Republicans in Congress voted to overturn the plan. I think every one. I don’t think I had any Republican votes for this plan.
At the same time, think about this: We all supported the Paycheck Protection Program — remember? — PPP — you know, which was designed to help businessowners who lost money because of the pandemic. It was a worthy program.
But let’s be clear: Some of the same elected Republicans, members of Congress who strongly opposed giving relief to students, got hundreds of thousands of dollars themselves in relief — members of Congress — because of the businesses they were able to keep open.
Several members of Congress got over a million dollars. All those loans were forgiven. You know how much that program cost? $760 billion. My program is too expensive? $360 billion more than I proposed in my student debt relief program.
I was trying to provide students with 10 to 20 thou- — $10- to $20,000 of relief. By comparison, the average amount forgiven in the PPP — the pandemic loan program — average amount forgiven was $70,000.
Now, a kid making 60,000 bucks, trying to pay back his bills, asking for $10,000 in relief — come on. The hypocrisy is stunning.
You can’t help a family making 75 grand a year, but you can help a millionaire and you have your debt forgiven?
