This week, President Biden announced his highly anticipated federal-student-debt-relief plan, canceling up to $10,000 in student debt (up to $20,000 for those who received Pell Grants) for millions of Americans. Of course, millions of Americans owe far more than that, making this a small step forward. But that didn’t stop loan-forgiveness naysayers — a.k.a. Republicans — from sharing their many uncharitable opinions. Among them was Marjorie Taylor Greene, who appeared on Newsmax to rail against the burden on taxpayers, saying that it’s “completely unfair” for the government to forgive “the great big student-loan debt for some college student that piled up massive debt going to some Ivy League school.”
Whoever runs the White House Twitter account was not about to take this lying down. Taking a leaf out of AOC’s book, the White House did some sassy fact-sharing, pointing out that despite all her talk of “unfairness,” Marjorie Taylor Greene has had far more of her own debt forgiven: $183,504 from the Payment Protection Program.
But wait, there’s more! In a thread, this petty White House Twitter hero selected five clips of other politicians self-righteously accusing the government of letting Ivy Leaguers off the hook, including Matt Gaetz and Mike Kelly, and shared their PPP-loan-forgiveness numbers. The program, introduced by Trump in March 2020 as an effort to help small businesses stay afloat during COVID-19 lockdowns, was plagued by fraud, and plenty of its funds ended up in the pockets of very large businesses, including those owned by Trump’s family and associates. But clearly, not all GOP members agree with the statement “If you take out a loan, you pay it back. Period.” — especially, it seems, when it pertains to their own loans.
This is the kind of creative thinking I want coming out of D.C.! It’s bold. It’s detailed. It’s Katie Porter with her whiteboard. The best part is that Greene will not be firing back, seeing as she’s permanently banned from Twitter. Wins all around.