(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Just in time to help the chances of desperate Democrats facing likely doom in the midterms, wealth-distributer-in-chief Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that he’s giving away billions of “free” money by cancelling debt on student loans.
Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for Americans making less than $125,000 a year was announced with a tweet that boasted it would give “working and middle-class families breathing room” on fulfilling their repayment obligations.
We did the responsible thing for our kids, paying for their college tuition so they wouldn’t HAVE student debt. Other students struggle to avoid debt or pay it off ASAP.
This bailout of over-priced Higher Ed is a big F U to taxpayers & responsible parents and students. https://t.co/yzZ9GBjJwe— Patrick McGuinness (@mcguinnessfortx) August 24, 2022
The plan was roundly criticized from all sides, with radical leftists like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., clamoring for total loan forgiveness, and Republicans who called it irresponsible and reckless.
Ppl making up to $125,000 or a couple making up to $250,000 are getting student loans paid for by everyone else who didn’t go to college or paid their own loans. Will fuel further inflation hurting those who can least afford it UNFAIR
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) August 24, 2022
Having already driven the economy into recession with his failing domestic policies, critics contend Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme will make matters worse.
“President Biden’s inflation is crushing working families, and his answer is to give away even more government money to elites with higher salaries,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.
“Democrats are literally using working Americans’ money to try to buy themselves some enthusiasm from their political base.”
Harvard has a $42 billion endowment. Yale’s is $31 billion. But Biden will tax truck drivers and plumbers to pay the student loans that built those empires.
— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) August 23, 2022
Biden’s plan also extends the already extended pause on student loan repayments until next year, a move that is projected to cost upwards of $20 billon and wipe out the total deficit reduction savings from the Democrats’ woefully-misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
But that’s a pittance compared to the fiscal fallout from Biden’s whole debt forgiveness plan. According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, Biden’s bailout will cost $300 billion in 2022 alone, and almost 70% of the benefits will go to households in the top 60% of earners.
“Only 37% of Americans have a 4-yr college degree, only 13% have graduate degrees, and a full 56% of student loan debt is held by people who went to grad school,” noted Greg Price, senior digital guru for XStrategies.
“Biden’s plan to cancel it would be like taking money from a plumber to pay the debt of a lawyer.”
Here’s what Pres. Biden’s so-called “canceling” of student debt really means: Americans who already paid off their debt, worked through college, went to a trade school, or chose to not go to school will pay off the loans that other people incurred.
On what planet is that fair?
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) August 24, 2022