11x05 - Student loans in the United States

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!

I'm John Oliver.

Thank you so much for joining us.

It has been a busy week.

Haiti's prime minister agreed to resign

amid deepening unrest,

Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer

soft launched a breakup

with Benjamin Netanyahu,

a certain someone's Adobe free trial

expired in a pretty public manner.

But we're gonna begin in Congress,

where the House passed a bill

that could eventually ban TikTok,

the wildly popular app

some of you are using to watch this

very content in three minute chunks.

And for those who do choose

I'm never doing that again.

But the House bill

would effectively ban TikTok

unless it breaks ties with its

Chinese parent company,

something Nancy Pelosi

summarized like this.

This is not an attempt

to ban TikTok,

it's an attempt

to make TikTok better.

Tic-tac-toe, a winner.

A winner.

is it a rule that to be in Congress

you have to be one of the weirdest

m*therf*ckers to ever live?

I would ask how that happened.

She went to her speechwriter and said,

"I have the line for the Tic Tac vote".

- "Did you just say Tic Tac?"

- "You're gonna love it."

- "Again, did you say Tic Tac?"

- "It's a winner. It's a winner."

Then marched to the floor and alienated

every American under the age of 35.

Across the aisle in the House,

Republicans have been in disarray.

Colorado's Ken Buck became

the latest congressman to resign,

and he doesn't seem

that sad to be going,

given how he summed up

the mood of the place.

It is the worst year of the 9 years and

3 months that I've been in Congress.

Having talked to former members,

it's the worst year in 40, 50 years

to be in Congress.

That is not great!

For one thing, the last 40 to 50 years

included 9/11 and January 6th,

two moments in American history so

bad, they ruined their dates entirely.

I do get the desire to leave,

Congress is pathetic right now,

passing 27 bills into law last year,

making this session

the least productive in decades.

And Buck has been there

a long time.

2015 doesn't seem like that long, but

you know what happened back then?

Left Shark. Yeah.

Do you remember a time

when we could collectively celebrate

the joyful stupidity of something

like Left Shark, as a community?

Could you even imagine

seeing Left Shark today and saying

"I love this thing",

without immediately worrying that

you'd see headlines the next day like,

"The Insidious Nature

of Left Shark Privilege"

or "Left Shark's Overall Deal at Amazon

in Jeopardy After Anti-Vax Claims"

or "Leaked Flight Logs Reveal

Left Shark Took 75 Trips

on the Lolita Express?"

We didn't worry

about any of that stuff back then,

we just looked

at Left Shark and said "Yes".

That is how long Ken Buck has been

having a bad time in Congress.

And his departure is symbolic of

a larger discontent within his party,

though luckily for House Republicans,

they had a retreat this week,

a chance to mend fences

and come together.

But there was a hitch.

Fewer than 100 members

are even attending the event.

That's less

than half of the conference.

One lawmaker telling Axios, quote:

"I'd rather sit down with

Hannibal Lecter and eat my own liver".

There is nothing wrong

with not wanting to hang out

recreationally with your coworkers,

but you must really want

to avoid an event

if your answer expands

beyond "No".

At a certain point,

more details become hurtful,

that is why every wedding

RSVP doesn't read,

"Will attend", "Will not attend",

"Will not attend because I'd rather be

the middle part of a human centipede".

And the Hannibal Lecter excuse

wasn't the only elaborate no.

Carlos Gimenez told a reporter

that he wouldn't be coming

because "he'd bought the material

to clean his boat this week."

Which makes sense.

We all know how important it is to use

boat cleaner before it expires.

But lawmakers didn't skip the event

because their coworkers are,

broadly speaking, a bad hang.

There was also grumbling

that, instead of the usual

retreat destination of Florida,

Mike Johnson picked

the Greenbrier in West Virginia,

whose recent reviews online

are, at best, mixed,

with travelers complaining

that "Greenbrier is sad",

"The bed and pillows were

among the worst we've experienced",

and one simply labeled

"Don't do it!"

There is also this photo

on their website right now,

which looks like the last thing you see

before being brutally m*rder*d

at an abandoned Cadbury factory.

