Looks like the Administration has ended support for IBR Plans.

A federal court issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. As a result, the IDR and online loan consolidation applications are temporarily unavailable.

https://studentaid.gov/idr/

For those unfamiliar with Income Based Repayment plans, these programs provided lower payments based on the person's income, it was like a max percentage. If that percentage didn't cover the base interest on the loans you had, this program would cover that difference.

In 2023 the U.S. had 1.6 Trillion in Student Loans. In my opinion, this is either going to stagnate the already sluggish market, putting further strain on borrowers, or, optimistically, this will encourage job creation, entrepreneurship, and the extra will be split between investment into America and paying down our debt ratio.

I haven't seen much coverage on this - have you read about this and what are your thoughts?

During Trumps address to the Nation or whatever you want to call it, he mentioned no tax on tips. This has been something that he's talked about before but has not yet passed.

I'm not necessarily against no tax on tips, but I feel like that's going to inflate gigconomy (Uber, Lyft, Doordash, etc.) and further exacerbate gigconomy.

On the other-hand, times in the U.S. are probably gonna get tough, and tips might be the only way some of these small businesses survive. I'm not talking Starbucks and Walmart either.

What do you think about no tax on tips, tip culture, and gigconomy in general?

I made a list of cuts mentioned by Trump during his address to Congress and The Nation. I also made a neat little comparison of dollars at the end.

$            99,000 - National Median Income is less than $100 thousand.
$         1,000,000 - 1 Million Dollars.
$       485,000,000 - Cut Funds to International Relations and whatever.
$     1,000,000,000 - 1 Billion Dollars. There are over 400 Billionaires in America.
$    22,000,000,000 - Cut Funds to American Social Serivces through HHS (Human & Health Services).
$   244,000,000,000 - Elon Musks Net Worth.
$ 1,620,000,000,000 - 1 Trillion Dollars - Meta (Facebooks) Corporate Net Worth.
$19,900,000,000,000 - The U.S. National Debt in Jan 2017 (Obama to Trump)
$27,800,000,000,000 - The U.S. National Debt in Jan 2021 (Trump to Biden)
$36,000,000,000,000 - The U.S. National Debt in Jan 2025 (Biden to Trump)

Any details about the cut international funding and research? What were your thoughts from the address overall?

This is a low-effort intro discussion. What's something currently going on in the U.S. that you'd like to briefly discuss or vent about? For longer discussions or broader topics, please make a separate topic :)

This is a United States of America discussion board first and foremost. Ironically, this means that unfortunately, Constitutional Free Speech is out the window to ensure that honest, on-topic, civil, and informed discussions can take place. Don't go out of your mind providing sources to everything, but ensure to do your own due diligence and keep others in check as needed. Most of all, know when to walk away. If you feel nothing constructive will come out of replying (circular discussion), then there's no need to.

This is not a competition but a sharing of minds and ideas.

• No personal attacks.
• Try to avoid "You" clauses to prevent this pitfall. "You think that...", "You are...", "Maybe you...". Don't attribute specifics to who you're replying to but what you're replying about.
• Remember that we are in the same metaphorical boat, even under different circumstances.
• Criticizing public figures is acceptable in comments, but keep it brief and on topic to the discussion. Nothing involving harm or terrorism.
• All topics must pertain to the U.S. directly in some way. The Fall of Rome, regardless if apt, is not subject material but discussion material.

This is 100% volunteer run - be respectful. Let's work together to build something thoughtful.

While the Community is new, we'll be accepting all question types that promote dicsussions. As commenters, feel free to voice your opinion on the topics relevancy to help decide the communities overall direction.

Feel free to discuss your thoughts, warnings, ideas, or direction in the comments below.

Welcome one and all!