When President Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme was unveiled in August, the White House assured the public that it was “relief for borrowers who need it most“ and promised that “no high-income individual or high-income household – in the top 5% of incomes – will benefit from this action.”
However, in what the Washington Free Beacon describes as a “bait-and-switch” of American taxpayers, the election-year handouts are now being offered to people with incomes far above the initially-advertised limits.
Here’s how a fact sheet posted in August by the White House described the program’s parameters: “Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples).”
Now that that program has gone live, it’s clear the American public was misled.
As the Department of Education’s online application form explains, debt relief is available to those who made less than $125,000 in 2021 or 2020. With a generous two-year look-back, the word “or” opens the door to people who were below the threshold in 2020 but then blew it away in 2021.
“That’s good news for recent law school graduates, many of whom are now employed at white-shoe law firms making over $200,000 a year, or for doctors who just completed their residencies,” writes the Free Beacon.
Critically, the rules also ignore how applicants are doing this year — which is already more than nine months gone.
Put it all together and an individual could be eligible for the program if he, for example, made $124,000 in 2020, $750,000 in 2021 and is knocking down a million in 2022.
The dollar limits refer to an applicant’s Adjusted Gross Income, which excludes various types of income. As The Beacon notes:
Paycheck Protection Program funds aren’t considered income, nor is inherited wealth, meaning one could have received a cash influx and still qualify for Biden’s helicopter cash drop. Remember this when Biden drones on about how “not a dime will go to those in the top 5 percent of the income bracket.”
It gets worse: The program leans hard on the honesty of applicants, which is never a good idea where government handouts are concerned. The application only requires basic information and an assertion that the applicant is eligible — no proof of income is required.
According to CNBC, the Department of Education “will verify a certain number of borrowers have told the truth about their eligibility as a fraud prevention measure.”
As legal challenges to Biden’s unconstitutional debt relief order stack up, debtors are rushing to the application website: More than 8 million applied just during the weekend “beta test” period that proceeded Monday’s official launch.
“Any borrower who has already received forgiveness will likely get to keep it, even if the courts block the president’s plan,” higher education funding expert Mark Kantrowitz tells CNBC.
On Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Bryant bought Biden and his millions of forgiveness-seeking beneficiaries more time, as she denied a request filed Wednesday by the Brown County Taxpayers Association, a Wisconsin group that sought to keep the plan on hold while its legal challenge goes forward.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, Biden’s giveaway will cost the federal government about $400 billion — for a government that already owes $31 trillion…and counting.
Student loan forgiveness doesn’t actually forgive the loan. It just transfers the debt to people who never asked for the loan, never agreed to the terms, and never benefited from the loan or saw any of that money.
— Steve (@oldguy_steve) April 14, 2021
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/21/2022 – 13:40
