Perhaps, but such a move on his part would be a gross injustice to the millions of people who worked long hours at a job, or even two, while going to school in order to pay their way or to pay off their loans.
If Mr. Biden chooses to have taxpayers pick up the tab for the loans of those who just completed their schooling, or simply refused to pay on their debt, then he's essentially making saps of those who did the right thing and met their responsibilities.
Jim Geraghty writes about this at National Review. He says,
If you borrow money and sign a contract promising to pay it back, then you must pay it back, or you will suffer serious long-term financial consequences. Or at least, that’s the way it used to work until Democrats decided they could win a lot of votes by just waving a magic wand and declaring that people didn’t have to pay their student debt back.Taxpayers have already bent over backwards to accommodate those with student loan debt:
If you take out a loan to buy a house, you must pay it back over time, with interest. If you take out a loan to buy a car, you must pay it back over time, with interest. If you take out a loan to pay for a college education, you must pay it back over time, with interest.
You signed a contract. You knew the terms going in — or at least you were supposed to know them. You’re supposed to read the documents you sign. You knew the payments you were going to have to make and when you would have to make them. If you don’t want to deal with the financial pressure of debt, don’t take out the loan.
The federal government has postponed repayments of student loans seven times since the start of the pandemic; no one has been required to pay back a student loan since March 13, 2020. Interest rates on those loans during this period dropped to zero, and collections on defaulted loans stopped.Mr. Biden proposes to forgive as much as $10,000 per borrower. One of the ironies of this plan is that it will largely benefit those who least need it:
...forgiving $10,000 per borrower would most benefit whites under the age of 40 who have graduate degrees and live in high-income, majority-white neighborhoods. This is one of the most Democratic-leaning and outspoken progressive demographics in the country.The Democratic Party claims to be all about equity and fairness, but where is the fairness in this proposal? Not only does it make the most responsible borrowers "chumps" for being responsible it makes them doubly chumps because as taxpayers they will now be helping to subsidize those who'll benefit from Mr. Biden's cynical political pandering.
This is a wealth transfer from taxpayers to the Democratic Party’s Twitter class.
If you paid back your student loans in recent years, there is a good chance you were a chump. You paid money that Uncle Sugar was going to come along and cover if you had just waited. You should have spent that money on other things you would have enjoyed and defaulted on your payments, waiting for the federal government to come along and say, “Don’t worry, the taxpayers have this covered.”
If you currently owe a lot on your mortgage, your car payments, your home-improvement loans, or any other loan, and you’re diligently and responsibly making your monthly payments . . . well, you are kind of a sucker, too, because you borrowed money that you had to pay back, instead of taking part in Joe Biden’s free-money program.
Perhaps the whole idea will backfire. Perhaps the millions who are being played for suckers will be so outraged at the injustice of what's being proposed that they'll vote against the Democrats in November. That, at least, would be condign karma.
