Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) sounds upset about the Biden team revealing a plan forgiving substantial levels of student loan debt for many Americans (up to $10,000 for individual Americans earning under $125,000 a year, with additional parameters governing the initiative). “Obviously, they have an agenda for that,” Greene said on Newsmax. “They need votes in November.”
Isn’t it ideal for political leaders to undertake initiatives that voters prefer? Isn’t that, generally speaking, the whole point? The White House communications team got involved in push-back against Greene’s remarks, pointing out on Twitter that the Congresswoman herself benefited from the federal government forgiving loans. As part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) instituted amid the rounds of government aid implemented in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic, Greene saw over $183,000 in loans forgiven by the federal government. PPP loans were, just to be clear, first rolled out during the Trump administration. “Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,” the White House Twitter account said Thursday, replying to a post including footage of Greene criticizing the Biden administration’s student loan debt forgiveness.
The account also called out five other Republican members of Congress who saw substantial PPP loans forgiven by the federal government, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Gaetz’s forgiven loans totaled over $482,000. A Twitter account associated with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, where Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sits as Ranking Member, also got in on trying to knock the student loan debt forgiveness initiative. “If you take out a loan, you pay it back. Period,” the account — well, somebody posting on it — said Wednesday afternoon. Gaetz’s forgiven loans weren’t the largest that a Republican member of Congress took out under the Paycheck Protection Program and didn’t need to pay back, however. A car parts manufacturing company where Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) served on the board (and may still work) got $4,367,200 in federal PPP loan money. The total amount forgiven, including accrued interest, is $4,416,574.
Guthrie, nonetheless, also had criticism to share about the broad student loan debt cancellation initiative, which follows the targeted cancellations of tens of billions in student loan debt held by individuals like former students at defunct, for-profit educational chains that engaged in deceptive practices. “President Biden’s taxpayer-funded student loan debt cancellation plan is a bribe to score political points ahead of the election at the expense of Americans who decided to pursue careers that didn’t require taking on student debt or who worked hard to pay off their debt already,” the Congressman insisted. The company where over $4.4 million in PPP debt was forgiven is a Guthrie family business.