That looks like the Wes Anderson

remake of "The Shining".

Although, I will say, there is one

amazing feature under that resort

that makes it a perfect setting

for a party in crisis.

During the Cold w*r,

in case of a nuclear disaster,

this is where our House and Senate

would have relocated,

to continue doing their job.

How heavy is this door?

This door is actually 18 tons.

This was a dormitory

with 60 to 65 beds.

And there would also be riot gear.

The riot gear is to protect

the people in here from each other?

From each other.

Yeah, and it says a lot

about your opinion of the people

in charge of the government,

the ones those planners

were expressly trying to save,

that they thought

that if left in an enclosed space

for an indeterminate amount of time,

they'd inevitably m*rder each other.

It is pretty clear House Republicans

need to be reminded

that there are bigger things

than themselves,

and that there is

a lot at stake here.

And maybe what Mike Johnson

needs is to find a way

to get the entire party

to that resort,

head down to the bunker,

and step through that 18-ton door

so they can marvel

at the weight of their role

in restoring order

to a world gone mad.

And then, while they do that,

the rest of us can close

that door behind them and run.

I don't want to say

it's a perfect plan,

but I will say,

tic-tac-toe, it's a winner.

It's a winner. And now, this!

And Now:

Coming Up on "Inside Edition".

Next, the mom wrongly

accused of child trafficking.

Is this your child?

That's her kid.

Pickleball scandal.

These women say they were

swindled by the pickleball king.

Shame on you, Rodney.

Plus, orca versus shark.

And, what happened

to Nicole Kidman's knee?

Plus, gimme back my dog!

And, opening night mishap

at the Spongebob musical.

And, you won't believe what's trapped

inside this shipping container.

It's scratching, dude!

Plus, warthogs,

how dangerous are they?

And, claw machine rescue.

And, dude, where's your pants?

Then, college students

who want to look hot.

Plus, put a ring on it, if you dare.

And, watch out, buddy!

Little golden girl sensation.

why everyone's saying she looks

like one of the "Golden Girls".

Moving on. Our main story tonight

concerns student loans.

The biggest thing

you leave college with,

besides a diploma

and a drinking problem.

Student debt is such a massive issue

in this country that a few years ago,

Burger King had a program

dubbed "Whopper Loans",

where lucky people could get up

to $500 of their loans repaid,

which they promoted

with video of their mascot

incinerating loans

with a flamethrower.

And just the year before,

KFC did this.

If you name your baby Harland,

you could win

$11,000 in college tuition.

All part of a contest by KFC

to honor its founder,

Colonel Harland Sanders.

The chain will give the prize

to the first baby born on September 9th

named Harland.

September 9th was the colonel's

birthday and the $11,000

is a nod to his chicken's

11 herbs and spices.

First, that laugh is delightful.

But also, someone actually did that!

They named their baby Harland

for $11,000 in college tuition money.

Which is dark, but to be fair,

Harland's not the worst baby name.

The worst name would be Derek.

Think about it!

you saw a baby with cheeks like clouds

and an innocence unparalleled

and you thought "That's Derek, my

little second-string lacrosse player.

I can't wait to hold that junior sales

associate in my arms."

But as wild as those offers are,

you can see the appeal.

Currently, over 43 million Americans

have student loans.

That's about 13%

of the U.S. population,

for a total outstanding debt

of $1.7 trillion.

That's higher

than the GDP of Australia!

One of the countries you know.

Sometimes to illustrate a point,

I have to use a country like Estonia,

and you have to infer from my tone

whether that means

a number is big or not.

But now, because I've successfully

traumatized you over the years,

you're probably wondering,

is that really Estonia?

I don't know, you tell me.

Maybe you should've paid

more attention

at that school that you paid

so much f*ckin' money for.

For many struggling

to pay their student loans,

the debt can feel overwhelming.

I started with 80,000.

I have been paying for 10 years.

The grand total

is I have paid $120,000

and I still owe 76.

How the f*ck is this possible?!

That is the appropriate response!

