Yesterday, President Trump signed a massive executive order that ultimately forgives all student debt incurred by permanently disabled US veterans. While giving a speech at the American Veterans National Convention, he revealed that he would be signing the executive order to allow disabled veterans better financial security by not having to worry about their student loan.
Is not just the loans, either. People who obtain student loan forgiveness often still have to pay taxes on that loan. This Executive Order dictates that no veterans will have to pay any federal income tax for the loans that they had forgiven. Trump can only control the federal aspects of this forgiveness so he is also pressuring states to do the same.
“The debt of these disabled veterans will be completely erased,” Trump said. “That’s hundreds of millions of dollars of student loans debt for our disabled veterans that will be completely erased.”
On Twitter Trump wrote: “It was my honor to sign a Presidential Memorandum facilitating the cancellation of student loan debt for 25K of our most severely disabled Veterans. With today’s order, we express the everlasting love & loyalty of a truly grateful Nation. God bless our Vets, & God Bless America!”
Details of the Deal
The purpose and goal of this Executive Order is to allow disabled veterans to not have to worry about paying back their debt nor any federal income tax as a result of their forgiveness. By signing the order, Trump expedites the process. There have been other bills signed in the past that helps veterans with their student loan debt, but it was still very burdensome on disabled people who fought for our country.
The order takes away those burdens. Only around 20% of all disabled veterans had actually applied to have their student debt removed because the process so difficult and time-consuming. Now, the process will be made much simpler. They will qualify for what’s called Total and Permanent Disability Discharge, or TPD.
TPD is only for veterans who have a disability rating of 100% through the VA. This was a move that came not long after Trump appointed a long-time student loan executive to serve as the Consumer Financial Bureau’s new ombudsman who oversees the student loan debt issue. This hasn’t been an area that the president has tackled, but for the veterans he has come through for them time and again.
Student loan debt is a major talking point as we go into the 2020 election. Nearly every Democrat running has offered some sort of student loan forgiveness promise. The promises include everything from complete and total student loan debt removal to making college free for everyone.
