Another order from President Donald Trump that seems to prove to some Americans he doesn’t give a damn. At the top of this week, he announced the collection of federal student loans by pretty much any means necessary. All the folks who ain’t vote for him are pissed.
The Trump administration announced Monday the resuming of federal student loan debt collections for borrowers who defaulted on their loans. Federal employees are most at risk given Trump’s reboot of the Treasury Offset Program too, which would give the government permission to withhold tax refunds, salaries and even Social Security from those in debt, per Forbes.
Under wage garnishment, which is expected to follow this executive order in the summer, the government can order a borrower’s employer to withhold 15 percent of their after-tax income to repay the loan, according to the Department of Labor. Now, folks might start seeing their credit scores take a hit for late or missed payments on loans from Federal Family Education Loans, Direct Loans, Perkins Loans, Pell Grants and more.
All of this is expected to go into place on May 5.
As expected, voters who wanted former Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House or were even hopeful about former President Joe Biden’s promise to cancel student debt - are quite upset. However, they also didn’t expect Trump to do anything else.
“Oh, so jacking up grocery prices, crashing the stock market, threatening to slash Medicaid & SNAP, and slapping on ridiculous tariffs wasn’t enough? Now Trump’s coming for your paycheck and your tax refund—just because you fell behind on student loans during a pandemic,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett in a social media post.
“Yall told me it would NEVER happen. Told me I was delusional for paying my student loans. Told me they couldn’t mess up people’s credit. Here it is. Right on time,” wrote one X user.
The collection of federal student loans was paused back in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, 10.5 million PPP loans were forgiven for folks who owned small businesses as well as the celebrities who finessed themselves into some funds too, per NPR. Yea, some folks clocked the tea on that too.
“Forgiving PPP loans to wealthy people is cool, but not student loans for middle and working class folk. Gotcha,” wrote another X user.
“So to all those conservatives & Republicans screaming at those that had student loans forgiven you’re going to demand that those Republicans that had PPP loans pay those back as well right? RIGHT? Pay back a loan right you frauds?” wrote one X user.
Also, no one is trying to hear that whole “pull up your bootstraps” argument about paying back loans. The reality is many people, an estimated 25 percent of federal student loan borrowers, are in the same boat when it comes to this order.