As President Donald Trump's reckless tariff policies upend the global economy, the administration has debuted another terrible idea: calling in student loans.
The Department of Education announced that starting next month it will garnish wages from student loan borrowers who defaulted on their debt, something they call "involuntary collection."
This will put the federal government in the role of a debt collector, and the White House says it will claw back these funds by withholding tax refunds, federal pensions and even wages.
Setting aside the wisdom of this as a policy, it's particularly ill-timed, given the precarious state of the economy. Put simply, this plan amounts to an anti-stimulus, taking money that would be helping stimulate the economy out of circulation.
This is a preview of Symone D. Sanders-Townsend's latest article. Read the full column here. For more thought-provoking insights from Symone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, watch "The Weekend" every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.
