Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is a big mistake

Getty Images

In late August, President Biden unveiled a plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for individuals who received a Pell Grant in college, as long as they earn less than $125,000 a year (or $250K for married couples). Non-Pell borrowers who meet those same income requirements will qualify for up to $10,000 in loan forgiveness. 

It’s life-changing news for many of the 43 million borrowers expected to benefit from some relief, but even some Democrats are against the lofty $400 billion plan. Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich sounds the alarm on why the program isn’t fair for everyone. 

I think it’s been amazing to watch the reaction to President Biden’s decision to give away $300 to $500 billion in $10,000 and $20,000 units to people who went to college.

First of all, turns out that that’s pretty inflationary and the average American is so worried about the high price of everything, that anything which adds to inflation is unpopular.

Second, it turns out that there are a lot of college graduates who paid off their loans, and they’re now kind of looking around going, wait a second, I paid off my loans, and I’m gonna pay extra taxes to pay off your loan?

Third, about 70% of American people have never been to a four year college, they may have gone to VO-tech school and they’ve gone to a community college, they may have just graduated from high school and going to work.

So you now have waitresses, and truck drivers and folks who are just everyday hardworking people saying, “Let me get this straight, I want to have my taxes paid in order to take care of somebody who went to Harvard, or Princeton, or Stanford?”

I think that Joe Biden may have made a huge mistake, because in theory, people will say, oh, it’s okay. When it comes down to it, you realize that if you already got government money in a Pell Grant, you now can get $20,000 in towards your student loans from the Joe Biden GIFT program for voters.

On the other hand, if you didn’t get a Pell Grant, you only get $10,000. Well, it turns out, there are at least 300 people in the White House who are going to be eligible for $10,000 to $20,000. So you are going to have to pay taxes. So that $3 million gets transferred to White House staff who already have pretty darn good jobs.