Democrats ‘Grasping at Straws’ for Votes by Canceling Student Loan Debt: GOP Lawmaker

Canceling student loan debt is the latest bid by Democrats to win votes and prevent the House chamber from flipping red this fall, according to Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).

“Delaying this until now, pretty close to the election, is certainly a political ploy,” the congresswoman told Capitol Report, a program on The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD, hours after the Biden administration said it will forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers who meet the low-income test.

With the midterm elections nearing, Republicans are poised to take back the House, and the Democrats, Foxx said, are “grasping at straws” to appeal to their voter base.

But forgiving college loan debts—$10,000 for low-income students and $20,000 for Pell Grants recipients—is “very irresponsible on the part of the president,” both for the economic damage and the lack of cost competitiveness it creates, Foxx said.

An analysis by the University of Penn Wharton estimates that a one-time cancellation of $10,000 loan debt per borrower will cost the United States $300 billion, while a large share of the benefits going to higher income earners.

“This is bad policy in every possible way,” said Foxx, who noted that 87 percent of American taxpayers don’t owe student loans.

“It’s a wealth transfer,” she said. “It is irresponsible on their part to be transferring wealth from people who never had a chance to go to college, or who paid back their loans on their own, to people who are in the top 60 percent of earners in the country. It is just wrong.”

The policy also puts into “full center” the question why American education is so expensive in the first place, the congresswoman said, adding that Republicans have made plans to cut the cost of post-secondary education.

“As long as the federal government will continue to