President Joe Biden’s billion-dollar debt bailouts are inherently unfair and divisive, stirring even his allies in the White House press corps to question their propriety.
On Wednesday, Biden’s White House announced another round of student debt forgiveness. This round includes a $7.7 billion transfer to taxpayers of debt incurred by 160,500 borrowers who are “public service workers like teachers [and] nurses.” In total, Biden has now erased $167 billion in student debt for 4.75 million people.
While the fortunate recipients now face fewer financial obligations, those obligations do not vanish when our president snaps his fingers. The funds borrowed by those students already went to colleges nationwide. The colleges have already collected that money and are not returning it. The federal government has to borrow money to pay back these debts and release students from the obligations they voluntarily incurred. This action increases the national debt and means the rest of us will shoulder the burden of interest payments and the principal on Biden’s supposed generosity.
Biden’s student bailouts are essentially a transfer of wealth from those who already paid their debts, did not borrow, or did not attend college, to those college graduates favored by Biden. This is not Robin Hood robbing the rich to help the poor; it is robbing us all to benefit a privileged few. It is not fair, it is immoral, and NBC’s Peter Alexander sought answers.
“Why don’t those individuals who didn’t receive $35,000 in debt cancellation deserve a $35,000 check from other Americans for whatever means they would want to use it?” he asked. “People who didn’t go to college, so they’re not getting debt relief, the $35,000 that they don’t get because they didn’t go.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded, “We’re talking about folks who are in debt, who are literally being crushed — literally being crushed because they took a…”
At this point, another reporter interjected, “They’re not literally being crushed.”
Jean-Pierre snapped back, “Financially. OK. Is that OK with you?”
It was careless of Jean-Pierre to discuss people “literally being crushed,” but she inadvertently made a valid point about the debt burdens the public faces in Biden’s mismanaged economy. Due to high inflation spurred by his excessive spending, consumers are paying generationally high interest rates on mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. According to the Federal Reserve, consumers have accumulated a record $12.8 trillion in housing debt, $1.62 trillion in car debt, and $1.1 trillion in credit card debt.
This is not “literally” crushing anyone, but higher interest rates make life challenging for millions of people, especially those without college degrees. According to the latest Federal Reserve Economic Well-Being survey, inflation has worsened the finances of 65% of people, including 19% who said it was “much worse.” Almost one-fifth of adults, 17%, said they could not pay all their bills in the month before the survey was taken.
With good reason, voters overwhelmingly disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy. They also tell pollsters they trust former President Donald Trump to deliver better economic results. He enacted tax cuts that boosted paychecks for all people. In contrast, Biden seems focused on distributing economic benefits only to the most loyal members of the Democratic base.
