Forgiving Student Loans For Disabled Veterans

[Ben]

Trump just forgave the student loans of a bunch of disabled vets. Good or bad?

I'm assuming all the vets were disabled while serving their country. I can see where Trump might want to "give something back" in that regard. However, and feel free to call me a dirty commie, doesn't this open a door to general student loan forgiveness?

It's one thing to offer a program of full or partial tuition to disabled vets as a way to integrate them back into civilian life. However, disabled or not, didn't the vet make the choice to apply for a loan? Should their status allow them to wash away debt that they knowingly incurred? I can see the left now calling for loan forgiveness for other "special groups", in a snowball rolling downhill until it bottoms out with, "zero student debt for everybody!"

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-cancelling-student-loan-debt-for-disabled-veterans

[BobR]

I think it is a good deal. It applies to completely and permanently disabled Vets and some Vets rated at 100% disabled from the few brief blurbs I have seen. A pretty small percentage of all disabled Vets.


bob

eta: Hopefully it works better than the existing program for Total and Permanently Disabled Vets.

[Hawkmoon]

As a veteran, I am firmly on the fence regarding this.

[Andiron]

Decent gesture,  call me when he makes all student loans subject to discharge by bankruptcy.  That's the kind of "watch the world burn"  that would be reeeealy interesting.

[dogmush]

This is an old program.

Student Loan forgiveness if your VA rating is 100% has been around for at least 10 years, as that's when I first ran across it.  Like so many VA benefits, it's not widely understood, nor is it easy to apply for and get. The EO Trump signed didn't add to the program, it just directed that the application processes be made easier and faster so folks can actually apply for and get the existing benefit.

[sumpnz]

Marine friend of mine is pissed about it.  He boot-strapped himself from the projects of NYC to a six-figure aerospace engineer via the Corps and the GI Bill benefits. 

the government doesn't owe you a dime in loan forgiveness. That wasn't the deal. I had Montgomery GI Bill I used it and said thank you.

Why should the government have to pay for another Bachelors Degree or Graduate Degree?

Pay for your own dang education.

[Hawkmoon]

This is an old program.

Student Loan forgiveness if your VA rating is 100% has been around for at least 10 years, as that's when I first ran across it.  Like so many VA benefits, it's not widely understood, nor is it easy to apply for and get. The EO Trump signed didn't add to the program, it just directed that the application processes be made easier and faster so folks can actually apply for and get the existing benefit.

Now THAT I can support.

[Hawkmoon]

Marine friend of mine is pissed about it.  He boot-strapped himself from the projects of NYC to a six-figure aerospace engineer via the Corps and the GI Bill benefits. 

Does he have a 100 percent disability rating?

Sorry but, if not, he can pound sand. In recent years I have spent a lot more time than I would like at (and in) the local VA hospital. I see a lot of veterans with prosthetic arms or legs, or in wheelchairs with no legs, and other issues. It's tough for most of them, and I don't think any of them approach a 100 percent disability.

[Ben]

This is an old program.

Student Loan forgiveness if your VA rating is 100% has been around for at least 10 years, as that's when I first ran across it.  Like so many VA benefits, it's not widely understood, nor is it easy to apply for and get. The EO Trump signed didn't add to the program, it just directed that the application processes be made easier and faster so folks can actually apply for and get the existing benefit.

Okay. Article was lacking in detail. I still wish it was something other than loan forgiveness. I just don't like the idea of anything that gets people off the hook after they knowingly took a loan.

Becoming disabled while serving your country is a much better reason than, "I don't feel like paying the money back", but I'm still afraid that widespread knowledge of the program will be used for the overall socialist talking point of free stuff and "nobody should have to pay back their loans."

[Firethorn]

Okay. Article was lacking in detail. I still wish it was something other than loan forgiveness. I just don't like the idea of anything that gets people off the hook after they knowingly took a loan.

Becoming disabled while serving your country is a much better reason than, "I don't feel like paying the money back", but I'm still afraid that widespread knowledge of the program will be used for the overall socialist talking point of free stuff and "nobody should have to pay back their loans."

Having a few humanitarian reasons for forgiving the debt, which is hard to discharge through bankruptcy, isn't bad, I think.

One becoming totally disabled, by the relevant metrics, military or not, unable to work the field they trained for, sounds reasonable.

[Hawkmoon]

I believe the VA criteria for a 100 percent disability rating are that the veteran can't work ... at all.

So take the possibility of someone who attended college and payed for it with student loans. Upon graduation, he enlisted. He was deployed, he was seriously wounded, and now he's 100 percent disabled. Meaning he can't work. How is he supposed to pay off that college loan debt?

[Ben]

I believe the VA criteria for a 100 percent disability rating are that the veteran can't work ... at all.

So take the possibility of someone who attended college and payed for it with student loans. Upon graduation, he enlisted. He was deployed, he was seriously wounded, and now he's 100 percent disabled. Meaning he can't work. How is he supposed to pay off that college loan debt?

I have no problem with that, and can't see any good way for the left to twist it to "free for all!"

As  I said, based on what Dogmush posted, the story seems to be lacking. My concern with the original story was that it would be a good way for the left to use their own broad definitions of "disabled" (e.g., skin color, gender, identity, etc.) to make me pay the loans of 50% of the current student loan population.

[BobR]

I believe the VA criteria for a 100 percent disability rating are that the veteran can't work ... at all.

So take the possibility of someone who attended college and payed for it with student loans. Upon graduation, he enlisted. He was deployed, he was seriously wounded, and now he's 100 percent disabled. Meaning he can't work. How is he supposed to pay off that college loan debt?

No, my son was 100% disabled and worked for the VA. The VA has a different ratings when a person can't work. In fact some unemployable Vets with zero service connected disability get a pension.

bob