GOP Senator reveals US President Joe Biden’s real plan behind his student loan forgiveness program.
In a statement released by GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during his podcast called “Verdict with Ted Cruz” on Friday, he revealed that there’s “real risk” that Biden’s program could help drive Democratic turnout in this upcoming midterm election.
“If you are that slacker barista who wasted seven years in college studying completely useless things, now has loans and can’t get a job, Joe Biden just gave you 20 grand,” Cruz said.
“Like, holy cow! 20 grand. You know, maybe you weren’t going to vote in November, and suddenly you just got 20 grand. And you know, if you can get off the bong for a minute and head down to the voting station. It could drive up turnout particularly among young people,” the GOP Senator added.
.@tedcruz says 'real risk' Biden student loan handout will drive up Democratic turnout in midterms https://t.co/NS2O9ELj5O
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 27, 2022
“All of this could play badly for Democrats. But let me give you the flip argument – it may be a political master stroke.” Cruz continued.
According to the Education Data Initiative, “student loan debt in the United States totals $1.748 trillion.”
“The outstanding federal loan balance is $1.620 trillion and accounts for 92.7% of all student loan debt. 43.0 million borrowers have federal student loan debt. The average federal student loan debt balance is $37,667 while the total average balance (including private loan debt) may be as high as $40,274,” the report added.
On August 24, the White House released a fact sheet where Biden announced Student Loan Relief to help lower undergraduate loan payments by $10,000 for individuals who earn less than $125,000 a year.
“This plan offers targeted debt relief as part of a comprehensive effort to address the burden of growing college costs and make the student loan system more manageable for working families,” the White House wrote in a press release.
“The President is announcing that the Department of Education will provide targeted debt relief to address the financial harms of the pandemic, fulfilling the President’s campaign commitment. The Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients,” the White House added.
On Friday, the White House released another statement and made it clear that the “student loan forgiveness plan, estimated to cost $24 billion a year for the next decade, will not trigger a federal tax bill,” and added that it is considering the plan to be “fully paid for” by 2022 revenue earnings alone, which are on pace to lower the U.S. deficit by $1.7 trillion.
