(VitalNews.org) – Republicans in the House are pushing legislation to stop what they call President Joe Biden’s “wealth transfer scheme,” which he wants to accomplish by canceling student loan debt.
Biden has pledged repeatedly to “cancel” or “forgive” the student loan debt held by tens of millions of Americans. His position seems to be that other tax dollars are best used for the bills of people who took out loans for their private education, but who now claim they cannot pay them.
“Canceling” student loan debt actually means forcing Americans who did not take out those loans to pay off the debt of other Americans who did. The total cost to “cancel” this debt would be higher than $400 billion.
Republicans have had enough. The House Education and Workforce Committee advanced a resolution that would stop Biden’s plan. The vote was party line. Since it passed the Committee, the bill may now get a full floor vote in the House, though this is not guaranteed.
Bob Good (R-VA) said he was “pleased to lead the House effort” to stop Biden’s loan plan, which he said would be a financial burden on American taxpayers. The plan is “unfair and unethical,” Good said, and he also believes it is unlawful.
Democrats are as unhappy as their GOP colleagues are but in the reverse. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) responded to the bill by saying it would “hurt” millions of borrowers and their families. He continued, saying that 43 million borrowers were “eligible” for “loan relief,” apparently unaware that this “eligibility” is in question, not an established fact.
North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx shot back, calling loan forgiveness “nothing more than a transfer of wealth” from people who had no responsibility for the debt voluntarily taken on by strangers. She added that most student loan debt is held by those with advanced graduate degrees, not regular four-year undergraduates.
The resolution to block the loan plan was written under the Congressional Review Act. That lets Congress rebuff a Presidential policy if both chambers of Congress pass a resolution condemning it.
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