this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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politics

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[–] MrTomS@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Given the congress he has to work with, one could argue he's been a better President than Obama was.

[–] aubertlone@lemmy.world 32 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

He's been a better president than Obama was.

It's not particularly close in my opinion.

I'm hella biased, but the SAVE plan and not accruing interest on student loans as long as you make payments is a huge win.

There's no reason they couldn't have done this under Obama....

Edit: just wanted to mention that this restructuring for student loans had absolutely nothing to do with Congress

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The SAVE plan and the rules around PSLF really do make medical school a lot more viable for people like me. Doctors get paid a pittance in residency, and the interest on medical school loans would add up really fast on the old income-driven repayment plans.

[–] aubertlone@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Trust me I fully understand.

I went to med school, finished back in 2018.

If I never step foot into a hospital again it'll be too soon.

I work from home now as a cloud engineer for a large US-based mortgage company.

I'm very happy now. I've already made my piece that my $350,000 in loans can only be solved by making minimum payments for 20 years.

All that being said, a lot of people are in a different boat than myself.

Their loans are much more manageable and I'm really glad they'll be able to pay them off because interest isn't accruing.

Who knows? I make enough now that I'm actually going to have to sit down and calculate whether it's worth it to pay the loans off myself or just make minimum payments for 20 years and have the rest forgiven.

The SAVE plan and interest no longer recruiting is the only reason these possibilities are there.

Otherwise I'd have to resign myself to making 20 years of minimum payments and hoping that forgiveness plan is still in place.

[–] grue@lemmy.world -2 points 9 months ago

In terms of stuff leftists want, Obama overpromised and underdelivered, while Biden underpromised and overdelivered. I'm not sure he actually delivered all that much more than Obama did on an absolute scale, but when expectations ranged from "1994 crime bill guy" to "at least he's not Trump," pretty much any policy that manages to edge past mediocre is a pleasant surprise.

[–] takeda@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I agree too. Obama had charisma and was a great speaker, but policy wise Biden is much better.

If Obama was firmer many current problems would not exist today. But it is easier to say now.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Obama had charisma and was a great speaker,

And as we're seeing now with Biden's poll numbers, unfortunately, that's all that matters. Doesn't matter how many good things you do to help people, all that matters is whether you have charisma and a good media relations team.

People are so stupid. Maybe democracy was a mistake.

[–] Nudding@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Maybe democracy was a mistake.

It probably works fine if the majority of your population doesn't have either CTE from your sports programs, lead poisoning, or something above an 8th grade education.

[–] Rookwood@lemmy.world -2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Obama was generally pretty terrible. Obamacare was a disaster and about the only good policies he had were around car emissions, which were significant but still. If you factor in the amount of political capital he had in 2009 it's sad really.