The White House Twitter account is masterfully trolling Republicans who've come out against Democratic President Joe Biden's plan to forgive some student loan debt by pointing out they had significantly more forgiven under a government program designed to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden student debt plan has been hailed for helping borrowers with lower credit scores and opening up the opportunity for millions of people to catch up on rent and utility bills as well as save money that would have otherwise gone to their student loans. The plan forgives $10,000 - $20,000 for individuals making less than $125,000, or couples making less than $250,000.
But Republicans such as Georgia GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene say the plan is nothing more than an attempt to curry favor with liberal voters ahead of November's midterm elections.
Earlier, Greene told Newsmax Democrats "need votes in November so the timing is pure coincidence," adding the policy is "completely unfair" to taxpayers who "never took out a student loan," including those who never received a college education or are "just hardworking people."
Her interview caught the attention of the White House, which quickly pointed out Greene had $183,504 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans—which are backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and were designed to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 pandemic—forgiven by the government.
The White House later pointed out Florida Republican Representative Vern Buchanan—who blasted "Biden's reckless, unilateral student loan giveaway"—by pointing out he had $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven by the federal government.
Oklahoma Republican Representatives Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern had "over $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven" and "over $1 million in PPP loans forgiven" respectively.
The White House couldn't forget Pennsylvania Republican Representative Mike Kelly "had $987,237 in PPP loans forgiven."
Or that Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz also benefited because he "had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven" himself.
And as far as Twitter users were concerned, the White House's social media game was on point.
President Biden had something to say as well.
The POTUS tweeted:
"To those Republicans in Congress who believe student debt shouldn’t be forgiven:"
"I will never apologize for helping America’s middle class—especially not to the same folks who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut for the wealthy and giant corporations that racked up the deficit."
According to the White House, the overwhelming majority of student loan relief will benefit those earning less than $75,000 a year, and no one in the top five percent of wage earners will benefit from the plan.
The plan—which also extends the pause on student loan debt repayments to December 31, 2022—is projected to cost the federal government around $244 billion. Forgiveness for those who've received Pell Grants will cost an additional $120 billion.
In his remarks while announcing the decision, Biden said canceling some debt would allow many people to "finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt to get on top of their rent and utilities, to finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business."
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads