President Biden created an uproar even among some Democrats when he announced last week that he would forgive the student loan debt of about 43-million Americans – a plan estimated to cost taxpayers between $440 billion and $600 billion (or even as much as $1 trillion) over the next ten years. And with the midterms just 12 weeks away, it is being viewed by conservative critics as a political move to fire up liberal college grads to get out and vote for Democrats.
Robert Knight, a columnist for The Washington Times, tells AFN the Democratic Party is going to regret that Biden and his Department of Education are trying to follow through on this campaign promise.
"I think this is not only immoral to give away taxpayer money to people who took out loans and don't want to repay them, but it's also bad politics," says Knight. "It's a huge blunder. It's going to alienate all the people who worked hard during college to pay off their loans, and all the workers and employees who didn't go to college to pay for these kids' education so they can take [such things as] gender-identity studies. This is class warfare."
And Knight admits being furious that the Justice Department claims the HEROES Act of 2003 gives the administration "sweeping authority" to reduce or eliminate student debt during a national emergency (related article).
"The Biden administration is so lawless that the president is basing this ridiculous transfer of wealth on a 2003 law to help combat veterans," the columnist emphasizes. "To just hand it out to students who haven't served in the armed forces is just a slap in the face to all the veterans who served and were beneficiaries of this program."
Knight predicts Biden's "stunt" isn't going to buy any votes because left-leaning students were going to vote Democratic anyway.
Hispanics see through Biden's buy-out
Unintended repercussions detrimental to Biden's party could result from the debt forgiveness plan as well – that's according to the founder and president of Bienvenido, which bills itself as the nation's fastest-growing non-profit inspiring and equipping the next generation of Hispanic leaders.
Abraham Enriquez tells Fox News the loan cancellation proposal is an attempt by the administration to "buy out" Latino support – but it won't help.
It's both "bad policy and bad politics," he argues, "because Hispanics within the Latino community were the least likely to have student loans. And even those of use who do have student loans … they're not this Harvard-, Berkeley-, Yale-type … degrees, and the price point around them.
"We truly believe in values, which means hard work, responsibility. Those of us who do have student loans, we understand that we took it upon ourselves and were responsible enough to do that."
Enriquez also contends that many Latinos – once they examined the details of the policy –discovered the plan actually wasn't going to help Hispanic communities and completely lost faith in it.
