College is deeply personal to millions of Americans: The students who attended college, the folks who were unable to attend, the parents who could, or could not support their kids in their collegiate endeavors. The cost of colleges affects most everyone. Because of that, this unfortunate swipe of the pen to wipe away hundreds of billions of debt will go down as one of the greatest missteps of any presidency.
It’s a $10,000 stimulus check being misused in an effort to buy votes. It was unnecessary and impacts only a few fortunate debtors. Sadly, the majority of folks it helps are those in little need of support. It’ll mostly be helping affluent people in the country who hold white collar roles like doctors, lawyers, and accountants. The data proves very few blue-collar laborers, minorities, or lower middle class Americans are benefiting from this untimely action.
This will add to inflation. A mere week after Biden signed a bill foolishly titled the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ (foolishly titled because it doesn’t in fact reduce inflation), the administration is spending hundred of billions of dollars that will raise inflation. The early estimates are that this will increase inflation by 0.1 – 0.2%. That equates to roughly $150 – $200 of new expenses straining the already pressured American balance sheet.
This adds to our already ridiculous debt. Our budget deficit expands, and it’s you and I as American taxpayers who pay for this. We get the opportunity to officially subsidize someone’s education. Americans are already subsidizing their neighbors’ electric vehicle, the war in Ukraine, Intel’s new semiconductor factory, and the solar panels on their boss’s home, so what’s wrong with adding yet another one to the list?
It’s likely illegal for Biden to do it. He’s using a seldom-used loophole from the HEROES act. This was passed soon after 9/11 to authorize the President to directly support Americans impacted by the disaster on that day. It gave complete authority to expeditiously help Americans that were unfortunately put in unique circumstances the day the towers fell. It’s likely due to the swift blow back Biden has received, but he’ll be hoping the courts nullify this attempt.
It is a slap in the face to anyone who paid off their student loan debt, self financed, went to a cheaper school over their desired one, or couldn’t afford college and therefore didn’t go. This decision is truly the first major choice an American will make as they enter adulthood and leave adolescence behind. It’s remarkably serious and deeply personal. There are so many factors that make a difference, but for most, the finances, or lack thereof, impact this decision the most. That is why this decision to help some, but not others after the fact is incredibly insulting.
A lot of people sadly opted out college. They may have not qualified for loans. Or, they didn’t receive enough and therefore truly couldn’t afford to go. They were squeezed out of an insanely corrupt system, and they pay the price today. Their income is likely lower, and their opportunities are less. It changed their life for the worse. Now, we are rewarding some who had the chance to go, while inadvertently stomping on the broken dreams of those who never had the chance to go in the first place.
There is not a single study that shows this decision will bring about economic benefits. It won’t help address any of our current problems. It doesn’t help us in the long term, either. It also does nothing to try and change the system of higher education in the first place. And, that’s the most pressing issue today. These institutions are cash cows. They are essentially hedge funds with classrooms that have more money than entire GDP’s of other nations. They reap tremendous tax benefits, yet are hardly an actual nonprofit. They consistently raise their costs while tirelessly asking for more donations. Their endowments expand, yet the money is seldom disbursed back into the system to reduce costs, or provide higher salaries to those employed within the university. They are benefactors of government taxpayer money, too. Whether it be local, state, or federal, these institutions bring in billions of taxpayer dollars in useless subsidies and grants. The system is completely broken. The degrees are not even remotely near worth their cost in terms of future wages. The game is incredibly rigged. But, did this piece of executive action, courtesy of Joe Biden, address even one aspect of the collegiate scam? No.
In short, it’s hard to actually find a way that would have been worse to go about doing what they sought out to do. It seems that everything the administration has tried to ‘fix’ has been done in quite possibly the worse method possible. The Afghanistan withdrawal killed thirteen Americans. Congress has tried to combat inflation by spending more money. He tried to tackle the energy crisis by giving up our emergency reserves, with some of it going to foreign nations like China. They tried to force vaccinations onto every single worker in America despite the science telling us otherwise. Yet again, another example of the Biden administration failing to fix something.
Phil Your Day 