Joe Biden made it official on Wednesday, confirming reports that he was going to “forgive” tens of thousands of dollars of student debt for federal borrowers, many of which are the most privileged and well-off in our society. As I wrote previously, I think the move is morally reprehensible, forcing an electrician who paid for their technical training to now pay for the gender studies degree of some far-left kook making $100K a year in an academic position.
For his part, Biden took to the podium to announce his move while taking a precious few questions. Those he did field received some of the most non-sensical answers of his presidency. Before we get there, though, here was the president attempting to set things up in a way absolutely no one understood.
Really, what in the world is he talking about here?
If you watch the video, what you’ll see is a two-minute stream of consciousness where Biden never quite gets to the point, which is pretty standard for his public speaking these days. Shouldn’t it bother people that the person about to commit an illegal act as president is senile? Unfortunately, far too many people in the smart set, including in the journalistic world, are going to benefit from this gross abuse, so don’t expect to see much pushback outside of Fox News.
One ABC News reporter did stick her foot in the deep end, though, with a question about fairness regarding those who paid off their student loans are chose not to borrow. What followed was again incomprehensible.
What is the logic there? It seems to be that because the government has hosed taxpayers in the past to give tax credits to big businesses (something most conservatives oppose), we should hose them again to pay off the loans of people with graduate degrees. But even then, that makes no sense because a tax credit does not have to be paid for by definition. It is simply the absence of the government levying a tax. When you “cancel” student debt, that money has already been paid out and the loan is now in default. That money has to come from somewhere.
Biden then moved from showcasing his senility to showcasing his casual racism, another staple of his time in public life.
Wait, does the President of the United States think that black and Hispanic people don’t own homes? That’s really the line he’s going with? And while I know it happens, the amount of people borrowing against their home to pay for college has to be pretty small compared to traditional loans. It’s not like all white people out there have masses of equity ready to tap into to send their kids to college. That would be the exception, not the rule. But Biden just assumes minorities can’t own houses and uses that as justification. A Republican making that remark would be roundly condemned. Biden will receive shoulder shrugs.
Yet, out of all the stupid stuff, the president said in his presser, the one thing that stood out to me was one thing he didn’t say. Namely, that the university system is scamming people and needs to be reformed.
According to Biden, the student debt problem is caused by everyone except the very universities that are charging $100-200K for a meaningless piece of paper. In any other industry, these institutions would be shut down for fraud. But Democrats are so beholden to academia as a political weapon that they dare not criticize it.
What that means is that nothing will actually change. Within a few years, the “debt crisis” will be back at the same levels it is today. The universities will continue to jack up tuition as they spend gobs of money on pointless administrative positions and overpaid tenured professors. Meanwhile, their hundreds of billions of dollars in endowments will remain untouched while the sales guy down at Home Depot gets to foot the bill for their malfeasance. It’s grotesque, and if Republicans can’t make this a winning issue, what is the point?