For Progressives And Socialists Who Worry President Biden Might Actually Mean That Centrist Baloney He Pontificated While Cultivating Voters Last Year, All Doubt Has Been Removed. For Biden, It’s Politics As Usual. With The Far Left’s Stranglehold On Government, Biden Has Already Filled Much Of Their Wish List Without Passing A Bill! It Looks To Be A Good Christmas In Early Spring For The Far Left.
Photo: President Joe Biden
Photo Credit: Matt Slocum / AP
Published February 18, 2021
The Center Square [By William Haupt III] –
“If we do everything right all of the time, there is a 30% chance that we’ll get it wrong.”
– Joe Biden
The way to judge a new president is not by promises made, but promises past. Politicians promise the world while campaigning. For the average voter that is good enough. But for seasoned voters, it’s not “what you say you’ll do for me” that matters, but, “will you repeat the bad things you did in the past” that matters. And that is the perennial mistake that voters make every general election.
When progressive socialists were campaigning, they promised the sun, moon and stars – no strings attached. A talking point that resonated with young leftists was student debt forgiveness. To ensure their vote, Biden promised to erase student debt with a single stroke from his executive pencil.
Biden has a history of “flip-flopping” when opportunity knocks. In 2005, Biden backed a bill to reform bankruptcy laws on student loans that was strongly opposed by fellow Democrats. Biden had received thousands in campaign contributions from credit companies and eagerly supported the bill.
“Anyone who has income and has debt has an obligation to pay it back.”
– Joe Biden, 2005
Biden made the right call on this bill but for the wrong reason. He did not support the bill because it was the right thing to do, but because Delaware is host to many large U.S. financial corporations.
North Carolina law professor Melissa Jacoby wrote, “Biden was the most powerful senator who could have stopped this. Instead he used his influence ‘to stop Democrats’ from killing the bill.”
During the 2005 Senate debate, Ted Kennedy was extremely critical of Biden’s inflexible support for this bill: “This legislation totally breaks the bond that unites America; it sacrifices Americans to the rampant greed of the credit card industry.” He scolded Biden, “You know many students are dropping out of college because of loans they can’t pay back, so why are you supporting this bill!”
Former law professor and bankruptcy law expert Elizabeth Warren hammered Biden during the debate on the 2005 Senate bankruptcy bill for his kindred relationship with credit card companies: “Senator Biden supports legislation that will fall hardest on women. Just ask him. He is a zealous advocate on behalf of one of his biggest campaign contributors – the financial services industry.”
Warren claims it was Biden’s support for the 2002 and 2005 bankruptcy bills and fighting Congress over bankruptcy laws that inspired her to run for Congress. She admonished Biden for catering to huge financial companies located in his home state to advance his career in politics.
“The banking industry has protected Joe Biden from everyone who dared challenge his seat.”
– Elizabeth Warren
The two-decade feud between Warren and Biden over his close political ties with financial giants headquartered in Delaware is a bone of contention for Biden. At the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucus, Warren and Sanders reminded voters that credit companies had given Biden hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions for his support of bills that hurt those who had large student loan debt. They cautioned them to consider Biden’s past before supporting him for president.
Campaign finance watchdog Opensecrets validates Biden’s long history of receiving a huge sum of money from Delaware-based credit card companies. In the 2003 and 2008 elections, Biden received more than $500,000 in donations from banks, credit card companies, and the finance industry.
While progressives make a big issue out of forgiving student debt, none mention why they believe government should pay their debt? Anyone who borrows money has an obligation to pay it back. If they don’t want to pay back the government for what they borrowed, why should the taxpayers do it for them?
“Borrowing to pay for college used to be the exception; now it’s the rule.”
– Arne Duncan
Despite progressive fables, over 30% of students graduate debt free and about 25% with less than $20,000. Only 6% owe more than $100,000, which is less than one-third of all student debt. There is a federal cap of $31,000 for the dependent students and $57,500 for those living on their own.
The Uptown Institute claims only 12% of graduates in public four-year schools owe over $40,000. In non-profit schools, it’s 20%. In for-profit schools, nearly half owe over $40,000 in loans. While tuition has risen, the increase in scholarships and grants negate this. At community colleges, the average student today receives enough grant aid and federal tax benefits to cover tuition and fees.
According to Heritage, debt annulment will benefit affluent students more than anyone else. They went to expensive schools and much of this debt is for graduate degrees. They have much higher paying jobs than their public institution counterparts who have less debt and would benefit far less.
“The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.”
– Thomas Sowell
The student debt dilemma is a fabricated crisis by the left to give money to a group of young liberal voters who support their campaigns. By allowing loan forgiveness to drive student borrowing, they’ll suffuse a needed class of dependents. Socialism depends on sharing wealth and this allows them to create wealth for this group. In turn, they can take the money back from them and redistribute it.
Golda Meir told us, “One cannot erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.” So far, Biden’s role in the 2005 financial reforms has attracted remarkably zero attention from the media or even the socialists in Congress. Since loan forgiveness is a popular “got ya” for today’s socialists and progressives, Democrats and the media are giving good Biden another free pass.
Biden’s flip-flop past has come back to haunt him many times in his career. In a 1975 interview with NPR, he touted he’d fight school busing all the way to the Supreme Court. “If I cannot stop it there, I’ll do it with a Constitutional Amendment!” That’s an inconvenient truth Biden can’t deny.
Student debt forgiveness will increase dependence on government financed by taxpayers. Gifting of federal dollars to those who have the potential to pay down debt is redistribution of wealth. This is a deceptive plan the left sold to flip-flop Joe Biden along with Flintstone cars and solar powered rocket ships. How long can America survive with this type of leadership? We have real problems in our nation that the average American wants solved. Yet the left is inventing new ones for political gain?
A student loan is not a federal gift.
“Many on the political left are so entranced by the beauty of their vision that they cannot see the ugly reality they are creating in the real world.”
– Thomas Sowell