No one should be working

for 10 years

only to end up worse off

than when they started.

Physically worse, sure.

That's a given.

It's completely understandable.

But not financially.

Now, you might remember, Joe Biden

campaigned on tackling student debt.

But his most ambitious plan,

to wipe out over $400 billion of it,

was struck down

by the Supreme Court last summer.

Another banger decision

from the gavel g*ng,

who are really playing the hits

these days.

Honestly, you guys should probably

take this show on the road,

and if you do, I've actually

got the perfect tour bus.

For another 48 hours,

it can be yours.

One of yours. If the rest of you

get invited is kind of up to him.

And for many on the right,

the court's decision was a good thing,

because all along, the very idea

of student loans getting forgiven

had made them furious.

He may pull the trigger tomorrow

on even more

student loan forgiveness

for pointless,

useless baloney liberal arts degrees

like the cultural significance

of soap operas.

Why stop at student loans?

Why not pay off people's car loans,

their home loans,

their loans to get a tattoo?

Why should I have to pay

for my neighbor's dumb daughter

who went to, I don't know,

grad school for anthropology,

who just backed her car into my

car and didn't leave a note?

I'm not paying for that!

What a bunch

of weird made-up bullshit

followed by one thing

that definitely did happen.

I'd never considered how

that cufflink of a man has neighbors.

He lives in a community,

among people who have to see him

on the streets and at the store.

And yet, he thinks someone hit

his car by mistake?

And that there's only one suspect?

That's absurd!

The whole town probably

takes turns driving into his car!

Also, for the record,

Jesse Watters went to a private

liberal arts college in Connecticut.

Which really

shouldn't be surprising.

That is the most Connecticut bitch

face I've ever seen.

Season five Rory Gilmore would

have wrecked her whole life for him.

But for all the scorn heaped

on people who took on student debt,

it's worth noting

that this number only got so big

because of a lot of shortsighted

policy choices over the years.

In fact, one of the original architects

of the federal loan program in the '60s

was asked a few years ago how

she thought her proposal turned out.

And she said, quote,

"We unleashed a monster".

So, given that, tonight,

let's look at that monster,

how it got so big,

and what we can do about it.

And let's start

with how we got here.

Because there's two key issues

that got us into this mess.

The first is the loan program itself.

Federal money

for higher education

started with the introduction

of the GI Bill.

For years after it,

lawmakers argued unsuccessfully

for more federal funding

for education.

Then, Sputnik happened,

and suddenly,

everyone from Eisenhower on down

decided that scientific education

was key to keeping up with Russia.

Eisenhower signed

the National Defense Education Act,

which created the first loan

program for students

who wanted to study math,

science, and engineering.

And over the years, one president

after another expanded the program.

LBJ opened up lending to more people,

regardless of their area of study,

Nixon launched Pell Grants

and created Sallie Mae.

Clinton started the process of shifting

away from banks issuing student loans,

to having them come

directly from the government,

all while pushing repayment ideas

like this.

The Democrats

ought to be for a program

that gives every American person

the chance to go to college

and help for everybody

who needs it,

and they should pay the money back

in one of two ways:

either as a small percentage of their

income over a long period of time,

or by giving three or four years

of their lives back to their country

through national service as teachers,

or policemen,

or family service workers!

Sounds pretty good.

In exchange for an education,

graduates could give back by doing

two of the hardest jobs I can imagine,

and one that's mostly staring

at your phone in the New York subway.

Under Clinton, and later Bush,

we passed versions of that proposal,

pegging student loan repayment

to income or national service.

And some of these tweaks

genuinely had the goal

of making access

to education easier.

But the only thing

they definitely made easier

was ensuring

that anyone going to college

could now access

an absolutely massive line of credit.

And theoretically,

that would have been manageable,

so long as the price of college

didn't get out of hand.

But that brings us

to this second issue.

Because up until the pandemic,

which brought tuition freezes,

the price of an education

crept up steadily over the years.

It's now at the point

where the average net cost

of attendance for in-state students

at public schools,

that is after subtracting

financial aid and grants,

and adding in costs for things

like housing, food, and books,

is around $20,000 per year.

