forgive student loans

So we’re now considering a new "jobs" bill - a new stimulus package by another name, stimulus now being a four letter word.

I have an idea which I’m sure others have thought of but maybe it’s time to push for it.

How about we forget about tax cuts to corporations (I paid more in income tax this year than General Electric anyway), millionaires and billionaires,

How about we consider the total or partial forgiveness of student loans as a means of economic stimulus?

I know working adults with hundreds of thousands in dollars of student loans. Many can't consider buying a home because of a mountain of student loan debt. Forgiving all or a portion of these loans will put hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the pockets of ordinary people each month; people who will spend it on goods and services.

Our President is always talking about how an educated populace is vital to the growth and security of the nation. Well here’s a chance to do something about it. Why saddle an entire generation of young people with a mountain of debt from which there is no escape simply to get an education?

Forgiving student loans will result in greater stimulus to the economy than any tax cut for corporations that pay little in taxes anyway or a billionaire who will simply sock the excess into his investment portfolio.

How about a break for the young? For ordinary people. Real people. Not Supreme Court definition legal people. Flesh and blood people.

P.S I've read a number of the comments and want to add that I went to the City University of NY when it was FREE! Not open admission mind you - but free if you qualified and got in.

The free university was the way to a better life for the children of brick layers and garment workers. It was the way out for me.

Forgiving student loans, at least partially, is no different than forgiving monies owed directly to the government or paying out the bank which made the loan - same as FHA or VA mortgages. The money in the pockets of people who need it and will spend it is stimulative in that it creates demand which in turn creates jobs. Through the multiplier effect every dollar forgiven creates more in stimulative spending.

It's better than say, paying agribusiness not to grow food.