College loan forgiveness: Democrats campaign on “Republicans are mean”
“Republicans are mean” is pretty much the story told by Democrats, and has been for a long time, and it’s often very successful. I don’t think there’s a Democrat I know – and I know plenty of them – who doesn’t think it’s true. And, particularly for those who don’t feel like getting into the details of the actual effects of policies proposed by each party, it’s a shorthand way of simplifying politics in a reductionist manner and of allying themselves with the Good Guys.
Joe Biden has been a Democratic politician for most of his long life, and if there’s one thing he knows, it’s this fact. He may be cognitively challenged, but the habits and instincts of a lifetime are still present. And so we have the following:
Biden spoke at the White House hours after the court struck down his student loan scheme in Biden v. Nebraska. He announced he will try a new path for student loan forgiveness, using the Higher Education Act of 1965. His most shocking comments came in response to a brave reporter who asked whether he had given borrowers “false hope.”
“I didn’t give any false hope,” the president said. “But the Republicans snatched away the hope they were given, and it’s real—real hope … . I think the court misinterpreted the Constitution.”
Earlier in his remarks, Biden attacked the six Republican attorneys general for suing to block his student loan scheme.
“These Republican officials just couldn’t bear the thought of providing relief for working-class, middle-class Americans,” he said.
The Great Uniter strikes again. Also, the great constitutional scholar.
But Joe knows what works and he knows that, for a lot of people, “Republicans are mean and they’re out to get you, whereas I’m from the government and I want to help” rings true.
The article goes on to state this:
Yet Biden, a longtime politician, must have known from the beginning that it was an extreme stretch to argue that the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act justified canceling about $430 billion in debt for borrowers across the U.S. He must have known that this scheme would almost certainly never hold up, so it was indeed the falsest of hopes…
Yet Biden must also have known that it would take some time for the policy to fall apart.
If Biden did know such things – and we can differ about how much he “knows” at this point and how much he doesn’t know – that knowledge was and is quite irrelevant to him. What matters is what works in the political and tactical sense. Yes, he would have been happy had SCOTUS let this debt forgiveness proposal stand. But he’s got another trick up his sleeve – or, someone in his administration does:
President Joe Biden said Friday that he will pursue canceling student loan debt through an alternative legal authority after the Supreme Court blocked his signature program to eliminate up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of Americans.
Biden said his administration will work to forgive student loan debt through the Higher Education Act of 1965, which authorizes the education secretary to modify, waive or compromise federal student loan under certain circumstances…
“President’s Biden [original] plan was a historic action that would have provided life-changing relief to young people,” said Tzintzún Ramirez, president of NextGen America, a progressive advocacy group for young voters. “Instead, Republican and partisan forces worked to obstruct this relief – and we know that young voters will remember this come 2024.”
Indeed, they do know – and they will do their best to amplify that turnout by young voters eager to get their debts cancelled. So the SCOTUS decision, although a loss, is only a temporary one, and could lead to a greater win.
Never mind wonky stuff like this:
Loan cancellation transfers the debt of an individual who freely agreed to repay a loan onto other individuals (through higher taxes and inflation) who did not agree to take out that loan. Many individuals made a conscious decision not to attend college in order to avoid debt. Loan cancellation foists someone else’s debt onto them.”
Others worked their way through college or duly paid off the debt that they voluntarily took on, after graduation. “The Biden debt transfer punishes the 240 million Americans who do not hold college degrees, who constitute more than half of the population ages 25 and above and are less able to bear this new burden.”
“Mean Republicans” works so much better.
A tale as old as time….
“Democrats campaign on ‘Republicans are mean'”
Ohhhhh, Y – A – A – W – W – W – W – W – N – N – N.
. . .
But it sure works, doesn’t it?
As far as I can tell that is the entire platform of the Democrat party.
Martin:
Yes. And it’s enough.
It’s the basic appeal of leftism as a whole.
I heard Charlie Munger (Omaha native and billionaire) say that envy and jealousy is what drives the world. Charlie is very wise.
Yeah, the debt forgiveness was never intended to actually work. It’s a campaign ploy, as usual.