And while a lot of factors

contributed to that rise,

one key one was a dynamic

that accelerated

after the 2008 financial crisis,

when states began slashing funding

for public colleges and universities,

where the vast majority

of U.S. students go.

Those declines in funding were

followed by large increases in tuition

and fees to cover the gap.

Here is the former head of LSU,

in 2016,

explaining how,

in just a few short years,

the ratio of what the government pays

to what students pay had shifted there.

I'd say, in '08, we were 70-30,

70% state, 30% student.

We're 80-20 right now.

80% student, 20% state.

We're quietly privatizing public higher

education throughout the country.

The children in elementary school

are not gonna have

a public affordable option by the

time they get out of high school.

It's true!

And you can frankly add that

to the list of things

that elementary school children

aren't gonna have

by the time they're 18.

The list is now: affordable public

college, summers below 100 degrees,

and their grandparents, probably.

Sorry, kids! Olds die!

And when that reporter asked

the then-governor of Louisiana

to justify those cuts, his response

was less than inspiring.

I have a constitutional obligation

to deliver a balanced budget

and the cuts have to come

from somewhere.

So, the cuts are coming

at the expense of higher education

and also at the expense of students

in order to keep

those universities afloat.

Students have access to money.

So, do lawmakers think, well,

we won't put money toward this

because we know

that students can take out debt

and pay for their education

that way?

Obviously,

that is happening to some degree,

not just in Louisiana

but around the country,

and I find it very troubling.

"Yeah, we're robbing our children

to pay for our budget."

On one hand,

I guess he's being honest there,

but that is one of the worst things

I've ever seen come out of Louisiana.

With the best, of course,

being Monsieur Jacques,

the statue of a frog in a top hat

from the city of Rayne.

Now, does it look like

the placard in front of him

is blocking

his enormous frog d*ck?

Yes, it does. Is there a photo

where it doesn't look like that?

No, my friends, there is not.

So, public universities

were struggling for funding.

And many responded

by ramping up spending.

Which might seem counterintuitive,

until you realize that you can charge

tuition almost three times higher

to out-of-state or international

students than instate ones.

So, colleges now compete

to lure those students in,

with expensive amenities

from state-of-the-art student centers

to rock climbing walls.

In fact, one of the most potent

symbols of those spending wars

is actually at LSU itself.

There it is,

lifeguards and everything.

Students at Louisiana State University

can now enjoy

a 500-foot lazy river

that spells out "LSU".

Hey, lifeguard!

- Are you a student here, too?

- Yes, sir.

So, you're paying for this?

You're paying for the lazy river.

Yes, I am. Yes, I pay for this.

It's in my fees.

Okay, first, stop yelling

at that student through a fence.

He's busy. At work. Being paid to watch

the river he paradoxically funds.

Second, not to river shame,

but that has too many curves.

The whole point of a lazy river

is to get day drunk on Nattys,

pass out to an MGMT album,

and vibe.

You can't do that

if every five seconds

you have to navigate the twists

and turns of the letter S.

But whether out of necessity

or greed,

universities basically started

turning their campuses into resorts

to justify taking

more money from students.

Even as tuition climbed,

students didn't stop applying.

They just kept borrowing

as much as they could.

So, the mere existence

of the student loan industry

has ended up

contributing to a vicious cycle

of rising tuition

and higher debt loads.

All of which

has made it very easy

to wind up taking

on debilitating amounts of debt,

often at an age where you barely

understand what you're getting into.

It was just explained to us

as everybody has student loans

and this is just something you do

to get ahead in life.

To have a drink of alcohol,

you have to be 21.

To take out $100,000 worth of debt,

you can be 18.

You can do that.

And I definitely did not understand

what I was signing up for.

Right. That's a huge burden

to take on at 18.

And that's already a difficult age,

you can't legally drink,

you can't stop fighting with your mom,

who's being a total bitch,

and Leonardo DiCaprio

keeps skulking around your school.

Why add the biggest financial decision

of your life to that list?

