Weekly Writers Round-Up: Student Debt Forgiveness, Internet Taxes, and Ending the Afghanistan War

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? See here for info on how we can help make that a reality. 

No, “A New Study” Doesn’t Show The Benefits Of Canceling Student Debt by Preston Cooper (Fall 2015) in Forbes
As presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaign across the country on their plans for mass student loan forgiveness, activists and media outlets are touting a new study that appears to provide some intellectual justification for the candidates’ plans. But a closer reading reveals that the study provides no support for broad student loan cancelation, since it focuses not on a representative sample of student borrowers, but on borrowers in default…

Wayfair Revenues Come Well Short of Promises by Andrew Wilford (Spring 2017) in Morning Consult
Many states looked forward to a windfall of internet sales tax revenue in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court case that expanded their taxing power, but nationwide, budget projections are coming up billions of dollars short. The massive expansion of taxing power hasn’t led to big tax receipts for state governments, even as thousands of small businesses across the country now have to comply with more onerous tax filing administrations. 

Last June, in South Dakota v. Wayfair, the Supreme Court ruled that states could tax remote sellers without any physical presence within their borders. This ruling, which overturned decades of precedent, created chaos as smaller retailers were suddenly expected to file taxes in dozens of states around the country…

End the Afghanistan War with honor for all who served by Beth Bailey (Fall 2018) in The Washington Examiner
The latest casualty of our 18-year war in Afghanistan, Army Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Jeremy Griffin, died in a gun battle in Wardak Province on Monday. His death brings to 2,430 the number of American service members who lost their lives in Operations Enduring Freedom and Freedom’s Sentinel.

Despite yearly promises that the war is coming to a close, the conflict muddles on with no end in sight…