Why do so many people not understand that the government has no money except what they can tax away from hard working earners or borrow from anyone willing to lend them money? And that the national debt is a potentially dangerous thing.
Every time the government promises some monetary reward, the money has to come out of the citizens’ pockets or be borrowed. Why don’t people get this?
I think it’s because there is a lot of magical thinking going on. I remember back in the 1940s, just after the war, that I heard some vets say things like, “This didn’t cost anything, Uncle Sam bought it.” That sounded bogus to me, a mere kid.
A few years later, I worked with a man who was a true conservative and he educated me about where the government gets its money.
I have always tried to educate people that I meet about this, but so many just don’t want to think about it and what it really means. The myth that we can all be financially equal and live happily ever after, is so enticing that millions have died and more will die in the pursuit of the myth. Too many do not learn from history.
Unfortunately, fiscal restraint and balanced government budgets don’t appeal to LIVs like promises of government largesse. The Democrats ride that issue hard and successfully.
I think the court misinterpreted the Constitution. — Biden
I have a friend who is an attorney and lives alone. She was so incensed over the above comment that she had to pick up the phone to call me and vent.
The whole student debt topic reminds me of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper. Half the people in this country want to be the grasshopper. When winter arrives, they want Uncle Sam to rob the ants for them.
The American voter…gullible as hell.
Hence why I like to point out the people that would be paying back this loan to the government, the upper middle class, are also the ones that get soaked in taxes. IE the same people are going to pay this money, do they want to pay it back directly to the government via loan repayment or indirectly via taxes. (I would guess you’ll probably end up paying more if it’s hidden via taxes.)
I would forgive student loans if colleges and universities drastically reduced tuition by drastically cutting administrative staff. Suggested metric: cut the administration/staff ratio to what it was 40 years ago.
Re administration bloat: I am reminded of my brother’s friend writing in his yearbook: “Director of management uselessness.”
We can only hope that the vast majority of the 240 MILLION Americans who will have to pay for the deadbeats remember to vote in 2024.
“Let’s be mean to the Slackers” on a bumper sticker would probably get your car “keyed”.
I doubt Biden or most Democrats if student loan forgiveness ever happens. It’s the new, “Gay Marriage.” Student loan forgiveness and their mis-statements about what overturning Roe v. Wade actually means helps them get single women and young voters irate enough to turn out for elections.
Far too many politicians don’t give a fig about Constitutionality or what their actions do in aggregate (“defund the police!”). It’s all a sick and tragic game to win elections. They win. We lose.
I see the current absurd reparations rhetoric, especially in California, to be more shameless pandering to the Dem base.
here’s their militia communications,
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1675204732795666434
Yes I am Mean.
Pay your bills.
@ TommyJay > “Half the people in this country want to be the grasshopper. When winter arrives, they want Uncle Sam to rob the ants for them.”
Some years ago, in the late 20th century when my kids were still small, I noticed that the fable was increasingly being presented in a couple of altered formats, and felt even back then that there was something dangerous about the trend, regardless of the pleasant language and charming pictures.
One presented the grasshopper as a cheerful musician generously serenading the hard-working ants, who then felt obliged to succor him in the winter, as they had “profiteered” off of his earlier unpaid labor.
Another transmogrified the insects to mice, with a similar plot-line, although he working mice willingly “employed” the artistic one, with the explicit understanding that he would be included with the group come winter. (I can visualize some of the pictures, but not the title.)
Both were very touch-feely about the situation; neither noted the additional drain on the workers’ laboriously collected larder, although the second at least promoted choice, not guilt.
The new “fables” (aka leftist indoctrination) do not completely represent the college loan buy-off, since there is NO benefit to the “worker ants” for supporting the “graduate grasshoppers” — and no obligation or agreement, either implicit or explicit. They DO represent the Leftist view of how the world ought to work (always with themselves as the grasshoppers, of course).
I note that this was not the only old (and true) fable repurposed for modern times.
