Current:Home > reviewsI just paid my taxes. Biden's pandering on student loans will end up costing us all more. -CapitalWay
I just paid my taxes. Biden's pandering on student loans will end up costing us all more.
View
Date:2025-04-19 19:43:11
My husband and I both work full time. We like our jobs, but we work hard. Our reward? Sending thousands of dollars to the federal government each year.
Much like millions of other Americans on Tax Day, we had to write a large check and send it off to the Internal Revenue Service.
It’s always painful to kiss that money goodbye. It’s even more difficult when I know just how poorly it will be spent.
Case in point: President Joe Biden continues to doggedly pursue student loan “forgiveness” ahead of the November election.
Biden fumbles FAFSA:Biden's so worried about 'canceling' debt he's ignored families who need to pay for college
Perhaps Biden misread his job description. Instead of commander in chief, he is acting like the panderer in chief.
Essentially, he’s using our tax dollars as campaign funds.
Biden is using taxpayer dollars to get himself reelected
It seems not a week goes by when Biden isn’t announcing some plan that will magically wipe out swaths of student loans. That’s intentional, as Biden struggles with keeping young voters interested in his candidacy.
He’s betting that erasing all this debt will buy him more votes come November.
That became more urgent after the U.S. Supreme Court last summer overturned his initial unilateral attempt to cancel more than $400 billion in debt.
Biden uses big government to buy votes.Meanwhile, Argentina's Milei schools him on capitalism.
Rather than learn anything from this setback, Biden immediately set off to find other ways he could force taxpayers to cover the cost of paying off other people's student loans – never mind that the president's new efforts are almost surely just as unconstitutional as his first try.
As a taxpayer (and someone who has paid off my college loans), I find Biden’s costly new entitlement program to be irksome. After all, the debt doesn’t simply go away – it is loaded onto taxpayers' backs and added to our $34 trillion and counting national debt.
Last week, Biden waved his magic wand again, announcing his latest round of lucky borrowers. More than 270,000 people in Biden’s revamped income-driven repayment plans will see $7.4 billion in debt canceled.
That brings Biden's total debt transference from student borrowers to taxpayers at large to $153 billion. About 4.3 million borrowers have benefited from Biden’s generosity with taxpayers' money.
And Biden has plans to expand who’s eligible in the coming months through a different program.
In addition to adding to the national debt and our tax burden as a country, Biden’s actions are inflationary. Out-of-control government spending is one reason why inflation has remained so entrenched during his administration.
Forgive loans so people can 'go back to school'?
My guess is most people who get their student debt zeroed out by Biden will go on some sort of spending spree. Progressive superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently admitted as much while on the "Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
The U.S. representative from New York said Biden’s latest student cancellation proposal means “hope to buy a house, or have a kid, or travel abroad or maybe even go back to school.”
America's deep divide:Are we hurtling toward a new 'Civil War'? Hollywood plays to fears of Trump-Biden rematch.
That tracks with what a 2022 poll found after Biden’s initial debt plan rolled out. According to Intelligent.com, 73% of anticipated recipients said they planned to spend the forgiven amount on nonessential things like travel, eating out and new gadgets.
These are all things most Americans want. But why should taxpayers who didn’t go to college or who have paid off their debt subsidize the spending decisions of strangers?
And let’s not forget the most egregious part of Biden’s tax-dollar giveaway. Biden loves to tout how this election is all about democracy. In continuing with such sweeping executive action, however, he’s proving that he is a threat to our system of checks and balances.
Biden has failed to go through Congress, which should sign off on such a costly expenditure. And he has ignored a pointed rebuke from the Supreme Court.
"The Biden administration is once again looking to have a huge, unilateral – and hence unconstitutional – student debt cancellation," Neal McCluskey, education policy expert at the Cato Institute, observed on X.
I don't appreciate my hard-earned dollars being used by Biden to buy favor among voters. And I resent that he's doing it in such a blatantly undemocratic manner.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.
veryGood! (4)
Related
- This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
- Record 20 million Americans signed up for Affordable Care Act coverage for 2024
- The US plans an unofficial delegation to Taiwan to meet its new leader amid tensions with China
- Fewer police officers died in the line of duty in 2023, but 'scary number' were shot: Study
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- Good news you may have missed in 2023
- Greta Gerwig, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese receive Directors Guild nominations
- Flurry of Houthi missiles, drones fired toward Red Sea shipping vessels, Pentagon says
- 'Squid Game' without subtitles? Duolingo, Netflix encourage fans to learn Korean
- Chris Pratt Shares Special Photo of All 3 Kids Together
Ranking
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- Todd and Julie Chrisley Receive $1 Million Settlement After Suing for Misconduct in Tax Fraud Case
- Lululemon Just Dropped These Shiny & Jewel-Toned Items to We Made Too Much, Starting at $24
- The Alabama job is open. What makes it one of college football's most intriguing?
- Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
- See Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in first trailer for biopic 'Back to Black'
- NYC issues vacate orders to stabilize historic Jewish sites following discovery of 60-foot tunnel
- Nick Saban could have won at highest level many more years. We'll never see his kind again
Recommendation
Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
A British postal scandal ruined hundreds of lives. The government plans to try to right those wrongs
Scientists discover 350,000 mile tail on planet similar to Jupiter
Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York heads to closing arguments, days before vote in Iowa
Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
Vivek Ramaswamy says he's running an America first campaign, urges Iowans to caucus for him to save Trump
$100 million gift from Lilly Endowment aims to shore up HBCU endowments
'Golden Bachelor' host Jesse Palmer welcomes baby girl with wife Emely Fardo Palmer