Republican Tax Assault on Students

Whatever. The bottom line is we are increasing the tax burden on the middle class or worse. No true conservative should be on board with that.

 

Some feedback for you, Will ...

I did the math independently using current tax law and the proposed House bill tax law, and I found that these figures are essentially correct. (The figures I arrived at were insignificantly different.)

But think about this ...

According to a CBS news source, it takes the average student 8 years to complete a PhD. At $43,000/year, that's a total of $344,000 worth of tuition that the student will not owe when they finish if the university is covering it in exchange for their work.

The difference between $29,566 and $22,191 is $7375. Multiply that by 8 years, and we see that the new tax law would cost the student $59,000.

So the bottom line is that their $344,000 PhD degree would cost them $59,000. If they had to borrow the $59,000 to get by, that would still be a pretty good deal. I looked around on the internet to find out the average salary of a person with a PhD. Different sources had different numbers, but they ranged from $90 - $110k/year.

This may sound a little callous, but your PhD graduate can make that up by putting off the BMW for a while and keep the old Honda running a while longer, and she'll be fine. My daughter-in-law earned a Masters Degree in Education and then started teaching. Then she married my son. After a while they retired her old Honda Accord with well over 200,000 miles on it for a newer vehicle. She made do, and so can your PhD student.

Given that the PhD graduate is going to make a lot of money in her lifetime, you'll excuse me if I lack sympathy for someone who is griping over the fact that their $344,000 PhD is going to cost them $59,000 instead of $0. And they are griping over the fact that "someone else" (taxpayers) doesn't pay for it for them.

My

Seth

 

But the elephant in the room is why the tuition is $43K per year for computer science ?? That's ridiculous.

 

That's really what it is about.

Liberal institutions at colleges demand ridiculous sums of money to educate someone, demand government controls and requires states to give loans to students so they can afford their ridiculous charges, then cry when students default and can't pay back the loans.

 

You could have stopped here. There was a time when any real conservative would reject this on principle.

 

Completely agree but this point is orthogonal to the discussion. We are proposing raising taxes on students.

 

They don't want to pay their fair share?

 

Are you volunteering to pay the top rates?

 

Like I said, when enough people get fed up, you'll have change; until then we'll all just have to suffer (except the 1%)

 

It's happening right now.

 

Really? No republican voters have degrees? Please post a stat for that.

 

Yes, the entire process (much like public employee unions which FDR warned about) is corrupt.

 

How did you come to that conclusion? I'm anti-tax not pro. However, if we must raise taxes it should not be on those who are having trouble feeding themselves!

 

Ridiculously high tuition is the root cause of the issue which ever side you are on.

 

It's a problem but it's not the problem we're discussing here. We are discussing tax policy.

 

Pretty simple solution: keep the jump for anything but a stem or other professional degree.
Grad degrees in a "studies" field? No break for you hippie

 

That depends on your definition of a "real conservative".

Some "real conservatives" think any tax hike on anyone is bad.

But some "real conservatives" think paying for other people's expenses is bad, except for the truly needy and vulnerable.

My own conservative values compel me to want to support our truly needy and vulnerable. But when I picture who I'm thinking of - poor children, the mentally and physically disabled, the sick, the elderly - my mental picture does not include PhD students at an Ivy League university. Sorry, it just doesn't.

 

Sure, I agree. My problem is the mental gymnastics required to go from tuition assistance -> paying other peoples expenses. Nobody is "paying" for the PhD student.

 

Because it's one of those private, Ivy League universities ... that's why. I was just reading about a small private liberal arts college in my state that charges almost $56,000/year for a full time student with room and board. Wow!

 

Yes actually they are.

You see student loans are guaranteed by the state, so if the student doesn't pay them back, the bill is footed by the taxpayer.

 

What do student loans have to do with the OP? You do understand the difference between a loan and tuition assistance?

 

We are subsidizing the student by saying that no, they don't have to pay taxes on the compensation for their work because it's offsetting their tuition. Some "real conservatives" are philosophically against that sort of thing. So, like I said, it depends on which kind of "real conservative" you're referring to.

 

Ok, cool. I didn't pick up on that from just one post.

Personally I'm for across the board rate cuts only.
No need to mix and match cuts with increases. That's why I don't support what is being done. Just smells like big gov smoke and mirrors to me

 

I guess I should have included sirens going off since I was being sarcastic.

 

"Fair Tax" puts even more of the burden on the middle class.

The trick Fair Tax people use is to assume that if we change our tax system, we would suddenly need far less revenue - which is ridiculous.

And, your example says NOTHING about the fact that Republicans are working to increase the tax burden of post graduate students by literally HUNDREDS of percent.

That is NOT good for America and it is certainly a major block to the middle class being able to have their kids get this education.