One of the biggest obstacles to a healthy U.S. economy continues to be student loan debt, which an increasing number of people are defaulting on. Millions of people had not made a payment on $137 billion in federal student loans for at least nine months in 2016. That’s a 14 percent increase in defaults from the previous year.

So what was Trump’s response to the the already grotesque $1.2 trillion problem? He threw out what little protection borrowers had against shady debt collectors.

Around 8 million people are currently defaulting on their student loan debt. Just under half of those people took out loans through the discontinued Federal Family Education Loan Program. The program insured and subsidized loans from private lenders.

When students defaulted on FFEL loans, collectors on insanely high fees that made it even more difficult to pay them off. The Obama Administration intervened on the matter when the circuit court of appeals asked for guidance on a lawsuit against debt collection agency USA Funds.

Bryana Bible sued USA Funds after being charged $4,500 in collection costs on a loan she defaulted on […]

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