‘This You?’ White House Hits Back at Student Loan Debt Relief Critics, Calls Out Georgia Republicans Who Received Thousands in PPP Loans Forgiven
President Joe Biden pulled out receipts on Republicans who criticized his plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for millions of Americans.
Biden announced the plan Wednesday that forgives $10,000 in student loan debt for Americans who earn less than $125,000 and $20,000 for those who received Pell Grants. The decision sparked an instant backlash from conservatives and some Democrats who are concerned about fairness, higher inflation and the overall cost of college.
Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Majorie Taylor Greene immediately slammed the announcement.
“What about Americans who already paid off their student loans?” Jordan said in a tweet.
“If you take out a loan, you pay it back. Period,” said a tweet from the GOP members of the House Committee on the Judiciary account, which Jordan leads.
Jordan also argued that the plan requires people who have not attended college and others left out of the equation to pay for the forgiven loans.
“Didn’t go to college? Worked your way up the old fashioned way? Made a good living for your family?” the congressman from Ohio tweeted. “Well, as a reward, Joe Biden will let you pay for the student loans of the wealthy ‘gender studies’ major.’”
Even though the plan has a six-figure income cap, Jordan and Greene continued to argue that it would benefit wealthy Americans and those who attended Ivy League schools. The responses backfired on Republicans, with many pointing out the hypocrisy.
“What’s that about paying loans back?” The Center for American Progress replied to the GOP Judicial committee, attaching a list of Republican lawmakers who received up to $4.3 million in Paycheck Protection Protection loans through the coronavirus pandemic relief packages.
The White House jumped on the bandwagon soon afterward.
Greene took to Newsmax to air her grievances, and that’s when things took a turn for her. It spurred a “this you” moment on Twitter.
“For our government just to say, you know, ‘okay, well your debt is completely forgiven.’ Obviously, they have an agenda for that they need votes in November,” the congresswoman from Georgia told Newsmax. “So the timing is a pure coincidence there as well, but it’s completely unfair and taxpayers all over the country, taxpayers that never took out a student loan, taxpayers that pay their bills and you know, maybe even never went to college or just hard-working people. They shouldn’t have to pay off the great big student loan debt for some college student that piled up massive debt going to some Ivy League school. That’s not fair.”
“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,” the White House clapped back, retweeting a clip from Greene’s Newsmax appearance.
Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Thursday morning referred to Matt Gaetz’s $476,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan as “a unique circumstance in the middle of the pandemic.”
The Paycheck Protection Program disbursed $800 billion to small business owners to keep employees working during the pandemic. The National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that 23 percent to 34 percent of the program dollars went directly to workers who would otherwise have lost jobs.
“The balance flowed to business owners and shareholders, including creditors and suppliers of PPP-receiving firms,” it said in a January report.
Some commenters on Twitter also argued that all Americans had to cover former Republican President George Bush’s “bank bailout.” The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act secured $700 billion for financial institutions.
Wiping out $10,000 in federal student loan debt for Americans would cost $300 million in the first year, said the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a group of economists and data scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. The Center for a Responsible Budget estimates Biden’s plan will eliminate $500 billion in student loan debt. However, the nonprofit also said student debt would total $1.6 trillion within five years.
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire said Biden’s announcement is not the way to tackle the root of the financial burden of college and should’ve been reviewed by Congress, echoing criticism about a potential legal opposition.
“Any plan to address student debt should go through the legislative process, and it should be more targeted and paid for so it doesn’t add to the deficit,” Pappas said in a statement. “The president’s plan also doesn’t address the underlying issue of the affordability of higher education, and it is clear that the high cost continues to limit opportunities available to students.”
The White House still plans to move forward with the proposal as of Friday afternoon.