One borrower said she barely

recognized her childlike handwriting

on the forms that committed her

to decades of debt.

And yet, for many, taking it on can

seem like the only rational choice.

Because so many careers are offlimits

to anyone who hasn't been to college.

Even though two-thirds

of administrative assistants

don't have bachelor's degrees,

three quarters of the new job postings

for administrative assistants

say you have to have a bachelor's

degree to be considered for that job.

So, two-thirds of the people

who currently do that job

can't apply for three-quarters

of the new jobs in the field.

Exactly!

A lack of a college degree is

a barrier to entry for a lot of jobs.

And barriers to entry

make sense for some things

like practicing medicine

or gorilla enclosures.

But requiring a degree for a job

that can be done without one

makes no sense at all.

Once you've taken these loans on,

even those who can afford

the minimum payment

can end up

treading water for years.

Here's that woman you just saw

breaking down

where her monthly payments go.

So, my total due for this month,

$707.74.

What will be applied to the principal?

$64.54.

So, the principal

is the total amount of loan,

like, actual money

that I actually took out.

What will be going to the interest?

$643.20.

So, my principal isn't going down.

My debt isn't going down.

I'm literally paying the interest.

That is ridiculous.

That $650 could clearly be

much better spent

on the principal on her loan,

or even to buy two Cameos

from Rudy Giuliani every month.

I would prove that to you

by buying one,

but I do not want to give that man

any money.

So, we got one from Snooki instead,

who charges around the same amount.

Hey, Brittney! What's up, mama?

It's your girl, Snooki!

I cannot believe this video costs half

as much as your student loan interest.

That's f*cked up!

Yeah, it is! Thank you, Snooki.

Thank you very much.

And as those debts pile up,

it is no wonder that,

for many with student loans,

it can feel almost impossible

to plan for a future.

One of the things that scares me

is becoming a parent.

I just got married last year

and my wife is on me, like,

"Hey, you know, I'm ready.

Are you ready?"

And so, you know,

I would love to be a parent but

then I look at the cost of childcare

and I look at my student loan balance

and it's like,

then I'm still gonna be balancing,

do I make my student loan payment

or do I pay child care?

And I don't want

to default on my student loans,

but at the same time,

if I'm gonna become a parent,

I want to make sure that my child

has the best life possible

and I just don't see

how that's possible

with having a student loan debt

hanging over my head.

Yeah, student loans shouldn't

determine whether you have kids.

It'd be crazy if something

the government did

influenced your decision

to have a child or not.

Right? That would be crazy!

It would be absolutely crazy.

And let's address

who gets hit hardest here.

Because when many imagine

the typical borrower,

they are picturing the caricature

painted on Fox News,

or in ads like this one,

attacking Biden's debt relief plan.

Want to be a struggling artist?

College is on me!

My kids don't need fancy things

like school supplies or new shoes.

I work for you, theater major.

This shift is for you, business major,

go buy yourself that new car.

Enjoy your free ride,

college is on me.

Tell Congress,

stop Biden's bailout for rich kids.

They're so right, stop paying

for rich kids to study theater.

What are they gonna do

with that degree anyway?

Star in a hack political ad making fun

of anyone who studies theater?

Go get a real job

where you touch a wrench!

But about that

"bailout for rich kids" idea,

it gets tossed around a lot

when it comes to debt forgiveness.

Which is a little weird because rich

kids tend not to have student debt,

because their parents

tend to pay for their college,

just like they tend

to pay for lawyers

to make that thing with the car

and the cyclist go away.

People with the highest loan balances

are often current on their payments,

because they may've gotten

advanced degrees

that allowed them to earn more.

Conversely,

those most burdened by debt

often have relatively small

amounts of loans.

That guy who was talking

about putting off having kids?

He's not in debt

because he studied theater.

He owes $30,000 from going to a state

university to study accounting.

He took the path people like this guy

love to cream their chinos over,

and it still f*cked him over.

In fact, as of 2022, "most student

loan borrowers with outstanding debt

owed less than $25,000".

