It's Time For America To Elect A Woman President-- One Who Isn't Jaded And Compromised By The Corrupt Political System

This morning, writing for the NY Times, Natalie Kitroeff looks at why its so hard for young people in New York to buy-- or even rent-- homes. And her culprit: student debt. "More students," she writes, "are taking out bigger loans than ever before, and in the last 10 years alone, education debt tripled, reaching over $1 trillion. A record number of college students are graduating knee deep in a financial hole before they begin their adult lives."

Data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests that the relationship between student loan debt and the housing market has turned ugly fast. People with student debt used to buy homes at higher rates than peers who had not taken out loans, partly because going to college meant earning more money, according to the report.

But in 2012, the New York Fed reported that for the first time in at least a decade, 30-year-old student borrowers were less likely to take out home mortgages than other young people. Among people around 30 years old, homeownership was plunging fastest for student debtors.

Economists are worried. Last month, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said that student loan debt was taking the life out of the housing recovery, and the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz called the rising debt “an educational crisis” that is “affecting our potential future growth.”

Both New York senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have signed on as sponsors of Elizabeth Warren's new Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act (S. 2292). So have 33 other senators, from progressives like Jeff Merkley, Brian Schatz, Barbara Boxer Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown and Sheldon Whitehouse to conservatives and corporate Dems like Mary Landrieu, Heidi Heitkamp, Mark Begich and Cory Booker. Since May 6, the bill has been awaiting action from the Senate Finance Committee, where, ominously, the chairman, Ron Wyden, is not a co-sponsor, nor are influential members Bill Nelson, Tom Carper, Michael Bennet, Bob Casey and Mark Warner. Nor is there a single Republican co-sponsor-- not on the committee and not in the Senate as a whole.

The bill would allow those with outstanding student loan debt to refinance at the lower interest rates currently offered to new borrowers. As Senator Warren explained, "Many borrowers with outstanding student loans have interest rates of nearly 7 percent or higher for undergraduate loans, while students taking out new undergraduate loans pay a rate of 3.86 percent under the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act passed by Congress last summer. The Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act would allow our students and young people to pay back their outstanding loans at the same rates that Senate Republicans overwhelmingly embraced just last summer as appropriate for new borrowers… Exploding student loan debt is crushing young people and dragging down our economy. Allowing students to refinance their loans would put money back in the pockets of people who invested in their education. These students didn't go to the mall and run up charges on a credit card. They worked hard and learned new skills that will benefit this country and help us build a stronger middle class and a stronger America."

Jeff Merkley (D-OR), one of the first co-sponsors to sign on, added: "More and more middle class families are seeing the dream of college for their children disappear because of the high cost of a college education and the mountains of debt that students have upon graduation. I'm committed to strengthening our middle class families instead of forcing Oregonians deeper into debt. This legislation would help Oregonians refinance their student loans and inject our economy with a much needed boost with the savings on interest payments. This is a common sense solution to a huge issue facing our students and middle class families."

Both of Hawaii's senators are also original cosponsors. Brian Schatz, who's in a tough primary against corrupt corporate tool, conservative New Dem Colleen Hanabusa, pointed out sensibly that "A college education is supposed to be a path to opportunity, not a life of debt. Giving students the opportunity to refinance their loans at a lower interest will make a college degree more affordable and accessible."


Last week Elizabeth Warren reminded her supporters that "we can’t sit back and ignore the student debt crisis. We can’t pretend it’s just going to go away on its own.

• Forty million Americans have outstanding student loans. In 2012, an astonishing 71% of college seniors owed student loans, and, from 2004 to 2012, the average student loan balance increased by 70%.

• Outstanding student loans now total more than $1.2 trillion. It’s more than credit card debt, more than any other kind of personal consumer debt except for mortgages, and it just keeps going up and up and up. That’s why the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-- agency after agency, report after report-- are sounding the alarm.

• The student loan debt problem extends across the ages, with people 60 and older owing a collective $43 billion. Sometimes it’s because people went back to school later, or sometimes it’s because they co-signed a loan for a student who couldn’t afford it on their own.