Thank you so much Gabe for this series. I intend to read these through more thoroughly in the coming weeks. It is unbelievable how much was stuffed into this bill. I guarantee that no single house or senate member understood what they were voting for.
These loan limitations are going to pose some serious issues for many students intending to pursue graduate degrees outside of the "professional students" category. How are they determining what is considered professional? Is it degrees that prepare students for licensure in a particular field (like clinical mental health counseling, which is often housed in schools of education)? The percentage of graduate programs that cost more than $50k/year is astounding (the vast majority of private institutions in the US, and many public institutions for out-of-state students), and these loan limitations are likely going to prevent middle and lower income students from pursuing graduate studies, which will further limit upward social mobility.
What would be far more helpful to avoid further student loan crises is updating the stupid Net Price Calculator Act, which requires every college and university receiving federal funding to have a Net Price Calculator on their website. In theory, these calculators should help families know *before applying* which schools will be affordable for them. However, the current act, which was supposedly being updated, still fails to require that the NPCs be ACCURATE, and some institutions are egregious about this oversight (like American University, who's assistant director of financial aid said publicly in a webinar last year that their NPC isn't accurate because "it doesn't have to be" (yeah, that's a direct quotation, he even typed it into the Q&A chat and I have a screenshot of it)).
Is there any world in which these things might change in the future?
"The above provision sets a $100 fee for each calendar year that their asylum application is still pending, effectively punishing migrants for the fact that our asylum system is so slow (presumably to incentivize them to withdraw their applications and thus reduce the backlog)."
Our asylum system is slow in part because it is flooded with economic migrants who do not fear persecution but know they can get a benefit by filing specious claims and being able to work for U.S. wages, sometimes for many years. The $100 per year fee is still a bargain. Asylum fees would seem to be an unfair burden if it were not for the fact that migrants seem to be able to cobble together significant amounts of money for traffickers and living expenses during their journeys. The U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform and all the first world Western countries need to have a uniform enforceable standard for government initiated persecution.
I recommend that you assemble this series into pamphlet for citizens (and congress-folk). It might have the effect of encouraging more effective dialog between red and blue.
And a quick jump over to the fema page shows us how much “grant” money has been provided over the past seven years for presidential residence protection. Why do taxpayers have to foot the bill for millionaires with multiple residences? The fund went from $12 M to $40M when Trump was in office. Just unbelievable how the American taxpayer has to keep subsidizing the rich in this country.
Thank you so much Gabe for this series. I intend to read these through more thoroughly in the coming weeks. It is unbelievable how much was stuffed into this bill. I guarantee that no single house or senate member understood what they were voting for.
These loan limitations are going to pose some serious issues for many students intending to pursue graduate degrees outside of the "professional students" category. How are they determining what is considered professional? Is it degrees that prepare students for licensure in a particular field (like clinical mental health counseling, which is often housed in schools of education)? The percentage of graduate programs that cost more than $50k/year is astounding (the vast majority of private institutions in the US, and many public institutions for out-of-state students), and these loan limitations are likely going to prevent middle and lower income students from pursuing graduate studies, which will further limit upward social mobility.
What would be far more helpful to avoid further student loan crises is updating the stupid Net Price Calculator Act, which requires every college and university receiving federal funding to have a Net Price Calculator on their website. In theory, these calculators should help families know *before applying* which schools will be affordable for them. However, the current act, which was supposedly being updated, still fails to require that the NPCs be ACCURATE, and some institutions are egregious about this oversight (like American University, who's assistant director of financial aid said publicly in a webinar last year that their NPC isn't accurate because "it doesn't have to be" (yeah, that's a direct quotation, he even typed it into the Q&A chat and I have a screenshot of it)).
Is there any world in which these things might change in the future?
"The above provision sets a $100 fee for each calendar year that their asylum application is still pending, effectively punishing migrants for the fact that our asylum system is so slow (presumably to incentivize them to withdraw their applications and thus reduce the backlog)."
Our asylum system is slow in part because it is flooded with economic migrants who do not fear persecution but know they can get a benefit by filing specious claims and being able to work for U.S. wages, sometimes for many years. The $100 per year fee is still a bargain. Asylum fees would seem to be an unfair burden if it were not for the fact that migrants seem to be able to cobble together significant amounts of money for traffickers and living expenses during their journeys. The U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform and all the first world Western countries need to have a uniform enforceable standard for government initiated persecution.
Thank you for illuminating the OBBBA, though I admit I often actually cried tears of frustration and despair.
Thank you for this Herculean effort! My sister and I read all of the six sections aloud. Thank you for explaining this in plain English!
Gabe, A
I recommend that you assemble this series into pamphlet for citizens (and congress-folk). It might have the effect of encouraging more effective dialog between red and blue.
This was epic and amazing read. Thank so much for the work and research you put in!
And a quick jump over to the fema page shows us how much “grant” money has been provided over the past seven years for presidential residence protection. Why do taxpayers have to foot the bill for millionaires with multiple residences? The fund went from $12 M to $40M when Trump was in office. Just unbelievable how the American taxpayer has to keep subsidizing the rich in this country.