August 25, 2022 |
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he will bypass Congress and wipe away up to $20,000 in student debt for some of the richest Americans in the country at tax-payer expense.
In a sweeping test of presidential authority, Biden will forgive debts of up to $20,000 for students who went to college on Pell grants and $10,000 for students who did not receive Pell grants. Debt forgiveness also applies to couples filing joint earnings of less than $250,000.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso called the move “an insult to every American who played by the rules” and paid off their debt without the help of taxpayers, many of whom make less than people who will benefit from the plan.
In justifying the plan that comes just ahead of mid-term elections where Democrats are not expected to perform well, Biden leaned on the white, liberal crutch of benevolent racism to project low expectations on brown and black Americans.
By Biden’s own admission, two-thirds of the those benefiting from his plan did earn a college degree—and are in a better position economically than many of the taxpayers who will be forced to shoulder the debt.
Senator Barrasso called the loan forgiveness scheme “a boon for Biden’s wealthy supporters. Once again the Biden administration is selling out working families to appease the far-left wing of the Democrat Party.”
The plan will cost taxpayers at least $300 billion, an uptick in government spending that will put more inflationary pressure on the economy.
Some in Congress, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, want the president to forgive up to $50,000 in debt—a plan that would cost $900 billion.
Senator Barrasso tried to head off yesterday’s announcement plan at the pass. Barrasso was an original cosponsor of the Debt Cancellation Accountability Act, requiring the U.S. Department of Education to obtain an express appropriation from Congress to pay for any federal student loan debts. The legislation would hold the administration accountable and ensure taxpayers are not paying for other people’s student loan debts.
The bill was introduced this summer with little chance of being enacted. It has gone nowhere in the Senate. A House version was introduced last week. It, too, is likely doomed in the Nancy Pelosi-controlled House.
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis was a co-sponsor of the Senate version. In a statement Wednesday, Lummis said the Biden bailout “is incredibly unfair to the hardworking people of Wyoming who will be forced to foot the bill for the richest 40 percent of Americans who carry 60 percent of student loan debt.”
The president bristled at reporters who yelled questions at him about the fairness of his bailout when he turned and began walking out of the room after delivering his remarks.
Biden was referring to the Bush-Cheney administration that gave bailed out billionaires during the housing bubble burst in 2008. Few outside the Washington Beltway called that bailout fair, either. And two wrongs don’t make a right. The president closed the door and took no further questions.
Outside the White House, Fox News reporter Peter Dooce put the fairness question to the Education Secretary, who had stood beside the president during the news conference. Secretary Miguel Cordona fundamentally agreed that that people who paid their student debts are getting the short end of the bailout deal.
The joke around the country is that the people who did the right thing do get something — the bill for the Biden’s rich, freeloading supporters.
