But when it comes to proposals put forth by politicians for the government to forgive student debt, Smith stressed that the subject is "complicated."
"There are some folks that have college debt for 20 years, and if you forgive the past, what about the future?" he said. Smith revealed that he is working on a not-yet-announced initiative with former Internal Revenue Service commissioner Fred T. Goldberg to eliminate the student debt burden for all African Americans who study science, technology, engineering and mathematics at HBCUs going forward — but would not help those who took on debt in the past.
"Is it fair to them? I don't know," conceded Smith. "So government can do some things in the past. The question is what do we do for the future? Or you can do things for the future, but what do you do for folks in the past with that burden?" To be sure, many politicians who have proposed student debt forgiveness have suggested both forgiveness for those who took on debt in the past, as well as proposals to make sure students don't take on debt in the future.has proposed cancelling up to $50,000 in student loan debt for every borrower with a household income of less than $100,000.
MakeIt Did he just make them to pay some extra tax later, tax equal to that value they got for free from someone ?