEGLER
Upper Saint Clair, Pa.
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