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republicans in congress and perhaps across the nation are suffering today from a case of buyers remorse after trump begins back peddling on several of his campaign promises, before he even takes office. 




over the last few days, he backed off on his claim that he<u+2019>ll repeal obamacare by saying he<u+2019>d just tweak it. he<u+2019>s seemed to have changed his mind on prosecuting hillary clinton and he<u+2019>s no longer talking about banning muslims. while <u+201c>drain the swamp,<u+201d> which referred to washington<u+2019>s culture of corruption, was one of his later campaign slogans, he<u+2019>s filling his cabinet posts with washington insiders and corporate lobbyists. he<u+2019>s even appearing to change his mind about his signature issue, the wall between the united states and mexico . 




one piece of trump<u+2019>s campaign rhetoric was actually something that would make people<u+2019>s lives better and it<u+2019>s something that republicans are going to hate. his proposal for student loans is radical, in that it<u+2019>s not a gift to wall street and it<u+2019>s even more liberal than anything president obama has proposed. in a rally just a month ago, trump said about student loans: 




<u+201c>we would cap repayment for an affordable portion of the borrower<u+2019>s income, 12.5 percent, we<u+2019>d cap it. that gives you a lot to play with and a lot to do,<u+201d> trump said at a rally in columbus, ohio, on thursday. <u+201c>and if borrowers work hard and make their full payments for 15 years, we<u+2019>ll let them get on with their lives. they just go ahead and they get on with their lives.<u+201d> 




<u+201c>students should not be asked to pay more on the debt than they can afford,<u+201d> trump said. <u+201c>and the debt should not be an albatross around their necks for the rest of their lives.<u+201d> 




source: washington post 




trump<u+2019>s proposed debt forgiveness program is actually pretty similar to obama<u+2019>s . instead of a 12.5 percent cap, obama introduced a cap of 10 percent of a graduate<u+2019>s income. trump<u+2019>s program, though, would leave graduates with five fewer years of debt. trump<u+2019>s would forgive debt after 15 years while obama<u+2019>s would forgive after 10. in that one significant way, trump<u+2019>s program is even more liberal than obama<u+2019>s and if he carries it out, congressional republicans may have no choice but to turn on their party<u+2019>s president. 




the american enterprise institute is a washington think tank who issues a lot of the marching orders of republicans. they were the driving force behind the iraq war and of failed trickle down economics. this is what they have to say about student loan debt forgiveness: 




<u+201c>they are way off on their numbers,<u+201d> said jason delisle, a resident fellow at the american enterprise institute, a conservative think tank. <u+201c>if you were going to give loan forgiveness in 15 years, you<u+2019>re going to forgive a lot more debt than you<u+2019>re going to make up for in the form of the higher payments they<u+2019>re proposing, by a lot. i don<u+2019>t even need to run the numbers. it<u+2019>s so obvious.<u+201d> 




really, it<u+2019>s not obvious. forgiving student debt would be a big boost to the economy because it would 1.) incentivize people to become more educated and 2.) put more money back into the economy because graduates would be free to buy more. not that republicans care about that, though. they prefer that graduates owe their lives to wall street banks and in turning his back on that, trump is violating literally everything his party stands for.
trump<u+00e2><u+20ac><u+2122>s proposed student loan program makes him look more liberal than obama; republicans fuming
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