[nate_meurer]

This is the correct answer. Personal bankruptcy is the tool developed and refined for over a century to address exactly this problem.

It should surprise nobody that the banking interests (and industry-adjacent politicians) who pushed so hard for student debtors to be uniquely deprived of their right to shed their debt through the courts are now pushing for taxpayers to repay their unsecured loans.

[twoodfin]

Again, the banks are almost totally disinterested at this point. The only entity significantly on the hook for these unsecured loans is the taxpayer, via the Department of Education which issued them directly to students.

[nate_meurer]

Great, then it should be easy to fix the law now, right?

[twoodfin]

Fix the law to do what? The proposal under discussion is to hand $50k to doctors, lawyers, and MBA’s (among others, of course) under the guise of fairness.

[nate_meurer]

You stated that "the banks are almost totally disinterested at this point." My facetious response was just a cheeky way to propose that if your statement is not utter bullshit, then there should be very little opposition from the credit industry to legislation such as the FRESH START act. I guess we'll see soon enough.

[twoodfin]

I really have no idea what you’re suggesting. What’s the “credit industry” (now not the banks?) role here?

[nate_meurer]

I'm using "credit industry" to distinguish the private-market credit services industry from federal servicers of student loan debt. Your assertion was that the "banks" (which appears to be your shorthand for the same thing) are "almost totally disinterested at this point." I'm saying that smells a little fishy, since the "banks" have generally opposed reforming the restrictions on discharging student loan debt through bankruptcy since they were enacted by congress in 2005. That's it, that's all I'm saying.