A little research indicates to me that I am remembering the Disney version and this children’s book:
The theme had been treated at an even further distance in Leo Lionni’s Frederick (1967). Here a fieldmouse, in a community narrowly focused on efficiently gathering for the winter, concentrates instead on gathering impressions. When the other mice question the usefulness of this, Frederick insists that ‘gathering sun rays for the cold dark winter days’ is also work. Indeed, the community comes to recognise this after the food has run out and morale is low, when it is Frederick’s poetry that raises their spirits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper
There have been varying treatments of the original fable through the ages, debating whether or not the non-materially-productive “grasshoppers” should be supported by the frugal and productive workers or not.
Again, my opinion is: do the “ants” get a choice to be either generous or willing in their aid; or are they coerced or forced to share their goods?
I’m ignoring the variants that paint the Ant as a type of “robber baron” or thief, although those certainly seem to have a place in the Leftist world-view.
Like Neo and probably most folks here, I also know plenty of liberal/lefty friends, family, colleagues, etc. whose opinion of Republicans and conservatives boils down to: ‘they’re mean, cruel and selfish’ and often ‘they’re religious fanatics’, even someone like me who is not at all religious.
In general, liberalism/progressivism/leftism has an in built advantage over conservativism/libertarianism; it is much simpler to convey on a very basic level; most voters don’t have the time or patience to digest even a remotely complex argument. In an era of social media and short attention spans, the demand for 30 second (or less) talking points is greater than ever. Lefty arguments and policy positions are far more likely to provide the same:
Health care? It’s a ‘basic right’. It should be available to all.
Gun violence? We need ‘sensible gun control’
Taxes? The ‘rich’ need to pay their ‘fair share’.
Immigration. We’re a ‘nation of immigrants!’
Anything related to blacks? ‘Systemic racism!’
And on and on it goes. There are plenty of good, persuasive arguments against this liberal pablum, but they do take a little time to convey and digest. And that’s where the right is always at a disadvantage.
The most successful GOP politicians can artfully respond to the liberal talking points with the same level of simplicity, while holding the public’s interest. They are, alas few and far between: Reagan, Gingrich in his prime, Bush II briefly after 9/11, Trump during much of the 2016 campaign….
Related—ENJOY…
“…We told him not to come to the wedding, but we still wanted his money”—
https://www.chicagotribune.com/advice/ask-amy-bride-uninvite-wedding-wants-money-20230629-tdz3lad4a5dthgi5d35v4lsgzq-story.html
H/T Instapundit.
Barry Meislin (2:13 pm), I had just come across this one myself, and was pondering including it here at neo’s forum. I’m glad you beat me to the punch.
But I just don’t “enjoy” this sort of thing. I can’t. I’m far too thoroughly disgusted with the 2023 USA sociopolitical landscape to “enjoy”. Sorry . . . [smile] . . .
I like to point out the people that would be paying back this loan to the government, the upper middle class, are also the ones that get soaked in taxes. IE the same people are going to pay this money, do they want to pay it back directly to the government via loan repayment or indirectly via taxes.
Good point. I personally would suggest that universities, which steadily increased tuition during the past 25 years, be required to write off some of these loans, especially for those students who never graduated.
I think for fairness we should nationalize their endowments.
There have been varying treatments of the original fable through the ages, debating whether or not the non-materially-productive “grasshoppers” should be supported by the frugal and productive workers or not.
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The bulk of welfare spending is directed at the elderly and the disabled. Most of the remainder is in illiquid form (e.g. Medicaid benefits).
“ the elderly and the disabled”
Prime targets for get on the ice floe.
Gringo 5:39 pm, and perhaps others, have remarked that the people who have been really making money hand over fist, as higher education tuition has skyrocketed over the decades, are the administrators and the ever-increasing numbers of administrative cadres.
Which means that higher tuition rates have been funding those members of the administrative classes, and perhaps some of the teaching/professorial sector as well, or at least the stars amongst them; and one would also assume, to some extent, research (hopefully of the more useful variety).
Which means that if loan foregiveness does somehow, by hook or by crook, go through that the taxpayer is essentially funding the university’s overstuffed administrative class…which, it appears, MUST be protected, along with the students…Democratic (or at least potentially) voters all!
