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By Liz Wheeler
Host, “THE LIZ WHEELER SHOW” COLLEGE DEBT – SEARCH VIDEOS.
And he is still trying his last-ditch effort to save face that his regime was a complete failure to the American People. The “forgiveness” is superficially intended as relief for allegedly defrauded students and graduates struggling to make ends meet. In reality, the move has more to do with politics than philanthropy.
FACT CHECK: Biden touts’ inflation has “fallen” (msn.com)
Biden is desperate. Inflation is soaring, and Biden is owed a lot of blame for it.
Gas prices are astronomical—Biden deserves still more blame. The election is upcoming, and Republicans are well-positioned to sweep the House and the Senate—while also many Democrat-controlled cities across the country are rife with violent crime. What better way to obfuscate, and to distract the American people from cataclysmic failures, than to dangle “free” stuff?
But canceling student loan debt will backfire on Biden for a number of reasons.
A CNBC poll found 59% of people are concerned that canceling student loan debt will exacerbate inflation. That number includes 81% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats.
Even former Obama administration Treasury Secretary and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers warned Biden that “student loan debt relief is spending that raises demand and increases inflation.”
Only 38% of young people support fully canceling student loan debt, which probably has something to do with it being so manifestly unfair. Responsible people who worked hard and struggled to pay off their debts are left in the dust, while people who didn’t pay their debts are rewarded. Worse still is the plight of the taxpayers now on the hook for this enormous bill who didn’t choose a traditional four-year-degree pathway to success.
Besides, canceling student loan debt is a misnomer.
After Supreme Court ruling, Biden cancels student loan debt for millions of borrowers,
Nothing is “canceled.” Biden can’t “erase” student loan debt. He can just transfer it.
Somebody ends up paying: Either the taxpayers are forced to pay for it, or the government simply prints more money. The former is also unfair — as it forces people who didn’t go to college to foot the bill for those who did; the latter dramatically increases inflation. Canceling Student Debt: Supreme Court said its unconstitutional – Search (bing.com)
Supreme Court strikes down Biden student-loan forgiveness program – SCOTUSblog
And here’s the real kicker: Wealthy folks carry the majority of the student loan debt in
our nation. Biden’s move takes money from lower-income Americans to subsidize higher-income people.
It is the precise opposite of a “Robin Hood”- style “rob the rich to pay the poor” policy.
A report from the Brookings Institution found that one-third of student loan debt is owed
by the wealthiest 20%, while the bottom 20% carry only 8% of student loan debt. In other words, “canceling” student loan debt would effectively force the poor to subsidize bills for the wealthy.
The cost to the American taxpayer would be astronomical.
If Biden only continued the moratorium on student loan payments through the end of 2022, it would cost taxpayers $20 billion. But if Biden outright cancels $10,000 per person of student debt, it could cost taxpayers roughly $300 billion.
Student loan debt is certainly a problem in our nation. It is self-destructive to suggest to young people that a traditional four-year-degree is the only path to success. Those higher education institutions offer leftist indoctrination and useless pieces of paper at an exorbitantly high price. We must do better for our children, and we can solve this problem without Biden’s redistributive ruse of “canceling” mass student debt.
To wit, not everyone needs to pursue a traditional four-year-degree.
In fact, many shouldn’t. If college is the right fit, more young people could consider community college for the first two years before transferring to a four-year institution. Policymakers should also encourage and accredit more apprenticeship programs and partnerships. More importantly, Congress must put an end to federally subsidized predatory student loans at high rates of interest.
This would begin to solve the skyrocketing tuition problem at our colleges and universities, which are incentivized to raise tuition by reckless bureaucrats who continue to make more taxpayer money easily available without either consequence or oversight. The more student loans are backed by the federal government, the more colleges can hike tuition. Consider a Federal Reserve study that found a direct correlation: For every dollar of federally subsidized student loans received by colleges, schools hike tuition by $0.60. Taxpayers can no longer afford this high-aid, high-tuition model.
Biden is desperate to distract people from the pain his policies continue to inflict.
Dangling “free stuff” like “canceling” student loan debt is a cheap way to try to buy votes.
It won’t work.
Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court on Feb. 28, 2023,
Ahead of the oral arguments in cases that challenge President Joe Biden’s $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan. That June, a majority of justices ruled on ideological lines that the Biden administration overstepped its power at our expense. © Megan Smith,
USA TODAY
Opinion by Sara Pequeño, USA TODAY
Biden’s legacy will be student loan forgiveness.
