President Joe Biden has unilaterally forgiven college loan debts for Americans making less than $125,000.
But not really. Instead, what he has done is transfer the debt to millions of Americans who either didn’t take out college loans or who have paid off their loans through their own labor. And Biden has perpetuated the university racket of jacking up prices for education on families.
“I understand not everything I announcing today is not going to make everybody happy,” Biden said. But then he defended his decision, calling it “responsible and fair … Let’s be clear. I hear it all the time, ‘How do we pay for it?’ We pay for it by what we’ve done,” Biden said, but he didn’t outline what that meant by “what we’ve done.”
Even some college graduates disagree with Biden.
“I cannot believe I gave two legs for my tuition. What a dope I am. Ooh-rah!” said Army combat veteran and double amputee Joey Jones, pointing out that many Americans gave some of the best years — and best limbs — of their lives to earn their tuition.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the “student loan socialism is a slap in the face to working Americans who sacrificed to pay their debt or made different career choices to avoid debt. A wildly unfair redistribution of wealth toward higher-earning people.”
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said the decision “baptizes a broken system,” and “forces blue-collar workers to subsidize white-collar graduate students. Instead of demanding accountability from an underperforming higher education sector that pushes so many young Americans into massive debt, the Administration’s unilateral plan baptizes a broken system. This deeply regressive action — which fails even to acknowledge that most debt is held by folks with graduate degrees — will do nothing to jumpstart the reform higher education desperately needs.”
On social media, the White House announcement was met with a majority of scorn:
Since the 1980s, the cost of four-year university education has tripled, even after adjusting for inflation. Federally guaranteed Pell Grants now cover less than one third of a college education, while they used to pay for 80 percent of a four-year degree. The university tuition inflation racket has harmed working families the most, and a typical graduating senior has incurred $25,000 in debt. For many, the debt is much higher, and for degrees that will not get them the kind of employment that will pay for them to live the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed.
“President Biden believes that a post-high school education should be a ticket to a middle-class life, but for too many, the cost of borrowing for college is a lifelong burden that deprives them of that opportunity. During the campaign, he promised to provide student debt relief. Today, the Biden Administration is following through on that promise and providing families breathing room as they prepare to start re-paying loans after the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic,” the White House said.
The debts are being transferred to taxpayers, and with 87,000 new IRS agents being hired by the Biden Administration, there will be an IRS agent in every farmhouse in America ensuring that families pay for someone’s degree in gender intersectionality studies.
Biden’s plan loan forgiveness program will cost taxpayers around $300 billion.
Biden also extended a pause on federal student loan payments for what he called the “final time” through the end of 2022. He was set to deliver remarks Wednesday afternoon at the White House to unveil his proposal to the public.
The White House fact sheet on student loan forgiveness is at this link.