As they say, a pretty good gig, if you can get it…
per the intercept fwiw, shambling started this ball rolling forty some years ago, when they expanded loan limits, and failed to enable discharge of bankruptcy, so as with fisa, (which the late codevilla admits being party to) and the vawa which bill clinton was entrapped by, his own hunteresque exploits (his brother roger was more into some of the other fracas)
“These Republican officials just couldn’t bear the thought of providing relief for working-class, middle-class Americans,” he said.
Joe doesn’t realize that an awful lot of working-class Americans didn’t go to college, and that a lot of middle-class Americans didn’t rack up massive college debt.
It’s like everything he says is boiler plate — preformed, oft-repeated parts that he throws together at random, taking care to toss in the usual lies, inaccuracies, mistakes, and confusion.
Grasshoppers and Ants: in the second half of the 20th century many believed that we were moving from scarcity to abundance, from a society of self-discipline and self-denial to one of self-expression and self actualization, so our proverbs and fables were adapted to our new situation. Today, we know that scarcity is never that far away and that it’s the Ants that keep society going, but if one was brought up in “post-scarcity” America, one may see much of the Grasshopper in oneself and one’s life, if not in the sense of being non-productive, than in the sense of wanting to be creative and self-actualizing, rather than disciplined and acetic.
The bulk of welfare spending is directed at the elderly and the disabled. Most of the remainder is in illiquid form (e.g. Medicaid benefits).
“Disability” qualification for Social Security is very loose. At one time a few years ago I read that 25% of the children in Kentucky were “disabled” by academic criteria, reading, etc. Many of those on the streets of San Francisco are collecting “disability” payments.
Republicans are MEAN.
Democrats are GANGSTERS.
“Hunter Biden’s Former Business Partner Was Willing To Testify Before Grand Jury; Delaware US Attorney Didn’t Answer His Calls”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hunter-bidens-former-business-partner-was-willing-testify-grand-jury-delaware-us-attorney
Opening grafs:
‘ Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner who worked directly with Hunter and James Biden on a sketchy deal with a Chinese energy firm and who came forward as a whistleblower before the 2020 election, was never asked to testify to the Delaware grand jury investigating Hunter Biden, CBS News reported Thursday.
‘ Bobulinski was reportedly “open to testifying, and his attorney reached out to the office of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss,” but the prosecutor did not return their calls, two sources familiar with the discussions told CBS News’ Catherine Herridge….’ [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
Heh, David Weiss, AGAIN!
OTOH, maybe this ever-helpful—and strangely UBIQUITOUS!—Weiss guy was only trying to help out the whistleblower…(!)…by enabling the latter to Stay Alive—cue the BeeGees (or actually, maybe not)…
File under: He stood me up!! (AKA Discombobulating Bobulinski…)
Discombobulating, continued.
Here’s the Incomparable Miranda Devine on the continuing Weiss-wash:
“Blowing the lid off the coverup of Hunter Biden’s cushy plea deal”—
https://nypost.com/2023/07/02/blowing-the-lid-off-the-coverup-of-hunter-bidens-cushy-plea-deal/
Key grafs:
“…a Houdini act for the Biden gang seems unlikely, even with the power of the White House, a complicit media and the best lawyers money can buy.
” The legalese in Weiss’ Friday night letter was just cover for his ultimate admission on the second page that IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley was correct when he described sly obstruction from senior DOJ officials, which killed the five-year tax probe into the president’s son.
” Weiss admits that he did not have the power to charge in the districts where Hunter allegedly evaded taxes and that the only way to override the refusals of the Biden-appointed US attorneys in Washington, DC, and the Central District of California to charge Hunter was with special powers granted by Attorney General Merrick Garland that he did not have….”
Despite such Devine optimism, no doubt “Biden” and “his” evil minions still have a few tricks up “their” grotesque and filthy sleeves….
File under: “…O brave new world, that has such [journos] in’t…”
More Mean Republicans(TM)….Enjoy!