Everyone from Gen X to Gen Z should be happy.
On Monday President Joe Biden’s regime unveiled yet another student debt relief plan.
It was the latest announcement from a presidency that will be remembered for student loan debt forgiveness, regardless of your place on the political spectrum.
By this fall, more than 30 million people may benefit from the new proposals, which are supposed to fulfill one of Biden’s 2020 campaign promises – just in time for the general election. This is in addition to the more than 3.7 million people who have already had their loans forgiven through past executive actions from Biden.
The new program will be as close as Biden can get to his initial plan with the conservative hurdles he has to clear, including the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against him.
It addresses multiple types of borrowers: those who have had loans for more than 20 years, borrowers who have interest on their loans and make less than $120,000 a year
plus borrowers experiencing financial hardship.
It’s good – great, even – that Biden is forgiving this debt.
Today’s college graduates are saddled with more debt immediately out of college than our predecessors; gone are the days of paying off your loans with summer jobs or those first few post-grad paychecks. It shows that his administration is aware how different the system is compared with decades prior.
About 43 million people have federal student loan debt equating to more than $1.6 trillion. Include private loans, and it’s an additional $131 billion. This is something that affects people’s lives, day in and day out, and it has become increasingly common with each new generation.
Gen Z is on track to be most educated generation. (Debatable.)
Pew Research Center found that those born after 1996 are on track to be the most well-educated generation. A Gallup poll last year found that 83% of Gen Z thinks college is “very important” or “fairly important.” Biden knows this, and it could pay off for him in November.
Right now, Biden is getting criticized heavily by Gen Z for his stance on Gaza, and he needs to appeal to younger voters who may be wary of heading to the polls. Student loan debt relief is a surefire way to win over progressive voters, even if part of the program is aimed at people 20 years their senior.
About Biden’s support of Israel:
Gen Z wants no part of Biden’s unceasing support of Israel as civilian deaths in Gaza mount. The plan should also win Biden points with Generation X and millennials, who owe more debt on average. Criticism of this plan – the idea that Biden is buying votes – fails to address the new cost of college and the potential for improving the economy.
My Opinion addresses the issues of cost of college by capping professors’ wages and how much overhead is being spent in colleges with fancy chandeliers and also new additions.
Fairness is important. So is economic success.
It’s understandable that older generations feel frustrated by the debt relief Biden
is providing. It’s also true that student loan debt has doubled over the past two decades because of the increase in students pursuing degrees after high school.
There is also a racial disparity in student loan debt.
Black and Latino voters are more likely to have to take on debt and have higher levels of debt on average. Cancelling student loan debt helps mitigate the factors that keep people economically behind their peers.
Borrowers are still feeling the effects of the pandemic as well. About 40% of federal student loan borrowers missed their first payment post-COVID repayment freeze.
My generation is entitled: Gen Z wants student loan forgiveness without any accountability. It doesn’t work that way.
When older generations complain about younger people being “entitled,” they should remember that debt relief helps the economy overall because it helps people save money for milestone purchases, like buying a car or house.
Winning strategy for the 2024 election.
By following up on a campaign promise that would benefit millions, Biden is reminding voters of why they voted for him in the first place. Many people were unenthused about voting for him in 2020; he had neither the grassroots support of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont nor the newcomer’s advantage of Pete Buttigieg.
The progressive agenda that Biden’s White House touted was a sign that he knew younger voters weren’t going to accept “vote blue no matter who,” and he exemplified that on Day One by extending the pause on repaying student loans.
Even though the first attempt to forgive millions of borrowers was eventually overruled, the administration has continued to push forward and forgive loans for borrowers who meet specific criteria. Biden had already forgiven $138 billion of student loan debt prior
to Monday’s news.
The new initiative is a sign that Biden understands what will get people to the polls. If his team is smart, they’ll keep Biden’s student loan relief as a tenet of his 2024 campaign. Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno and Facebook facebook.com/PequenoWrites
Source: Biden’s legacy will be student loan forgiveness. Everyone from Gen X to Gen Z should be happy. (msn.com)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden’s legacy will be student loan forgiveness. Everyone from Gen X to Gen Z should be happy.
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With Socialist Democrats if they don’t get into your wallet now, they will later.