And having a smaller debt

doesn't mean it's easier to pay off,

in fact,

borrowers with the least debt

often had slightly

more difficulty with repayments.

And that can be

for multiple reasons,

including that they may've had

to leave school before finishing,

meaning they have all the debt,

but no degree to show for it.

And it gets even worse,

because increasingly,

it's not just young people

taking on student loans.

That is thanks to yet another

federal program called Parent PLUS,

which allows parents to take out a

student loan on their child's behalf.

But these loans are even riskier,

they have "effectively

no income requirements,

and no limit on borrowing."

And that means there are

increasing numbers of retirees

saddled with student debt

on behalf of their kids,

like this 80-year-old man.

And this is my son,

who graduated in 2008

from Bridgewater College

with a degree in biology.

I didn't want him to be stuck

with having the debt

that a lot of kids

have when they get out of college.

So, I assumed that loan.

The Parent PLUS loan that I took out

was through

the Department of Education.

I think I started in 2004.

I'm still paying it.

And according to Navient,

I'll be done in 2040.

You know what I kind

of like about that?

The slight laugh in his voice

at the end there.

That is the chuckle of a man

who knows he'll be dead

long before that loan

gets paid back.

That is a man laughing

in the face of God and government.

And death might be the only option

to get out from under these loans.

Because, as we've discussed

before on this show,

student loans are extremely difficult

to discharge through bankruptcy.

They're actually something

of an outlier in that regard,

as this professor explains.

If I were to go and lose all my money

at a gambling casino,

I can declare bankruptcy.

If I were to be a criminal

and do some horrible thing,

I can declare bankruptcy.

Students are not allowed

to declare bankruptcy.

That is true. And while I appreciate

the hypothetical there,

it is hard to imagine this guy blowing

his life savings at a craps table.

I'm just saying, the very fact

that he called it a "gambling casino"

proves he has never been

inside one.

This entire system seems practically

set up to drown people in debt.

But there is one more player

that we should mention here,

and that is student loan servicers.

You might know them

by names like these.

If you know who these companies are,

you probably f*cking hate them!

Servicers like these manage loans

on the government's behalf,

and in theory, they're supposed

to help you navigate the system.

But in practice, they often manage

to make things much worse.

A report found some companies have

billed people for the wrong amount,

given them bad information,

and subjected them to incredibly

long hold times on the phone,

with one borrower waiting 565

minutes to speak to a representative,

and that incompetence

is a real problem.

The government does have programs

to ease the burden of student debt.

Remember the ones that you saw

Bill Clinton describe earlier,

where your debt can be reduced

based on income or public service?

Those actually do exist.

But the government designed them

in a very complicated way,

and their implementation

is in the hands of these companies.

Take this woman.

She was enrolled in a program where,

after a decade of public service,

her loans would be forgiven.

She spent her decade serving

in the m*llitary, and nine years in,

having auto-paid on time every month,

she assumed she was nearly done.

But when she called her servicer,

FedLoan,

they told her that she'd only been

credited with one year of payments,

so still had nine left.

And when she asked why,

their response was maddening.

The woman looked through

my account and she says

"You may have an issue

that we know is an issue

where the auto-debit

takes the payment

but one penny short of what

is actually due, so it doesn't count."

I submitted my case for a review,

and it sat in review for three years.

And in the interim, I was paying

because you're like, okay, well,

they're reviewing it.

it was still under review.

Hold on, "We may've

undercharged you by one penny,

so the payment doesn't count?!"

In no other transaction

would that be acceptable!

If you buy a shirt that's 9.99

and the store only charges you 9.98,

the cashier can either let it go, or say

"You actually still owe us one penny".

But at no point

would they be allowed to say,

"Sorry, your payment doesn't count,

give us $10 again".

And she's not alone.

A GAO report found

that that loan-forgiveness program

had a denial rate of 99%.

A similar thing happened

with income-driven repayment plans,

which provided that, if your income

was below a certain level,

and you made 20 to 25

years' worth of payments,

your loan

would eventually be forgiven.

Which sounds good.

