District of Columbia 4/5/2011 3:47:30 AM
News / Law

Congress Members are Exempt from the Laws they Pass

By Daun Lee

Members of Congress are exempt from the laws they pass that American citizens must follow. Congress members are allowed to retire for full benefits while soldiers who fight for American freedom are only given half their benefits upon retirement, but most Americans don’t realize this. They have exempted themselves from prosecution of sexual harassment and from participation in the Healthcare Reform Act. Also, Fox News reported that staffers of Congress family members are exempt from paying back student loans.

As any former college student who received federal loans for school knows, these loans add up very quickly and take decades to pay off.  Even making a minimum payment for student loans can be nearly impossible as the interest accumulates. A person struggling to survive in lean economic times knows what a burden these student loans can place on their households. Sometimes the only solution for them is hiring a bankruptcy attorney to relieve this burden.

Having a defaulted student loan means continuous phone calls and seizure of federal income tax refunds and assets. Utilizing a bankruptcy lawyer to discharge student loans is the only way to get relief from this debt and can generally only be granted to the disabled. The government doesn’t always recognize the difficulty people who work face when trying to pay these loans off. Bankruptcy attorneys can have other debts charged making it easier to pay off their student loans. For those struggling with school loans the cavalier exemptions of Congress is inexcusable.