The Patriot Post® · Biden's Student Loan Debt Pawns

Just because you want something doesn’t mean you’re entitled to it. This is a lesson a child usually learns at a very young age. Unfortunately, it seems many college-educated adults have yet to grasp this fundamental truth.

Back in October, the COVID-initiated repayment pause on college student loans was lifted, and borrowers who had effectively been given a three-and-a-half-year reprieve were once again expected to uphold their end of the bargain and start repaying their debts.

However, what should have never been a political issue was turned into one by Joe Biden. In a blatant attempt to buy votes, Biden made the ridiculous argument that students who took on these loans of their own free will should have them forgiven.

Of course, that “forgiveness” did not mean that the debt was magically eliminated, as Biden insinuated. Rather, it meant that the loan was transferred to the American taxpayers, many of whom have either already paid off their own student loan debt or never took on any debt in the first place.

Yet even after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s original loan cancellation gambit — which he attempted to pursue as a dubious expansion of the HEROES Act — he effectively thumbed his nose at the ruling and sought other means to do so. And all in the name of “justice” and “equity,” of course.

Thus, while Biden was unable to implement his initial massive $430 billion student loan heist, he has so far been able to engage in a smaller, more targeted scheme that has succeeded in transferring some $132 billion in debt from borrowers to taxpayers.

The lesson thus being imparted by the American president is that only suckers repay their debts. Perhaps even more damaging, however, is the devaluation of higher education and the culturally destructive promotion of socialism.

Indeed, some 25% of student loan borrowers have failed to make any repayments on their loans since the pandemic pause ended. Apparently, they’re holding out for Biden (and maybe Congress) to forgive them their lawful debts.

As Job Creators Network Foundation President Elaine Parker observed, these borrowers are effectively “throwing a temper tantrum about having to repay their loans after a 3½-year payment holiday.” But Biden is principally to blame “because he has continually given them false hope that their loans will eventually be canceled.”

As Parker continued: “Many borrowers hope their turn will be next, but they risk financial ruin by taking this gamble. Rather than demanding that taxpayers forgive their loans, students should protest their colleges for saddling them with these debts in the first place.”

Thus far, only 40% of borrowers have met their monthly repayment totals since the pandemic-era pause was lifted, while another 35% have made some payments.

The trouble is that of those repayment “boycotters,” 86% believe it will work to bring attention to their demands, while 64% believe it will encourage more lawmakers to embrace student loan cancellations. In addition to sticking it to their fellow Americans, these borrowers are hurting their prospects for future borrowing, say for the purchase of a home.

In the meantime, they will be used as political pawns for Biden’s reelection campaign.

Now, he can simply point to their plight and blame it on those mean-spirited Republicans.