“Winsome Sears Nukes Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Dissent…”—
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/06/30/winsome-sears-nukes-ketanji-brown-jacksons-dissent-chosen-because-shes-black-n1707504
+ Bonus:
“Michelle Obama Takes Time From Opulent Greek Isles Vacation to Tweet About Muh Oppression”—
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2023/07/01/michelle-obama-takes-time-from-opulent-greek-isles-vacation-to-tweet-about-muh-oppression-n1707713
“Disability” qualification for Social Security is very loose.
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It has gotten that way. My understanding is that there are substantive and procedural problems with disability programs. As we speak, about 1/4 of those currently collecting Social Security Disability were awarded it for ‘anxiety disorders’ or ‘mood disorders’. That amounts to about 2 million people.
==
It should be noted that SSDI is not a collecting pool of people formerly on AFDC. The median age at which benefits are awarded is 49, only about 25% of those awarded benefits have a dependent, and about 1/2 the primary beneficiaries are male.
==
SSI is the program for people who are supposedly disabled nearly all their working lives, as well as a few oldsters who had an insufficient domestic work history to qualify for Social Security. And, yes, quite a few of those on SSI are so due to psychiatric problems that no ordinary person would consider disabling. We’ve got a shirt-tail relation who is in this situation now. Aside from her own deficiencies, it’s a perfect storm of stupidity on the part of her father, her mother, mental health tradesmen, and hearing examiners. She receives the average benefit, about $700 a month. She lives with her parents (at age 31) and the benefit offsets her grocery bills, medical co-pays, &c.
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So, by all means, clean up the disability rolls. This is a problem of a different kind than AFDC or general relief. AFDC and general relief were comprehensively inadvisable programs. SSDI and SSI are inadvisable in certain contingencies.
Joe doesn’t realize that an awful lot of working-class Americans didn’t go to college, and that a lot of middle-class Americans didn’t rack up massive college debt.
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Joe doesn’t realize much of anything anymore. And his entire family consists of Bourbon grotesques.
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Even today, about 1/3 of each cohort acquires no tertiary schooling and about 55% have no contact with baccalaureate granting institutions. The average outstanding loan balance a few years back was $45,000.
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There’s a New York pol named Alessandra Biaggi who was complaining that her loan balance was $180,000 in 2012 and is now $206,000 due to accrued interest, even though she’s been making payments over the years. That’s four years of college, three years of law school, private institutions from stem to stern, and an occupational life that has consisted of political patronage jobs. She’s the actual constituency for Biden’s program.
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One thing that might be done is to expand the circumstances under which student loan debt could be discharged in bankruptcy. Who promoted the current rather Dickensian rules in regard to student loans, enacted in 2004? Joseph Biden, acting as a cat’s paw of the credit card companies headquartered in Delaware.
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Another thing we could do is enact co-ordinate federal and state legislation which would allow youths to partake of higher education in smaller doses and remove the padding incorporated into current standards and practices. Abolish the baccalaureate degree and the master’s degree. Put extant physical plant under the supervision of state agencies, institutional consortia, and / or private companies. The plant operators would then host one or more institutions who would pay rent, letting out some buildings to other parties or demolishing them. The institutions might be public or private and they might be of a standard type or an eccentric type.
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Standard type institutions might be as follows:
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1. 2d chance high schools, which would be largely vocational-technical in their orientation but have some academic options. The constituency for these would encompass ~ 28% of the adult population. These would replace the community and technical colleges, for the most part. They would issue certificates which would represent varying quanta of study but the median value would be about 45 credit-hours. The course content would be devoted to one subject bar academic, business, and technology courses necessary to complete course work in that one subject.
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2. Preparatory institutes. These would offer primarily academic courses with some business and technology courses. Some students would be those admitted to occupational / professional schools under advisement, told to gain background in certain subjects before matriculating. Other students would be starting and finishing a standard certificate necessary for a given sort of occupational / professional school. Such certificates could consist of anything from a three-week workshop to a 60-70 credit-hour program to prepare for medical school or law school. Somewhere around 45% of each cohort might put in some time in one of these, typically six months or less.
