Of college debt!
Engraved over the wrought-iron archway entering the campus of Blaska Policy Werkes is this precept of politics: “It is better to be lucky than good.”
Beats the motto at Faber College: “Knowledge is Good.” The stuff is too expensive, anyway, but, like the neighborhood bank used to say: your loan, your problem. Until Joe Biden. Republican candidates up and down the ballot thank you for taking the focus off #45 and his purloined papers! Luck be a lady tonight!
With a slash of his inflationary pen, Uncle Joe has absolved college debt of up to $20,000 for graduates whose income is below $125,000 ($250,000 for a married couple). At a half Trillion dollars, it is the most expensive executive action in peacetime, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cost to each taxpayer will average $2,000. (Source here.)
That winning streak Democrats were enjoying? We just heard it go thud. Joe’s forgiveness will fan inflation, economists tell us, but the real damage is political. It will light up the class war that Republicans were already winning. And not just among those wearing MAGA caps. It’s another example of Democrats redistributing other people’s hard-earned money to cultivate a new tranche of supposed victims — only these speak proper English and are careful to use your preferred pronouns. It won’t work.
Begin with the two-thirds of Americans who did not attend college in the first place; add in those who paid off their college debts or those of their children. (Only 13% have any federal college debt.) Add the many who served in the military to earn their college tuition. Then factor the folly of paying off something that — let’s face it — wasn’t paying off. The adage goes: you get what you pay for — in this case, stupid decisions. Now stir in some culture resentment: Construction workers are subsidizing grievance studies — the very Defund the Cops gender benders disrupting our kids’ schools.
Babylon Bee: “Biden to forgive $10K in student debt; in unrelated news, nation’s colleges raise tuition by $10,000.”
“No amount of lipstick is going to make that pig any prettier.” — Dave Cieslewicz, “Biden’s loan forgiveness is unforgivable.”
“Worse, this policy is aimed at the young and college-educated, a group that is, in the main, composed of reliable Democratic Party voters,” Tom Nichols writes in The Atlantic.
The whole business seems like class-based special pleading for a very specific and small group residing mostly within the Democratic Party. The right-wing narratives and Republican attack ads easily write themselves.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: agrees with Tom (not John) Nichols: “I see this debt policy as an unforced error.” Personally, we predict You Tube will replace four of every five universities.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
I signed a contract, agreed to the terms, and fulfilled my commitment. I borrowed only what I needed–just $2k total to supplement academic scholarships, financial need-based support, and work-study income. What I feel is pity for those who are in their 20s and beyond who have yet to develop any sense of self-responsibility. $10- or $20k isn’t going to solve lack of personal accountability.
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I don’t get it. If Biden and the Dems had a realistic plan to hold down college costs, I could see some loan-forgiveness. BUT THEY DON’T. This just a give-away program to a Democratic constituency. It’s fucking stupid and will likely backfire on the Dems.
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I would like to think it will backfire on the Dems but I have given up believing the stupidity of voters can no longer sink to greater levels.
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It’s about buying votes. Look at Gov. Evers $150 tax refund right before an election.
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Seems to me that the intended recipients are already a lock for (D) votes. Money well wasted?
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Why would they want to hold down the cost of college when colleges and universities contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the Democrat Party?
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I took out $0 loans for college.
The total I paid was just over 10k (state school, mid to late 80s).
Do I get 10k and the same with my wife, back?
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I paid my college loans back in the 1980s. (Here’s where your eyes will moisten.) I was making as little as $4 an hour, because I decided to pursue journalism for a living. That is when we were taught to pursue objectivity, multiple sources and viewpoints, etc.
But I digress. Repaying my loans seemed a matter of principle.
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Haven’t you heard? “Principle” is a construct of the white racist patriarchy.
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David, I hope you’re right. I’m beginning to get nervous about the upcoming election despite plenty of talk about the “red wave” (I know, I know: don’t listen to polls this too early but how Mandela Barnes is seven points ahead of Ron Johnson is a complete head scratcher to me!). As usual Democrats are up to their dirty tricks of trying to buy votes and so forth. Myself personally I’m quite upset with this as my wife and I worked hard to pay off our school loans and saved like heck to put our kids through college.
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That “new tranche of supposed victims … speak proper English.” Really? Aren’t they the ones who cavalierly use grammatical abominations like “themself”? Since when did it become intolerable for people in their early 20s to endure a few years of belt-tightening while they lay the foundations of a career? Oh, wait. These are the same people who’ve been taught by parents, teachers, and–most importantly–the internet that instant gratification is a basic human right. So if you choose to major in queer dance theory at Oberlin and find yourself driving for Uber after graduation, you have everyone to blame but yourself.
If nothing else, Biden’s gift to the undeserving might unintentionally shine a light on the scam that colleges and universities have been perpetrating on the public for decades. (Tucker Carlson did a fine job of explaining this on last night’s program.) Want to know what’s risen much higher and faster than student debt? Administrative positions in higher education. No self-respecting college or university would dream of being without an Assistant Vice Provost for Equity, Inclusivity, and Diversity, nor would they dream of paying him/her/them a salary under six figures.
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Do you feel stupid for paying off your debt?
Nope, The Gotch paid his own way by working full-time + in the summers and nearly full time during classes; no Other People’s Money…never borrowed a thin dime.
The Gotch
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The Gotch
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It’s funny hearing all the gop politicians bitch when they accepted millions in PPP money. I don’t know anyone who sent back their stimulus checks or tax refunds.
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FF‘sS! The Gotch (mercifully!) can’t recall reading (immediately above) a more ill-informed, mind-numbingly imbecilic, attempt to deflect/make a laughable comparison where absolutely nonesuch exists.
Sheesh! STOOPIDITY that monumentally overpowering should hurt…BAD.
It’s the fact-based Universe’s only hope!
The Gotch
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Bite me you f#$%ng blowhard and the same goes for Withering spoon.
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As usual, thanks for your well articulated and thoughtful contribution to the conversation.
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If I hear one more leftist howl about the unfairness of the Supreme Court, Senate, or Electoral College, I’m going to puke. Those bodies were put in place to defend against mob rule, but they’re not enough to defend against this one—a single person that handed taxpayers a several hundred billion dollar bill by executive order to buy votes in an election season. The Supreme Court might be the only thing left to save us from this madness.
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Mordecai,
You make a really good point here. Just how in the hell does a single person, as President, have the power to take money out of your and my and everyones pocket to pay off in part, a loan that single individuals owe?
I need a new house, a new car, a new plane, a vacation in northern Italy and so on. I would really like it if the American taxpayers could pay a part of any or all the things I want.
We as a nation cannot continue to afford this!
If we keep up this level of spending we, as a country, will go broke!
It will be the great depression all over again.
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Spending public money is relegated to congress. Full stop.
Show me the legislation, Joe.
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The Gotch
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