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8/29/2022 Monday, August 29th Everyone-
I hope you caught our interview Saturday on Fox News. We hope to be doing more of these. Our opposition is going ballistic right now. We have to shut them down. I hope you all are pleased and appreciate that we started the public conversation on the concept of student loan cancellation by executive order, and that we've gotten to this point with President Biden. However, there is very good reason to be skeptical and wary of his cancellation pledge in the continued absence of bankruptcy rights. More than ever, we need to fight for S.2598 in the month of September, before early voting begins in October. We're doing our best over here on this end, but we need your help. To that end...Today's Action:
This truly is your battle. The month of September could be it for us. PLEASE MAKE THIS WEEK COUNT. -Alan. ps. Please donate. We need 34 people to donate $20 (or the equivalent) this week.
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8/27/2022 Saturday, August 27thHey All-
We're going on Fox News today at 1:42pm eastern time, to debate one of our adversaries. I hope you will check it out. The media is being overwhelmed right now by our opposition. This may be one of our few chances to counter them, so please find Fox News on Twitter, Facebook, or other platforms, and weigh in on our side if you can. Let's fight fire with fire! -Alan 8/26/2022 Friday, August, 26thGood Morning All-
I trust you all have heard about Biden's student loan cancellation announcement on Wednesday. Please read our analysis. This announcement is significant, to be sure, and we all should be very proud to have started the public conversation on the concept of student loan cancellation by executive order! I hope you are pleased. However, there is very good reason to be skeptical and wary of this plan. It is vague, ambiguous, and frankly unimpressive to most of the people in our group who owe far more than $10,000 - $20,000. Also, not one dollar has been cancelled yet, and won't be until next year. We could see this plan weakened in the interim, and come to mean almost nothing for almost everyone, ultimately. We go over this in detail in our article. As long as the threat of bankruptcy remains gone from these loans, we remain vulnerable to all the same tricks that the Department of Education has played in year's/decades past, where almost no one actually gets any meaningful relief, and all of the predatory underpinnings of this lending program remain in place, and cause us harm. This really is not the time to be celebrating. On the contrary, all of this only underscores the importance of returning bankruptcy rights to these loans. More than ever, we need to fight for S.2598 in the month of September, before early voting begins in October. To that end...Today's Action:
This truly is the battle, folks. -Alan ps. Please donate. 8/24/2022 August 24th: VERY BIG NEWSEveryone:
President Biden finally announced a loan cancellation action today. They say they will cancel "up to $10,000" for everyone earning less than $125,000/year, and "Up to $20,000" for people who received the Pell Grant while in college. The repayment pause is also extended through the first of next year. I hope that you all can appreciate the fact that this all started here, with our petition, and the first article ever written on the concept of loan cancellation by executive order in August 2019. We have been the driving force behind this since that time, and so you should be very glad that we have come to this point. I hope you are pleased & proud. HOWEVER: This proposal is extremely untrustworthy, ambiguous, and borderline unserious. The "Up to" language they used could literally mean anything, and history has shown that if the Department of Education sees a way to NOT cancel loans, they will vigorously exploit it. There will be an application, means-testing, and certainly all manner of other hurdles erected such that- if history is any guide- the large majority of borrowers will get very little, if anything. Please read the announcement for yourself with a critical eye. So unfortunately, this is definitely not the time to celebrate. As long as the threat of bankruptcy remains gone from these loans, we are unlikely to see meaningful loan cancellation from the Biden Administration. This is why we are fighting so hard for S.2598, and why we need your help to get it through. We have until the end of the year, but the month of September is especially critical. See the livestream we just did to understand this fully. Today's Action:
Sincerely, Alan ps. Please donate. 8/23/2022 Tuesday Action.Hi All-
Extremely busy right now. Today's action:
**If you live in Indiana, and want to be interviewed, please email us asap. This is for this afternoon. This is the battle folks. See last night's livestream. -Alan ps. Please donate. 8/22/2022 Monday. VERY IMPORTANT!!Everyone:
We have it on good word that the Department of Justice is dragging their feet on ending the practice of opposing federal student loan borrowers in bankruptcy proceedings. Now is a very critical time, and we need to push Attorney General Garland and Associate AG Gupta to act. Please go to this link, select "bankruptcy" for the topic, and say something like the following: -------------------------------------------------------- Dear AG Garland/AAG Gupta- I am writing to urge you to work with the Department of Education to stop opposing federal student loan borrowers in bankruptcy court. The Education Secretary, Undersecretary, and Chief Operating Officer of the lending program have all committed to doing this in the recent past, and it is critical that the Justice Department do their part to ensure that this happens. The Founders called for uniform bankruptcy laws in Article I, Section 8. That student loans are treated so radically differently from all other types of loans in bankruptcy is a dangerous departure from their wisdom. The real harms this unique exception to discharge for student loans has caused the American People has been massive, due not only to deserving citizens being denied relief, but also due to systemic abuse of all borrowers with the threat of bankruptcy being taken off the table for them. The harms this is poised to inflict upon the public is incalculable. There was never a valid reason for singling out federal student loans, and making bankruptcy discharge for all intents and purposes impossible for the debt. Discharge rates when student loans were treated the same as all other loans was far less than 1%. This precedent, if allowed to stand, could be applied arbitrarily to other types of loans, and there are those who would make all consumer debt similarly non-dischargeable. This is precisely what the Founders (who they, themselves were being abused by onerous debt to British banks, trading companies, etc) wished to avoid when they called for bankruptcy laws ahead of the power to raise an army and declare war in the Constitution. Please act with expediency to facilitate this proposed administrative action by the Department of Education. -------------------------------------------------------- ALSO: PLEASE RETWEET THIS. See last night's live stream to understand why this is so important. Also: See our interview yesterday on Fox Los Angeles. Please make a similar story happen with a news station in your local area (give them our contact info, and tell them we have borrowers in your area with compelling stories who are willing to be interviewed about the student loan problem, and our fight). This truly is the battle...Your battle. Please help us fight and win it! Regards, Alan ps. Please donate. 8/19/2022 Friday Group Action Everyone-
Lot's going on right now. Today's action:
Will you not commit yourself to this fight during this critical time? -Alan ps. Get a hat, and send us a photo! 8/17/2022 Shout out to Martha! Special Action...This shout out is to Martha In Connecticut!!
Martha has been persistently doing our daily actions, doing battle on twitter, donating her time, effort and resources into this fight on a daily basis. She has made a huge difference for us in this fight. The kicker: Martha has ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). She is confined to a wheelchair, and cannot walk or speak. She cannot eat except through a feeding tube. Yet, she finds a way to fight this battle. We all owe Martha a HUGE debt of gratitude for her efforts in the spite of the challenges she faces. I suspect she would be happy if you all simply followed her lead, and did the daily actions consistently for the next 6 weeks. THANK YOU MARTHA!!!! -Alan 8/16/2022 Tuesday Group ActionEveryone-
With each passing day, our daily, group actions become more and more critical. Today's action:
Godspeed- Alan ps. Do at least a week's worth of daily actions if you haven't. 8/15/2022 Monday ActionEveryone-
Time is getting short. Today's action:
In two weeks, the student loan repayment pause is set to expire. Early voting begins a month after that. We have until then to convince the democrats to pass S.2598, and do something major on student loans. These are the days where you must fight if you are serious about getting your student loans solved. I cannot emphasize how important these daily actions are. You really should be doing far more than just these actions, however. We have intelligent, creative, clever people on this group who can think of all manner of steps to take to get more republican Senators supporting S.2598, and the President to ultimately cancel loans meaningfully (not a fake, "up to $10,000" cancellation gimmick). Please...Do your part. You have no idea how important you are, and how important it is that you buckle down, and help us fight. Sincerely, Alan ps. Join your state chapter pps. Please donate something. |