But, again, the programs' mechanics

were very complicated,

and servicers f*cked things up.

Government reviews found

that some steered borrowers

into something

called forbearance instead,

which basically hits pause

on your loan,

but allows interest

to keep accumulating.

That is exactly what this woman

says happened to her.

For months now,

Julie Alicea has been desperately

trying to take control

of her mounting student loan debt.

It's now in the tens of thousands.

I'm trying to pay!

But she says her loan servicer,

Navient, is not helping.

She's been trying to apply

for an income-based payment plan

but instead the company steers

her towards a costly forbearance

and won't send the paperwork

she needs.

I requested income

repayment program assistance

and I'm still waiting

since like early summer last year.

That is absurd! She's trying

to make this situation better,

and they're not helping.

She's taking it so seriously,

she's wearing a headset on the news!

Which I presume is 'cause she's

having to be on hold with Navient

every waking moment

of her f*cking life!

But even if you manage

to get enrolled in a program,

and jump through

all the hoops for two decades,

your servicer

still might screw it up.

An investigation a few years ago

found some servicers

weren't clearly tracking borrowers'

payments toward the program

and had no idea when borrowers

qualified for forgiveness.

Which may help explain

why, as of 2021,

despite the fact

that two million borrowers

have been enrolled in income-based

repayment plans for over 20 years,

only 32 had successfully

canceled their loans.

Not 32%, 32 people!

This program has only worked for a

single season of Bachelor contestants.

And honestly, chalking it up

to companies' incompetence

might be too generous here.

A whistleblower who worked

in customer service at Navient

has said that one major

metric employees

were graded on wasn't how helpful

they could be to customers,

but how fast they could get them

off the phone.

Part of our training was keeping

your calls to seven minutes.

If I don't keep my call

to seven minutes,

I have a lower status.

I'm considered

not having performed as well.

A few of my coworkers said

that there was just no way

to answer all of those questions

in a way that was satisfactory

and maintain the numbers

that we were maintaining.

And so, they would be on their call

and then they would

just press a button and go "Oops!"

That is not good.

And I should say,

Navient denies

putting time limits on calls,

and also denies steering customers

into forbearance.

They have a statement here that

I dropped it.

Turns out you're right, Navient.

It's so easy to do.

The good news is Navient's contract

with the government has since expired.

Unfortunately, many of their accounts

were transferred to Mohela,

which doesn't seem

to be much better.

It was recently found to have failed

to send billing statements on time

to two and a half million borrowers

and over 800,000 were delinquent

on their loans as a result.

And when you take everything

you've seen tonight together,

it is really hard to feel

like the system isn't rigged.

We've been told,

working class people,

that, as long as you get an education,

then you will have job prospects.

You'll be able

to take care of your family.

You'll be able to have a future.

I really used to blame myself a lot,

and I used to feel a lot of shame.

And then I started to look

at the policies.

I'm like, is it personal responsibility

or is it really bad policy?

And I realized it's bad policy,

straight up.

She's right.

We've set up a system

where we've created a barrier

to entry for many jobs

that can only be passed by taking on

some of the most debilitating loans,

with the least protections,

administered by some of the shittiest

companies on Earth.

And all of this is particularly cute

for Black borrowers,

who are more likely

to take out student loans

and carry the largest average

loan debt of all demographics.

So, what do we do?

Personally, I would argue

that Congress needs to pass

massive debt forgiveness.

But I know that is a hard sell

in that building,

given that some of its members have sat

in hearings on the student debt crisis

and said sh*t like this.

I'm a small business owner

back in Texas,

and in my world, if you borrow

the money, you pay the money back.

Pure and simple.

That's an interesting point

from a man whose eyebrows seem

surprised to be on his face.

But on one level,

I do get that argument.

It's just, it's a little hard

to take coming from him

as, at the start of the pandemic,

his small business

received a $1.4 million PPP loan.

And guess what he didn't then do?

Pay it back.

He also happens to be one of the

wealthiest members of Congress.

So, I think we may've just found

an actual bailout for the rich here.

