取消學生貸款比聽起來容易

取消學生貸款比聽起來容易

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has pledged to cancel up to $50.000 of debt for 95% of student loan borrowers if she is elected president. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., has proposed an even more generous plan if he's elected.

馬薩諸塞州民主黨參議員伊麗莎白沃倫。她承諾，如果當選總統(tǒng)，將為95%的學生貸款借款人免除至多5萬美元的債務。佛蒙特州民主黨參議員伯尼桑德斯如果當選的化話，他提出了一個更慷慨的計劃。

Both are bold, controversial pitches that would have a hard time making it through a divided Congress. But on Tuesday, Warren announced she would use a little-known shortcut, and wouldn't need Congress. As president, she says, she could cancel the debts of tens of millions of student borrowers all on her own.

這兩個都是大膽而有爭議的提案，如果國會出現(xiàn)分歧，將很難通過。但周二，沃倫宣布她將使用一條鮮為人知的捷徑，而且不需要國會。她說，作為總統(tǒng)，她可以完全靠自己取消數(shù)千萬學生借款人的債務。

It turns out, she's probably right.

事實證明，她可能是對的。

"Our country's experiment with debt-financed education went terribly wrong," Warren wrote in a statement. "Instead of getting ahead, millions of student loan borrowers are barely treading water."

沃倫在一份聲明中寫道:“我們國家用債務資助教育的實驗大錯特錯。”“數(shù)以百萬計的學生貸款借款人非但沒有取得進展，反而舉步維艱。”

43 million student borrowers owe the U.S. government $1.5 trillion, according to the U.S. Department of Education. And until now, the department has only offered student loan forgiveness or cancellation to borrowers who meet certain criteria.

據(jù)美國教育部的數(shù)據(jù)，4.300萬名學生欠美國政府1.5萬億美元。到目前為止，該部門只向符合一定條件的借款人提供學生貸款減免或取消。

"Maybe it's because they've been working in a public service position or because they become disabled or because they're saying that their school fundamentally cheated them," says Eileen Connor, legal director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.

哈佛法學院法律服務中心掠奪性學生貸款項目的法律主管艾琳·康納說:“也許是因為他們一直在公共服務崗位上工作，或者是因為他們成了殘疾人，或者是因為他們說他們的學校從根本上欺騙了他們。”

Connor wrote an analysis that found Warren's pitch is both lawful and permissible.

康納寫了一份分析報告，發(fā)現(xiàn)沃倫的說辭是合法的，也是允許的。

But is it a good idea? That debate has been raging since last year, when Warren first unveiled her plan. One critique, from Adam Looney of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, says Warren's plan would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, with the bottom 20% of borrowers by income reaping just 4% of the savings. As such, Looney asks: "Why are those who went to college more deserving of aid than those who didn't?"

但這是個好主意嗎?自去年沃倫首次公布她的計劃以來，這場辯論就一直在激烈進行。來自城市-布魯金斯稅收政策中心的亞當•魯尼提出了批評。他說，沃倫的計劃將不成比例地惠及富人，收入最低的20%的借款人只能從儲蓄中獲得4%的收益。因此，魯尼問道:“為什么上過大學的人比沒上過大學的人更有資格獲得助學金?”

This authority may be news — and poorly understood — but it isn't remotely new. It dates back half a century, to 1958. and the U.S. government's frenzied response to the Soviet Union launching Sputnik.

這種權威可能是新聞——而且人們對它知之甚少——但它一點也不新鮮。它可以追溯到半個世紀前的1958年，當時美國政府對蘇聯(lián)發(fā)射人造衛(wèi)星做出了瘋狂的反應。

Under then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which poured federal dollars into U.S. colleges and universities — and into students' pockets — all in the name of playing academic catch-up with the Soviets.

在時任總統(tǒng)德懷特·d·艾森豪威爾的領導下，國會通過了《國防教育法》，該法案以追趕蘇聯(lián)的名義，將聯(lián)邦資金注入美國的高等院校和學生的口袋。

There are a few potential roadblocks. Such a move would more than likely trigger lawsuits. It could also have tax implications. Traditionally, cancelled student debt has been considered taxable income (with some exceptions), and so any effort to erase hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans would require a sympathetic reading of the tax code.

有幾個潛在的障礙。這樣的舉動很可能會引發(fā)訴訟。這也可能會對稅收產(chǎn)生影響。傳統(tǒng)上，取消的學生債務一直被認為是應稅收入(除了一些例外)，因此任何消除數(shù)千億美元學生貸款的努力都需要謙虛地閱讀稅法。

Otherwise, many students with large loans but small, income-based monthly payments could face a sudden and impossible tax bill. Still, a new administration could almost certainly find a legal workaround, and Warren pledged in her announcement "that loan cancellation will not result in any additional tax liability for borrowers."

否則，許多背負巨額貸款、但每月收入較低的學生可能會面臨突如其來且不可能的稅單。不過，新政府幾乎肯定能找到合法的變通辦法，沃倫在聲明中承諾，“取消貸款不會給借款人帶來任何額外的稅收負擔。”