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3. Occupational institutes: These would issue degrees and certificates of varying length all devoted to occupational training. The median course of study would be 48 credit-hours and would seldom if ever exceed 60 credit-hours. The institutes would be organized as federations of schools and the admissions requirements would be school specific. Just about any occupation might be studied in such institutes except (1) teaching and research occupations requiring extended study of an academic subject; (2) the fancy professions (engineering, medicine and allied treating professions, law, clinical psychology, veterinary medicine, &c); (3) training that might be profitably offered to secondary school students. Much of the work posited is done today by baccalaureate-granting institutions with some done by community colleges. Roughly 40% of each cohort might put in time with one of these.
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4. Universities: these would have an academic side and a professional side. On the academic side would be ‘college’, where students would devote one, two, or three years to the study of a single subject. They could leave at any time and the institution could also winnow, reserving more extended study for better students. Also, on the academic side would be a research institute where research degrees could be pursued. On the professional side, bog standard would be an engineering institute, a medical institute, and a law institute. Professional psychology or veterinary medicine might be available as well. The medical institute would begin with a teaching hospital and medical school and might include schools for other medical treating occupations and might include a research institute. The others might or might not include research institute. There might also be a general research institute for people to pursue research degrees in occupational subjects for which there is no teaching component, such as the study of business or public policy. Roughly 15% of each cohort might have time in a university or the equivalent.
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Off center institutions might include service academies (military, naval, air, police, fire and rescue, maritime, civil aviation), agricultural schools (w/or without veterinary medicine and research centers), centers for the performing and studio arts (very like occupational institutions, but not practical), diploma programs at working institutions (e.g. hospitals, museums, archives, and libraries), stand-alone university components, and stand-alone occupational or trade schools.
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In such a set up, one might posit that about 2/3 of a typical cohort would have some time in tertiary schooling, that those partaking of tertiary schooling might have one or two tours through it on average, and that a tour of the modal type would consist of roughly six months in a preparatory institute followed by a calendar year or two academic years in an occupational institute.
“…filthy sleeves…”, continued—from our despondent correspondent…
An angry Roger Kimball is hopeful but not especially convinced that a substantive investigation of the MOST CORRUPT AND VENAL POTUS in the history of the U.S of A. will ever get off the ground; or if it does occur, be in time to make any difference; or if does occur in time, be at all publicized by THE MOST CORRUPT AND VENAL MEDIA in the history of the U.S. of A.
He IS, however, prepared to be surprised.
The model on which he bases his despondency is the masterfully convoluted and multidemnsional Russiagate…but it might as well be the elaborate Covid-19 cover-up…or the resourcefully stolen elections (and the changes in voting laws and procedures that have mostly NOT wrought as a result)…or the magnificently choreographed January 6 entrapment…or etc.:
“Biden Bribery Wheeze is like the Russia Collusion Delusion”—
https://amgreatness.com/2023/07/02/biden-bribery-wheeze-is-like-the-russia-collusion-delusion/
we’re at the charlton heston screaming at the statue of liberty phase
https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/02/joy-reid-harvard-affirmative-action/
One other thing we might do is work to strip higher education of its role in sorting the labor market via the distribution of market signals. One is by limiting educational qualifications to work in the public sector to the fancy professions, to those dispensed by service academies, and to those for certain teaching positions. Recruit the general run of public employees via ranked results on examinations and you recruit certain sorts through a multiplicity of tests (some written, some physical) of which some tests have ranked results and some are pass fail. In the private sector, have the law impose a civil-service-type recruitment system on utilities, but otherwise allow commercial companies to recruit and promote according to their preference. This implies reducing employment discrimination law to a residue wherein certain types of behavior which map to common crimes could be defined as tortious with liability falling on abusive employees in all circumstances and companies in some circumstances. You could also have co-ordinate state and federal legislation to require private employers to file audited statements wherein the demographics of their company over the preceding year are disclosed.
after duke power, a college degree was deemed in lieu of skills, a credential, biut it’s like the cracker jack box
Prime targets for get on the ice floe.
==
Maybe you improve the quality of life in this country by self-deporting.
Welp, he knows about snatch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YBInZrRx5c