Borrowers and lenders sometimes make mistakes. When other sorts of debt are taken on, a borrower risks default and a loss of credit and the lender risks losing money. Both are unhappy with a default but at least they can move on.
But with student loans, a mistaken decision to take on debt by the borrower in youth means the borrower becomes an indentured servant to the lender. There is no way to move past the mistake. The government will hound the borrower for the rest of his life until the debt is paid. There is no bankruptcy. A criminal stealing $25,000 and blowing it on booze and hookers is more likely to escape the obligation to pay back the $25,000 than is a student that made the mistake of borrowing the same.
Students shouldn't be financially punished to the same extent criminals are punished. It doesn't make sense.
Without those repayment terms nobody would have voluntarily made those loans to what were bad risks.
To after the fact take away those terms would be a criminal redistribution of wealth to those who by all means ought to be able to repay—if only they’d make the work and lifestyle choices to do so. Often, their parents could have paid anyway, but chose not to because of the loans—which were made at very low rates anyway.
Obama already has a program by which students can ditch their debt by keeping a low-paying job and paying pennies on what they owe. That is already grossly unfair and distortive of the market.