Less than three months before the midterm elections, President Joe Biden is expected to announce plans to “forgive” up to $10,000 in student loan debt for Americans who earn less than $125,000 a year by burdening taxpayers with that debt and freezing loan payments for about four more moths — long enough to last through the November midterms.
It’s an illegal move that will likely exacerbate inflation, but with help from the corporate media spin machine, it could give Democrats, desperate to gain some ground with voters who say the nation is heading in the wrong direction, a small boost.
Biden had plenty of opportunities to dump the debt of the rich on poorer taxpayers over the last year and a half, but he refused. Why? Because he wanted to save it as a last-ditch effort to bait Americans over to the left side of the political aisle in a key election that will determine whether Democrats keep control of the House and Senate.
Instead of giving in to pressure from activists and Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who begged him to relieve up to $50,000 of college bills per borrower as early as February 2021, Biden waited for the prime political moment to touch the $300-$980 billion pile of qualifying student debt.
What would make Democrats on the campaign trail more willing to close the distance they’ve created between themselves and the catastrophic Biden administration? Perhaps the ability to tout Biden’s misnamed “student loan forgiveness” as a part of the Democrat platform.
Of course, shoving the dues of millions of Americans onto taxpayers and delaying other loan payments isn’t popular with everyone. Biden’s decision to relocate debt will likely anger millions of voters who did, as one Iowa father explained to Warren in 2020, “the right thing” by paying off their student loans. Despite their hard work, delayed vacations, and strict budgeting, those Americans will not be rewarded anything except more financial strain. Biden’s plan will also likely vex the millions of Americans who had the financial foresight to choose a more affordable path to a career.
Yet Biden’s approval rating is so bad that he’s apparently OK with frustrating a large part of the country to cater to heavily-indebted Democrat voters and government employees who have propped up his presidency despite its laundry list of crises and flaws. Surveys suggest that approximately 1 in 5 Democrats wouldn’t vote for Biden if he didn’t do something about student loan debt. That’s not something Biden or his cronies in Congress are willing to risk in November.
Comments
Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community. Subscribe
Source: The Federalist
