The White House is not going down without a fight after making the decision to cancel student loans.
The White House Twitter feed reacted by quoting Republican senators’ statements after they televised or tweeted their disapproval of the decision and shared how much each of them had benefited from having their Paycheck Protection Program loans cancelled.
Shortly after President Biden revealed his plan to cancel thousands of dollars in student loans, which will benefit more than 40 million people with a total of $1.7 trillion in student loan debt, the White House posted an unusual Twitter thread.
Borrowers who make less than $125,000 annually will be qualified for a $10,000 student loan debt forgiveness.
The additional $10,000 in forgiveness is available to anyone in that income bracket who received Pell Grants throughout their undergraduate studies.
It was a decision that drew criticism from several Republicans in Congress as well as some Democrats.
On NewsMax, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene discussed Mr. Biden’s proposals and argued that waiving student loans is unfair to individuals who did not complete college.
According to a broadcast snippet supplied by the White House, she stated, “It’s totally unfair for our government to just say, ‘OK, well your debt is entirely erased.’”
“And taxpayers across the nation, taxpayers who never took out a student loan, taxpayers who pay their bills, taxpayers who may not even have attended college but who are nonetheless hardworking individuals, they shouldn’t be required to pay off the enormous student loan debt for some college student who accrued massive debt while attending some Ivy League school. That is unfair.”
The White House subsequently denounced her and other people who had also benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program by having their personal loans forgiven.
PPP loans were distributed earlier during the COVID outbreak to assist firms in maintaining their workforces.
Depending on employee and compensation levels, as well as how the loan proceeds were used, the scheme permitted debtors to have their loans forgiven before it concluded on May 31, 2021. The programme occasionally suffered from fraud.
According to a research conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the initiative cost taxpayers $4 for every $1 in salary and benefits obtained by employees whose employment were “saved” by the scheme.
The White House claims that Greene and others reaped significant benefits from this loan cancellation.
Retweeting the congresswoman’s video, the White House claimed that her $183,504 in PPP loans had been forgiven.
Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, a member of the GOP, tweeted out a clip of him discussing the loan on Fox Business and claimed to be a “blue-collar kid who worked his way through college.”
I’ve seen the sacrifices people make for education, the man added. “The 87 percent of Americans without student loan debt and those who followed the rules are unfairly treated by Biden’s reckless, unilateral student loan giveaway.”
The White House claims that Buchanan had PPP loans totaling more than $2.3 million forgiven.
Farmers, ranchers, small business owners, and teachers in Oklahoma, according to GOP Rep. Markwayne Mullin, don’t need to be “paying the debts of Ivy League lawyers and doctors across the U.S.”
According to the White House, he had PPP loans totaling more than $1.4 million erased.
According to the White House, Republican legislators Kevin Hern, Mike Kelly, and Matt Gaetz also had more than $1 million, $987,000, and $482,300 in debt erased, respectively.
The strategy put forth by Mr. Biden and the criticism that followed came as college tuition prices continue to rise.
Since the early 1990s, tuition has risen in virtually every American higher education institution, according to CollegeBoard.
The lowest increase was seen in public two-year institutions, which went from $2,310 in 1991–1992 to $3,800 in 2021–2022. The average rise for public four-year institutions was from $4,160 to $10,740 over that time.
The biggest growth was seen at four-year private nonprofits, which went from $19,360 in 1991 to $38,070 in 2021.
After accounting for inflation, government aid declined by 32% between 2010–11 and 2020–21. Veterans’ benefits also decreased at that time, by 3%, and Pell Grants by 39%.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden addressed congressional Republicans who oppose student loan forgiveness directly.
He wrote on Twitter, “I will never apologise for assisting America’s middle class, especially not to the same people who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut for the affluent and massive businesses that built up the deficit.