(John Ransom, Headline USA) Republicans in the Senate moved to stop President Joe Biden from forgiving $1.6 trillion dollars in student-loan debt, which has grown to troubling proportions since the once-private industry was nationalized under former President Barack Obama.
Reports have surfaced that Biden is contemplating forgiving at least $10,000 worth of student loans per person, if not offering total forgiveness for those loans.
But critics say students and not taxpayers still hold the responsibility to repay their debts, according to The Hill.
“As Americans continue to return to the workforce more than two years since the pandemic began, it is time for borrowers to resume repayment of student debt obligations,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-SD, in a statement announcing the GOP’s attempt at a legislative countermeasure.
Even notorious RINO Mitt Romney of Utah, issued a sharp rebuke after the politically imperiled Biden signaled that such a move was being discussed.
Desperate polls call for desperate measures: Dems consider forgiving trillions in student loans. Other bribe suggestions: Forgive auto loans? Forgive credit card debt? Forgive mortgages? And put a wealth tax on the super-rich to pay for it all. What could possibly go wrong?
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) April 27, 2022
With inflation at it highest level in four decades, opponents of the amnesty plan argue that Biden’s political ploy to pander to his fiscially reckless and impecunious base is likely to create even more economically crippling fallout as those with useless degrees and no major financial obligations refuse to enter the workforce.
“Democrats are doing everything in their power to make the inflation crisis even worse,” said Mike Berg, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Canceling students’ debt “would increase the inflation rate by between 10 and 50 basis points (0.1 to 0.5 percentage points) in the 12 months after repayment is scheduled to begin,” Berg noted in a statement. “This would represent a 4 to 20 percent increase relative to the median Federal Reserve inflation rate forecast.”
On Wednesday, Thune and fellow Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mike Braun of Indiana, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Roger Marshall of Kansas introduced the Stop Reckless Student Loan Actions Act.
But the group, comprising some of the Senate’s squishiest GOP members, also faced criticism for appearing to concede the fact that Biden had the authority to unilaterally cancel debt through a legally dubious executive order and for suggesting that there might be room for compromise.
Meanwhile, Biden faced mounting pressure from radical progressives in his own party, said Newsweek.
“The pause on student loan payments has allowed millions of borrowers to start a business, participate in our economy, and save for the future,” claimed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, in a tweet.
The pause on student loan payments has allowed millions of borrowers to start a business, participate in our economy, and save for the future.
Imagine what could happen if borrowers had permanent relief.
It’s time to cancel student debt, @POTUS.
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) November 18, 2021
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said she would support canceling up to $50,000 worth of debt for every student.
However, neither offered any acknowledgement of the fact that Democrats may be solely to blame for the dire financial outlook that many recent college graduates are facing.
In fact, the enormous expansion of the federal student-loan program, and subsequent federalization of that program under Obama, turned the student-loan system into the “most predatory lending system in our nation’s history,” wrote Alan Collinge, author of The Student Loan Scam.
As the government made more money available to students, schools quickly raised tuition rates to keep pace, outpacing inflation rates during a time where inflation was extremely mild.
Tuition inflation has outpaced regular inflation by 171%, according to educationdata.org, with the greatest increase coming during the Obama years according to a chart shared by the data organization.
“This all happened on Obama’s watch,” Colligne said. “He cannot avoid accountability for what is shaping up to be among the largest financial catastrophes this country has ever seen.”
Forbes noted that if Biden were to cancel the existing debt as means to his political ends, that would not actually solve the existing loan crisis since a new round of students would continue taking out loans and accruing their own debt.
“Congress cannot conscionably allow this to become the status quo,” said the magazine. “Therefore, if President Biden chooses to cancel student debt by executive order, congressional Republicans should immediately act to rein in—or abolish—the federal student loan program.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
