POTATUS polling news must be bad – as in GAWDAWFUL – because the administration announced another one of their “waves” of student debt loan “forgiveness” this morning.
After taking a quick peek at a couple just to be sure which way the wind is blowing…welp.
It’s not pretty if you’re Biden.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of major polls, this is where the election stands today: Trump takes every swing state and wins with a bigger electoral margin than he did in 2016. https://t.co/ntZzJTkPLk
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) March 15, 2024
It’s the oddest thing, too, if you look at it with a cynical eye (and I’m not a cynic – I only play one here at HotAir). What groups is Biden trending ever weaker with that he’s going to need and normally could be counted on as mostly Democratic voters?
The younger set, blacks, and public employees, like firefighters and cops.
Here’s where “cynic” comes into play. Looka who’s getting the handouts this round.
Biden administration to forgive $5.8 billion in student debt for nearly 78,000 borrowers
The Biden administration announced on Thursday it would forgive $5.8 billion in student debt for 77,700 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
It also said President Joe Biden would email another 380,000 public service workers starting next week, notifying them that they’re on track to have their debt canceled within two years.
The U.S. Department of Education has routinely announced waves of loan forgiveness, as the Biden administration seeks to use its existing authority to leave people with less debt after the Supreme Court struck down its sweeping $400 billion loan forgiveness plan last June. The Biden administration has so far cleared the education debts of nearly 4 million people, totaling $143.6 billion in relief.
“For too long, our nation’s teachers, nurses, social workers, firefighters, and other public servants faced logistical troubles and trap doors when they tried to access the debt relief they were entitled to under the law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement about the latest round of forgiveness.
And, oh, my gosh! What a wonderful gift to Randy Weingarten’s shock troops right before an election! A little lagniappe to help shove them off the couch and out on to the streets working for the Biden campaign. Not to mention, if they’re on the list of payoffs two years hence, they also have a reason to work even harder, right? Because big, Bad Orange Man and hateful Republicans could well cancel that giveaway if they win in November, and we can’t have that.
THE BIG GUY GOTCHER MONEY RIGHT HERE
NOW VOTE JOE
Even CNN is on record labeling it a bald-faced political gambit. The administration, you see, wants to “remind everyone” how awesomely awesome they are at handing out other people’s money.
…The emails come as the Biden administration is eager to remind voters in an election year about how it has approved more student debt cancellation than under any other president – despite the fact that the Supreme Court knocked down its broad student loan forgiveness program last year.
That program would have canceled up to $20,000 for low- and middle-income borrowers, for an estimated total of $430 billion of debt relief.
Instead, the Biden administration has canceled a total of $144 billion of federal student loan debt for nearly 4 million borrowers to date, mostly through existing student loan forgiveness programs that target specific groups of borrowers.
Biden is under big pressure from progressives to cough up some wins somewhere. So if the administration can twist some regulations to hand out cha-ching we don’t have and they couldn’t otherwise legally? By George, they’re going to.
…The relief is possible through regulatory changes at the Education Department that make it easier for borrowers to qualify for forgiveness. The department has aggressively pursued student-loan cancellations for borrowers who have fallen victim to mismanaged federal programs, leading them to wait for promised relief sometimes after more than 25 years of payments.
An estimated 900,000 people in the public-service loan forgiveness program and in the income-driven repayment plans, respectively, have seen relief, the officials said.
The moves come as Biden faces pressure from progressives and civil rights groups to deliver broader debt relief after his initial plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans for an estimated 40 million people was struck down by the Supreme Court.
That ruling led to disappointment among key parts of his electoral coalition, in particular Black voters and young people, with whom the issue of debt relief resonates. Biden campaigned in 2020 on offering loan forgiveness and will need to draw those groups to the polls in his rematch with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
It’s kind of paying public-service sector workers double to vote since they are already public employees by definition. What a neat trick.
Never one to let people forget, the old grifter-in-chief’s statement reminded Americans he’d promised to “fix” things.
Today, my Administration is cancelling student loans for an additional 78,000 public service workers – teachers, nurses, firefighters, and more – through Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
…From day one of my Administration, I promised to fix broken student loan programs and make sure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I won’t back down from using every tool at my disposal to deliver student debt relief to more Americans, and build an economy from the middle out and bottom up.
Yup.
Congratulations taxpayer! Old Joe transferred 78,000 more student loans to your tab today!
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) March 21, 2024
He’s done a bang-up job so far.