Right-wing reactions to President Biden’s announcement to cancel student loan debt prompted quite a stir on social media. GOP plans to associate student loan forgiveness with rich, elite college students seemed to backfire, as some who complained about the $10,000-$20,000 debt relief plan had receipts of their hypocrisy pulled instead.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on Newsmax on Wednesday, stating “for our government just to say, ‘ok well your debt is completely forgiven’…is completely unfair. And taxpayers all over the country…shouldn’t have to pay off the great big student loan debt for some college student that piled up massive debt going to some Ivy League school.”
The White House twitter account, in return, tweeted about the $183,504 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans that Rep. Greene had forgiven by the federal government.
PPP loans were provided to small business owners to keep their workforce employed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Borrowers were also eligible for full loan forgiveness.
The White House continued to share more examples of student loan forgiveness critics who had PPP loans forgiven, including Congressmen Kevin Hern, Mike Kelly and Matt Gaetz.
Folks on social media took notice, commenting on the blatant hypocrisy.
But other advocates are pulling out the reverse, draw four uno card on the president’s administration. If millionaires could get hundreds of thousands of dollars of PPP loans cancelled by the federal government so quickly, why can’t the average worker get similar relief?
For some advocates, the president’s plan can go farther, and his actions proved he has the executive authority to relieve students of their debt.
As The Debt Collective noted in a statement provided to ESSENCE:
This action proves that Biden has the authority to cancel all federal student debt—and he’s choosing not to use it. Instead he’s opting to leave huge numbers of borrowers buried in unpayable debt. What we need is full cancellation AND free public college for all, which is the only way to solve the student debt crisis. The more student debt President Biden cancels, the more we narrow the racial wealth gap, boost the economy and put families on a path to financial freedom.