Ahead of a possible July 1 interest rate hike for federally subsidized student loans, a coalition of liberal and education groups announced a “Social Media Day of Action [1]” to demand congressional intervention.
Of the many groups involved in the twitter and facebook campaign, seven are connected to liberal billionaire George Soros. League of Young Voters, Equal Justice Works, United States Student Association (USSA), Rock the Vote and La Raza put together got $16,344,000 in Soros funding between 2000 and 2010. Two additional groups are indirectly connected to Soros: StudentNation, a project of The Nation which is has been funded by Soros and is part of the Media Consortium, and Campus Progress, part of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress.
Students, legislators, organizers and left-wing celebrities like Sandra Fluke tweeted using the hashtag #DreamsNotDebt, demanding that Congress stop the interest rate from going back up to 6.8 percent (which was the rate before Congress passed a bill in 2007 cutting it in half).
Some of the groups involved want much more than interest rates to remain at the 3.4 percent rate. USSA complained about the government making billions in profit [2] collecting interest on student loans, yet rejoiced that President Obama took over the student lending program in 2009.
The same day, The Nation ran a piece by it’s own StudentNation and Robert Applebaum of Student Debt Crisis [3], another group involved in the day of action. Applebaum has argued repeatedly for major debt forgiveness, which would force taxpayers to shoulder the burden of students’ debts. He wrote that “the fight over interest rates is but one small battle in the overall war against exponentially mounting student debt.” He wants bankruptcy rights, statutes of limitations on collections for student loan debt, refinancing opportunities and more.
“... We must invest in our own people by implementing a fair and equitable loan forgiveness program, such as the one my organization, StudentDebtCrisis.org [4], helped craft and which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Karen Bass (D-CA)—HR 1330, The Student Loan Fairness Act [5], which would allow borrowers to pay 10 percent of their discretionary income for a period of ten years, after which the remaining amount would be forgiven,” his piece in The Nation said.
He also did a Q&A session that day with Young Invincibles [6], yet another group involved with the social media campaign.
In the past, Applebaum has specifically petitioned for a “one-time bailout of student loan debt—currently valued at $1 trillion—as a way to stimulate the still-limping economy.” [7]