Student Loan Forgiveness

I’m dedicating today’s cartoon to my friend Karen because she isn’t just glad to see President Biden forgive a lot of student debt for 43 million Americans, she’s relieved. President Biden just took a huge weight off her tiny little shoulders.

As soon as it was announced, Karen messaged me about the news in case I had missed it. Did I mention she was really happy about this?

Karen wrote, “Wiping away $10K for me would definitely help and make a huge difference in my life. Since the interest rate changes from year to year my student loans have different interest rates. What gets to me is how the loans accrue interest too. You may not have to pay your loans while in school but they are accruing interest. So a loan from freshman year has been accruing interest for four years. That adds up especially considering those loans are for thousands of dollars. Same thing if you have to temporarily stop making payments and get approved for that. The loan is still accruing interest and that could be thousands of dollars.”

As this move relieves stress and takes weight off the shoulders of millions of Americans, there are complaints. Some complain it goes too far while others are complaining it doesn’t do enough. It’s like the bailouts of Wall Street, banks, car companies, and the COVID relief packages.

A lot of Democrats complain this isn’t enough and we should have free college in this country. And there are moderate Democrats who say we can’t afford this. And of course, there are Republicans who say we can’t afford this.

When Democrats complain about this and say we can’t afford it, listen to them. They’re making valid points, even if you don’t agree. When Republicans grouse about this, ignore them. For Republicans, it’s just politics.

Republicans say this is a move to buy votes before the midterms. But, isn’t everything people in Congress vote for an attempt to curry favor with voters? It’s the GOP’s own fault that they’re not going to get the great big red wave they were salivating over in November.

Republicans say this will increase the federal debt. Yeah, ignore that shit from Republicans who are the kings of debt.

They say it’s unfair to people who’ve already paid off their loans, This is true but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help others. If anything, this argument gives weight to making college free.

They say it’ll make inflation worse. It won’t.

They complain it’s not fair to people who didn’t go to college. Actually, it is. If you don’t have kids, or you send yours to private schools so they can be groomed to be future entitled assholes, you still still pay taxes that support public schools. Here’s the thing kids: We’re working toward a better future that will benefit people who are not you. It’s good to live in an educated society. And, someone paid taxes that supported schools when you were a kid.

President Biden said, “I understand that not everything I’m announcing today is going to make everybody happy. But I believe my plan is responsible and fair.”

For Republicans, they don’t think it’s fair because it won’t affect their voters as much as it’ll affect Democratic and Independent voters. Why? Because the uneducated is the base for the Republican Party. Don’t take my word for it. Take Donald Trump’s who said, “I love the uneducated.”

President Biden won 60 percent of college-educated voters. Trump won 63 percent of non-college educated white voters.

Why do the uneducated vote Republican? Because Republicans appeal to the lowest common denominator. And Donald Trump showed the Republican Party they weren’t going low enough. Educated people don’t fall for, “We’re gonna build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it.” And you shouldn’t have to go to college to recognize a grifter when you see one.

Why do you think chants at Trump rallies are no longer than three words? “Space force.” “Lock her up.” “Build the wall.” “Send them back.” “Fire Fauci.” “Mmmghrrmarrr.” That last one was from the chanters with their heads stuck in peanut butter jars.

Support for Trump and the GOP is especially strong among uneducated white people. I mean, what goes better with stupid than racism?

We can’t forgive student loans all the time, so don’t take a huge loan expecting it to be forgiven down the road. Also, a Republican could steal the White House in 2024 and if that happens, he’s not going to help people with college debt, I assure you.

But we can afford free college. If we can afford 20 aircraft carriers and a military budget of over $800 billion, we can afford free college. President Biden had a five-year plan for free community college (in case you’re a Republican, that’s two years of higher education) that would have cost a little over $45 billion over five years, but it was taken out to get a bill passed. Damn, we could just scrape off the top of the military budget and get free community college and maybe throw in a few dog parks.

Republicans arguing that student loan forgiveness doesn’t benefit everyone are the same people who gave tax cuts to corporations and billionaire assholes that cost our nation around $2 trillion. And, they were told it would cost that much before they voted for it. They didn’t care about debt or fairness when they did that. Those tax cuts didn’t benefit the entire country. Who’d they benefit the most? Billionaire assholes.

Donald Trump’s greatest legislative accomplishment was giving himself a huge tax cut and eliminating the tax his trust fund babies would have had to pay when they inherit all his shit after he croaks.

Karen also wrote about her loan forgiveness, “It would make more of a difference to me than the big corporations that had their loans turned into grants and the right didn’t complain about that. They pretend it never happened.”

When Republicans pretend like they care about all Americans, don’t listen to them. Like with everything else Republicans say, they’re lying.

Creative note: I didn’t listen to any music while making this as I didn’t have time. I got this idea yesterday but kept writing others because I wasn’t sure if this was the cartoon to go with. I decided it was around 11:30 p.m. and drew up the outline and lettering. I had a Zoom thing with a college class at 9 a.m. (what a coinkydink) this morning and I thought maybe I could get up early enough, shower, finish the cartoon, get it to my clients, post it on social media, and make the Zoom college thing. And I did. I posted this on social media at 8:57 a.m. and made the Zoom meeting a couple minutes late. After the class, 50 minutes later, I checked on social media and was pleasantly surprised to see the cartoon was getting a lot of strong reactions, shares, and likes. Yay.

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