Student Loans

MTG PPP

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It’s completely unfair,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. “Taxpayers that never took out a student loan, taxpayers that pay their bills and maybe never went to college and are just hard-working people, they shouldn’t have to pay off the great big student loan debt for some college student.”

But is it fair that Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven, which were given out by the U.S. Small Business Administration during the COVID-19 pandemic? I’m not good at math, but I’m pretty sure $10,000, and even $20,000, is less than $183,504.

Rep. Mike Kelly said, “Asking plumbers and carpenters to pay off the loans of Wall Street advisors and lawyers isn’t just unfair. It’s also bad policy.” Yeah, that guy got $987,237 in PPP loans forgiven. By the way, if the plumber or carpenter got a government loan to go to trade school, he probably qualifies to have it forgiven.

The Center for American Progress provided a long list of other Republican House members who received PPP loan forgiveness which includes:
Marjorie Taylor Greene: $183,504
Matt Gaetz: $482,321
Greg Pence: $79.441
Vern Buchanan: $2.8 million
Kevin Hern: $1,070.000
Brett Guthrie: $4.3 million
Ralph Norman: $306,520
Ralph Abraham: $38,000
Mike Kelly: $974,100
Vicki Hartzler: $451,200
Markwayne Mullin: $988,700
Carol Miller: $3.1 million

Asking about the White House’s tweet revealing that some GOP House members received PPP loans, Sebastian Gorka, a goon who formerly worked in the Trump White House, tweeted the question: How is this not a Hatch Act violation?

The Hatch Act prohibits most White House and cabinet officials from using federal resources, including official appearances or social media pages, to campaign for a candidate or party, or to bash an opponent. For example, using the White House to host the 2020 Republican National Convention is a Hatch Act violation.

Some have defended the PPP forgiveness stating that the loans were used as intended in each case. Well, so were the college loans. But no matter how you justify one over the other, they’re both coming from taxpayers. These GOP goons got free taxpayer money.

Mullin replied to the White House’s revelation of who received PPP loans, tweeting, “Another ignorant attack from a career politician who has never created a single job. 74 days before midterms, Joe Biden is targeting business owners for protecting their employees from government lockdowns. President Trump always supported American workers and job creators.”

Actually, during the Biden presidency, so far, over nine million jobs have been created. When Donald Trump left the White House, there were three million fewer jobs than when he entered in January 2017, the day he gave the “American Carnage” speech.

Biden didn’t state he was against the PPP loan forgiveness, but Republicans can’t comprehend and they’re liars. Biden’s White House was just stating the obvious. We could say, “Hey, good for you on getting your PPP loan forgiven…now shaddup, goons”

Republicans act like those who are having some of their loans forgiven are snail-eating elitists. You can smell the condescension in MTG’s statement that “hard-working” people shouldn’t pay off a “great big student loan debt for some college student.”

She was a college student too and most of those receiving these loans are no longer students, but are in fact…wait for it…hard-working people.

Do you see where they are drawing the battle lines? They’re drawing them between the educated and the uneducated because the uneducated vote for Republicans. Of course, all those elected Republicans are educated people too, but they apparently went to schools that don’t teach irony.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

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Fair is Fair

And why do you get to pay lower tax rates when people before you had to pay higher tax rates?

And why do you get to go to Heaven when there were millions of people who died before Jesus could die for their sins?

If you listen to Republican logic, nothing should be improved. Nothing should ever be adjusted. Nothing should ever be fixed…except of course, for them.

How many of them have received loan forgiveness? How many of them have received massive stimulus checks and tax breaks for their businesses? How come my sandwich shop has to pay taxes to the city while the city gifts a multi-billionaire a brand new football stadium?

Life’s not always fair, but we can improve on a lot of aspects of it to make it fairer. But Republicans only believe in government assistance that helps the rich. As someone tweeted at me this morning, we need a cure for Republicans.

Sorry for the short blog, but I wrote on this yesterday and I have a CNN deadline.

Music note: I listened to Kimya Dawson while drawing this.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

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.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Trust Fund Fairies

The last time student loan forgiveness was in the news, a very conservative friend of mine posted her opposition to it on Facebook. Several of her like-minded friends jumped in and they all had one collective reason for opposing the government wiping out student debt and providing free college: They had to pay for college so future generations should have to pay as well.

If this is your only reason to oppose free college, then you suck. What happened to working hard so our kids can have an easier life? This attitude that other people should suffer because you suffered is cruel and is another example of why Republican candidates appeal to assholes. It’s because Republicans are assholes.

Surprise! The send-them-back party and gang who loves to separate families and throw the babies into cages are opposed to free college. So, what’s wrong with free college? We already provide free education K-12. Why can’t we add four more? Or at the very least, this nation should provide free two-year community college. Conservatives argue that free college is too expensive and we don’t have the money for it. But we do have the money for it.

Free college would probably cost us around $55 billion a year. Ouch, right? But we spend over $700 billion on defense. If we pulled the funds for free college from defense alone that’d only leave defense with $645 billion. How many billions have we spent on tanks that are just sitting in storage?

At least 55 of our nation’s largest corporations didn’t pay taxes in 2020. The statutory federal tax rate for corporate profits is 21 percent, but these companies didn’t pay that, which would have added up to over $8.5 billion. If you add that up with the $3.5 billion in rebates, it comes to $12 billion. That could have gone toward free college, which is something corporate America would have recruited from.

Remember the Wall Street bailout of 2008? We initially set out to give banks over $700 billion, but it eventually came down to $426 billion. Sure, we got that money back, and with a profit of around $17 billion. This was an investment. $55 billion a year to provide free college so we can keep up with the rest of first-world nations would also be an investment.

We spend about $20 billion a year subsidizing the oil industry which does not give us a price break at the pump during a world crisis like we’re experiencing now. Chevron alone has quadrupled its profits and last Friday posted its highest quarterly profit in 10 years.

Donald Trump’s company made over $1.6 billion during the four years he was president (sic). Part of that was the $2.5 million the United States government paid to his golf resorts. If you’re one of those praising him for donating his $400,000 yearly salary back to the government while he raked in over $2.5 million from taxpayers, and additional millions from violating the emoluments clause, shut up and sit down.

We can afford free college. We can debate forgiving all the debt that’s out there, but that’s something we can wipe out too while we restructure the system. Even if we don’t wipe out loans, we should provide free four-year college. There can still be private universities if you’re too snooty for public schools, but the options should be out there. We can keep a loan system in place for those who choose to continue pursuing their education after four years.

Just like we were with health care (and still are), we’re behind the rest of the civilized world with free college. $55 billion a year is too much to spend on free college? We currently spend over $80 billion annually on prisons.

Personally, I think college is a better investment than stuff like prisons, oil companies, and Trumps.

Music Note: It took the entire length of The Foo Fighters “The Colour and the Shape” to color this cartoon.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw: