With the midterms quickly approaching, student loan forgiveness could have been a move to influence polling or court voters
August 25, 2022
(Washington, DC) – Today, the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) is opening an investigation into whether the student loan forgiveness executive order was driven by politics rather than sound policy or a defensible economic evaluation.
Yesterday, President Biden signed an executive order which would cancel student loans up to $10,000 for individuals who make under $125,000 a year annually or less than $250,000 annually per household. While some celebrated this announcement, the vast majority of Americans scorned at it. The presidential handout is projected to cost at least $570 billion according to some estimates and may yet contribute to already record inflation levels. The handout will only be available for the one-third of Americans who have college degrees while the two-thirds without a college degree will foot the bill.
Americans are stuck asking why now? Blue collar workers and those individuals who have already paid off their debts appear to be left holding the bag for paying someone else’s college tuition. Canceling student debt has been a long-time progressive goal of the Biden Administration. Huge spending decisions like this should be based on economic analyses and evaluations, not politics and opinion polling that the timing suggests may be the real drivers.
FGI’s inquiry seeks to find whether things such as polling, approval ratings, and midterm elections were factored into the decisions related to student loans and how student loan forgiveness decisions were communicated, including within the Department of Education, with outside special interests, with the White House, and with others. The Americans who are footing this bill deserve answers, and FGI is conducting this investigation to uncover them.
Peter McGinnis, spokesman for FGI, issued the following statement:
“The administration gave a handout to Americans with the highest earning potential while telling the two-thirds of Americans without college degrees or student debt they have to pay for it. Against the backdrop of the midterm elections and out of control inflation, the move appears directed at giving officials a talking point that they are putting money back in people’s pockets and relieving clear economic pain from the recession. All indications are that politics played a leading role in this massive subsidy, which appears to benefit a demographic being courted by the President’s party. The Americans who never went to college and those who saved and already paid off their loans deserve to know if they’re paying for someone else’s college due to inappropriate political considerations.”
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