Someone should tell that man who

definitely knows how a car works.

He's going to be so mad!

And that is the thing here,

for all the populist speechifying

that essentially boils down to

"How dare you

spend money on something

that benefits someone who is not me?"

The government spends money

all the time, on all sorts of things,

to benefit select individuals,

because we think

there's a net societal benefit.

From forgiving loans

to small businesses,

to subsidizing corn farmers,

to giving homeowners massive tax

breaks, to building stadiums.

I don't love spending money

on all those things!

But if you do, it feels pretty weird

to draw a hard line at student debt.

And while we wait for congress

to pass comprehensive debt relief,

I do have some good news.

Because while the Supreme Court

struck down

Biden's big $400 billion plan,

to his credit, he's managed to get

other meaningful solutions through,

by tweaking existing programs.

Under his administration,

we've forgiven 12 billion of debt

for borrowers with disabilities,

and, through adjustments to the Public

Service Loan Forgiveness program,

another $56 billion

for nearly 800,000 borrowers.

That is significant

for those benefiting from it.

Everything says "Paid in full".

The relief and celebration

came in a flurry.

I've been paying

on student loans for 38 years.

Zero balance.

zero in my checking account,

not my student loans or a credit

card or anything like that.

So, it's shocking.

That is great!

It's the sort of thing that calls

for a message of congratulations.

And luckily, I happen to know

just the person to deliver it.

Hey, Sarah! I'm so glad

your student debt is all gone!

Congratulations, mama!

Thank you, again, Snooki.

If you personally have

student debt,

this administration is currently

rolling out the SAVE plan,

a retooled version

of income-driven repayment

which does look promising.

It lowers eligibility requirements

and ensures that for anyone

who borrowed less than $12,000,

their debts would be wiped clean

after 10 years of payments.

You can go to this website

to see whether you're eligible

and how much it might save you.

And I'm not saying it's perfect.

It'll have to be administered properly,

and remember,

these assholes are still involved.

But in just its first few months,

the SAVE plan has relieved

a total of $1.2 billion

for 150,000 borrowers.

If you take everything Biden's

administration has done together,

he's managed to relieve

$138 billion in student loans

for 3.9 million people

in just three years.

That is more

than any president in history.

I know we are talking

about Band-Aid solutions here.

Even if we got rid of all the

problems with the servicers,

that won't address the giant

pile of debt that people owe.

And even if we got rid of that,

that won't fix the central problem

that the cost of college

in this country is absurd.

There are proposals to deal with that,

each with pros and cons,

from putting colleges themselves

on the hook

for a portion of the debt

when students default on their loans,

to making college tuition free.

And I'm sure that we will discuss them

at another time.

We need to tackle the cost of college

and for everyone's good.

And I'm not saying college

is the right choice for everyone,

but it should be a choice.

It can unlock a lot of opportunities,

and be a net benefit to all of us.

It should be affordable for everyone,

regardless of what you study,

whether you're a medical student,

a business student,

or a certain

anthropology student,

heroically ramming

into your dipshit neighbor's car.

A grateful nation thanks you.

And now, this!

And Now:

Coming Up on "Inside Edition",

Just Taylor Swift Stories.

Holy w*r.

Tr*mp's disciples declare

a holy w*r on Taylor Swift.

Plus, praise for Taylor Swift's

eagle-eyed bodyguard.

And, Taylor Swift, 10 minutes late!

And, here she is.

We're gonna show this to Taylor.

The little girl swept off her feet

to meet Taylor Swift,

by her boyfriend's shirtless brother.

Then, new video.

Partying in the club with mom and dad?

Plus, the Taylor Swift challenge.

And wobbly Taylor.

She just lost her heel!

And, mystery over who

really wrote the best-seller book

they've just turned

into a major movie.

Who is Elly Conway?

Is she really Taylor Swift?

And does this cat in a bubble

hold the key to the mystery?

And, Taylor Swift amnesia.

The bizarre phenomenon

plaguing Swifty nation.

They can't remember

that they've just seen the show.

That's our show. Back March 31st.

We're off next week. Good night!