{"id":1403893,"date":"2022-03-28T07:59:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T11:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1403893"},"modified":"2022-03-28T08:00:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T12:00:47","slug":"kevin-d-williamson-student-loan-forgiveness-proves-democrats-are-the-party-of-the-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kevin-d-williamson-student-loan-forgiveness-proves-democrats-are-the-party-of-the-rich\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin D. Williamson: Student Loan Forgiveness Proves Democrats Are the Party of the Rich"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkevin-d-williamson-student-loan-forgiveness-proves-democrats-are-the-party-of-the-rich%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1403893&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>If you want an indication of how completely the Democrats have been transformed from the workingmen\u2019s party to the party of affluent professionals, consider how intensely progressives are pressuring President Biden to extend \u2014 for the sixth time \u2014 the freeze on college-loan repayments. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is class war \u2014 and the folks with 21st-century versions of monocles and top hats are winning.<\/p>\n<p>The people who have college loans to pay back are, on average, pretty well-off. That\u2019s no surprise: Only one in three working-age Americans are college graduates, and college graduates earn more money than people who have only high-school diplomas. So do people who go to college but don\u2019t get a degree. College-loan forgiveness is first and foremost a government handout to people who have higher-than-average incomes.<\/p>\n<p>If you know anything about higher education, you will not be surprised to learn that the people with the most college debt are the people with the highest incomes. Those big loans usually don\u2019t come from financing a liberal-arts degree at an Ivy League college: The elite schools have big money of their own, which is why, for example, the vast majority of Princeton graduates <a href=\"https:\/\/admission.princeton.edu\/cost-aid\/financial-aid-numbers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">finish with no student debt at all<\/a>, while the small share who do take out loans typically finish with less with debt less than $10,000.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/student-debt-protest.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/student-debt-protest.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1024\" alt=\"Advocates posted a sign in front of The White House in June 2021, calling on Biden to sign an executive order to cancel student debt.\" class=\"wp-image-21649944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/student-debt-protest.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/student-debt-protest.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/student-debt-protest.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Advocates posted a sign in front of The White House in June 2021, calling on Biden to sign an executive order to cancel student debt.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Paul Morigi\/Getty Images for We The 45 Million<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Instead, the big loans usually go toward financing graduate studies, especially professional education: law school, medical school, MBAs, and other preparation for high-paying careers. Americans sometimes forget where the money actually lands in our economy: Your local junior-high principal doesn\u2019t have Jeff Bezos\u2019 money, but he makes nearly $20,000 a year more than the typical architect, earning just shy of $100,000 on average in 2020,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/ooh\/management\/elementary-middle-and-high-school-principals.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. That guy can afford to pay his student loans. So can his lawyer ($126,930 average salary) and the local nurse practitioner ($117,670), who earns about as much money as the typical aerospace engineer ($118,610).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/princeton-university.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/princeton-university.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1024\" alt=\"The vast majority of Princeton graduates finish a four-year degree with no student debt at all. It&#039;s graduate students who typically rack up the highest student loan debt, while also earning the most money.\" class=\"wp-image-21649962\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/princeton-university.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/princeton-university.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/princeton-university.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>The vast majority of Princeton graduates finish a four-year degree with no student debt at all. It\u2019s graduate students who typically rack up the highest student loan debt, while also earning the most money.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Corbis via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Policy analysts, including progressives, who take the time to run the numbers consistently, come to the same conclusion: Every program for college-loan forgiveness under serious consideration disproportionately benefits high-income people. A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagobooth.edu\/review\/canceling-all-us-student-debt-would-mostly-benefit-high-earners\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study by the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s\u00a0Sylvain Catherine\u00a0and the University of Chicago\u2019s Constantine Yannelis<\/a>\u00a0finds that a universal debt-forgiveness program would benefit earners in the top 10% five times as much as those at the bottom; capping forgiveness at $50,000 \u2014 or even at\u00a0 $10,000 \u2014 would produce similar results, providing much more benefit to the well-off than to those who are struggling. As the scholars note, this is true in large part because big student loans go along with big incomes.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/high-school-principal.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/high-school-principal.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1024\" alt=\"Your local junior-high principal earned just shy of $100,000 on average in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She can afford to pay back that student loan.\" class=\"wp-image-21650009\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/high-school-principal.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/high-school-principal.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/high-school-principal.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Your local junior-high principal earned just shy of $100,000 on average in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She can afford to pay back that student loan.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The poorest Americans won\u2019t benefit much from college-loan forgiveness for the same reason they don\u2019t benefit from income-tax cuts \u2014 the same affluent people who pay most of the income taxes also have most of the college debt.<\/p>\n<p>The COVID-era freeze on repayments already has provided\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/student-loan-freeze-saves-borrowers-nearly-200-billion-as-biden-considers-extension-11647957600?mod=heardonthestreet_trending_now_article_pos2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$200 billion in benefits<\/a>\u00a0for borrowers who have relatively high incomes. That\u2019s $200 billion out of the pockets of U.S. taxpayers \u2014 including low-income taxpayers. If we want to relieve the debts of the poor, we could pay off the credit-card balances of the lowest-earning 20% of US households for half that much money. For the full $200 billion, we could buy a $350,000 house for every\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/endhomelessness.org\/homelessness-in-america\/homelessness-statistics\/state-of-homelessness-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">homeless person in the United States<\/a>. Instead, we are transferring that money to the nation\u2019s \u201cpoor, struggling\u201d personal-injury lawyers, suburban dentists, and generously compensated McKinsey dorks.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/homeless-encampment.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/homeless-encampment.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1024\" alt=\"The COVID-era freeze on repayments already has provided $200 billion in benefits for relatively high earners. That $200 billion could buy a $350,000 house for every homeless person in the US.\" class=\"wp-image-21650114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/homeless-encampment.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/homeless-encampment.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/homeless-encampment.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>The COVID-era freeze on repayments already has provided $200 billion in benefits for relatively high earners. That $200 billion could buy a $350,000 house for every homeless person in the US.\u00a0<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/president-joe-biden.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/president-joe-biden.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1024\" alt=\"Democrats know that the fight for power resides in the suburbs, where most affluent, college-educated professionals live. Forgiving student loan debt is one way to buy their votes.\" class=\"wp-image-21650129\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/president-joe-biden.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/president-joe-biden.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/president-joe-biden.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Democrats know that the fight for power resides in the suburbs, where most affluent, college-educated professionals live. Forgiving student loan debt is one way to buy their votes.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>Because Democrats prefer to use your money when buying votes. In the United States, the cities are Democratic and the countryside is Republican \u2014 the real political contest is in the suburbs, which is where those affluent, college-educated professionals live and vote.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrats are happy to help the rich get richer, as long as they vote the right way.<\/p>\n<p><em>Kevin D. Williamson is the author of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Big-White-Ghetto-Stone-Cold-America\/dp\/1621579697?tag=nypost-20&#038;asc_refurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2021%2F10%2F16%2Fbidens-trillion-dollar-budget-will-lead-to-financial-collapse%2F&#038;asc_source=web\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\">Big White Ghetto: Dead Broke, Stone-Cold Stupid, and High on Rage in the Dank Woolly Wilds of the \u2018Real America\u2019<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you want an indication of how completely the Democrats have been transformed from the workingmen\u2019s party to the party of affluent professionals, consider how intensely progressives are<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1403893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}