A handful of Republican senators seek to block President Joe Biden’s giveaway to some of America’s most privileged people.
Five GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, recently filed a bill prohibiting Biden from forgiving college loan debt.
Romney’s Student Loan Accountability Act would prohibit the Departments of Education, Justice, and Treasury from taking “any” action to cancel or forgive the outstanding balances, or portions of balances, of covered loans, according to a press release from Romney’s office.
But the measure contains exemptions for existing, “targeted” federal student loan forgiveness, cancellation, or repayment programs that are currently in effect.
Biden is reportedly preparing to forgive up to $10,000 of student debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000 a year. The average student loan is about $30,000, roughly the price of a new car.
But Biden’s plan would force the taxpayers to cover most of the canceled debt, since about 80 percent of loans came directly from the federal government.
Romney’s office offered several reasons why Biden’s idea is simply awful in the press release.
It would tack on between 4 percent and 20 percent to inflation estimates, meaning in the worst-case scenario, the worst inflation rate in 40 years would go up by another 0.5 percent. That, the senator’s office noted, ends up “forcing millions of families that hold no student loan debt to suffer higher inflation.”
Inequality, a favored buzzword among liberals, would get worse since about one-third of all student debt is owed by the wealthiest 20 percent of borrowers, while the bottom quintile owes only 8 percent.
Biden’s plan, according to Romney, would also incentivize colleges and universities to jack up tuition rates, it would further inflate the national debt “balloon” that already adds $5 billion each month because student loan repayments have been paused during the pandemic, and it “rewards” residents of Washington, D.C., more than any other area because those residents on average owe nearly $55,000, the highest amount in the nation.
“It makes no sense for the Biden Administration to cancel nearly $2 trillion in student loan debt. This decision would not only be unfair to those who already repaid their loans or decided to pursue alternative education paths, but it would be wildly inflationary at a time of already historic inflation,” Romney said in a statement.
“Democrats and Republicans alike have called on the President to not take this unwise step and pile more onto our $30 trillion national debt. And while the President’s legal authority in forgiving this debt is dubious at best, our bill would ensure that he would be prevented from taking action.”
Joining Romney in this effort are Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Thom Tillis, also of North Carolina.
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