Student loan debt runs to about $30,000 per graduate of the class of 2013, as Phil Izzo writes in the Wall Street Journal. And the total amount of student loans outstanding runs to almost a trillion dollars: more than either credit card balances or automobile loans. More than any form of consumer debt other than home mortgages.
The struggle to pay off this debt has led many recent graduates to put off getting married, buying homes, and starting families.
Furthermore, the trends are not encouraging as “Even adjusting for inflation, the average debt burden was half that size 20 years ago.”
And graduates in:
... the class of 2013 ... aren’t likely to hold the title of “Most Indebted Ever” for long. Amid continued growth in both tuition costs and student lending, they are likely to pass the mantle to the class of 2014 next May just as they assumed it from the class of 2012.
Tough on the kids, for sure. But presidents at some of the universities where they rang up that debt are doing just fine.
In his weekly radio address, President Obama explained the budget he'll rollout next week, and said, "the truth is, our deficits are already shrinking."
"My budget will reduce our deficits not with aimless, reckless spending cuts that hurt students and seniors and middle-class families – but through the balanced approach that the American people prefer, and the investments that a growing economy demands," said Obama.
The Democratic budget, released yesterday by Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray, passed out of committee this evening on a party line vote, 12-10. In response, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions, released this blistering statement:
Senator Patty Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate Budget Committee, finally released a budget today. Year over year, in this proposed budget, spending jumps dramatically.
In an interview that was released this morning with former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos on ABC, President Obama talked a little about his view of the debt.
In an interview with ABC News, President Obama says his budget won't be balanced:
"Paul Ryan, today, put forward his budget," says ABC, "and he says, he's challenging you to come forward with a budget that also reaches balance. Are you going to do that?"
"No," Obama says. "My goal is not chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance."
This week Paul Ryan’s House Budget Committee is set to release its fiscal year 2014 budget, which promises to balance Uncle Sam’s books in 10 years. Ryan’s offering will elicit lamentations from the usual quarters of the mainstream media: House Republicans have lurched sharply to the right, they have abandoned the pragmatic principles of their forebears, they are now totally unfit to govern.
This week Paul Ryan’s House Budget Committee is set to release its fiscal year 2014 budget, which promises to balance Uncle Sam’s books in 10 years. Ryan’s offering will elicit lamentations from the usual quarters of the mainstream media: House Republicans have lurched sharply to the right, they have abandoned the pragmatic principles of their forebears, they are now totally unfit to govern.
When it comes to deficit reduction, President Obama and the mainstream press seem to have a fascination with the figure of $4 trillion. During last year’s first presidential debate, Obama falsely claimed, “I've put forward a specific $4 trillion deficit reduction plan,” even though he’d done nothing of the sort.
In an interview this morning, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi made the case that we don't have a spending problem. Indeed, Pelosi says, it is wrong to say we have a "spending problem":
Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, blasts President Barack Obama in a statement for breaking the law by refusing to submit an annual budget. "President Obama is required by law to submit his budget request for Fiscal Year 2014. For the fourth time in five years, however, he will miss the statutory deadline," Ryan's office explains.
Politicians are not known for originality. In their public speech, most cling to the security of clichéd stock phrases the way toddlers hold fast to threadbare blankets.
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