Biden's Illegal Vote Buying Scheme

 

Before I even get into the absurdity of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, let me dispel the White House’s pathetic and deceptive answer as to how they plan to pay for this scheme.  They suggest that, “the work (they) have done to reduce the deficit” is what is going to pay for this vote-buying boondoggle.  That is an utterly false statement.  In the first three years (pre-pandemic) of the Trump administration, America’s budget deficits averaged about $800 billion.  In 2020, due to the additional programs to confront the pandemic (PPP, FPUC, LWA, Warp Speed, etc.) our deficit exploded to over $3 TRILLION.  Even in 2021 our deficit was still about $3 TRILLION. 

As the expenses for fighting the Pandemic go away, of course our deficits were going to go down no matter who was President.  We ran huge deficits, for example during World War II.  In 1943 through 1945 our deficits were 10 times the pre-war amounts, but by 1947 (after the war) our deficits were actually below pre-war levels.  Did Truman run a campaign of smaller government and reduced deficits?  No.  The expenses of the war (building ships and planes and an army) simply went away.  The same thing has happened with Joe Biden.  He has done nothing to reduce our deficits.  The costs of fighting the pandemic have simply gone away, yet Biden continually tries to take credit for that inevitability.  In fact, in 2023 our deficit is projected to be over $1.2 TRILLION, an amount greater than any Trump year, and that projection does not include the Student Loan Forgiveness plan or the Inflation Reduction Act.  So, here’s the truth – Biden is not cutting the size or cost of the federal government.  Pandemic costs are simply ceasing.  In fact, he is actually increasing our deficits and debt well above pre-pandemic rates just as interest rates are increasing.  Not a good idea.

Side note – I didn’t like the deficits under Trump either and I wrote about it, but I felt I had to reveal the truth about Biden’s misleading deficit reduction claims so that you, my readers, could at least know the truth.

Now that we know that this plan is NOT paid for, we can discuss the mountain of flaws in this it.  First, notice that I didn’t call this an Act or law passed by Congress.  It is a “plan” hatched by one man.  President Biden is using a law passed to protect our service men and women from the extra pressure of student loan debt while they were deployed.  He knows he can’t get it passed through Congress because there is too much resistance even in his own party, so he is acting like a king or monarch or dictator and spending hundreds of billions if not a TRILLION dollars on his sole authority.  It’s the Nancy Pelosi approach to spending - pass it and then find out later what it costs.  Our Founders would be rolling over in their graves.

Next, this is a targeted vote-buying scheme aimed at a group of people Biden is having a particular problem with.  New polls have indicated that only 21% of young adults 18-34 approve of the President’s performance.  So, this narcissistic, short-term thinker, has decided to spend up to a TRILLION dollars of your money to buy those votes.  Who needs a campaign fund when you can just spend hardworking Americans’ money at your personal discretion.  That’s pathetic, King Biden.

This “plan” also punishes 85% of Americans who don’t have student loan debt.  Almost 60% of Americans have decided not to even go to college.  Then there are millions more who worked through college or whose parents sacrificed to send them through college without incurring any debt.  Then there are those who used student loans to get through college, but have since worked hard and pinched pennies to pay off those loans.  Where are their checks? This “plan” punishes the hard working and diligent by taking their money to forgive debt legally and knowingly incurred.

And what message are we sending to colleges and universities in America?  This is a green light to continue to raise prices, which is the real problem we are facing.  According to InflationData.com, the cost of attending college since 1980 has grown at a rate four times faster than general inflation in this country.  And the easy access to money through the student loan program has been a major factor in these excessive cost increases.

But the biggest question we should be asking is this – Is this even legal?  Just a year ago, Nancy Pelosi said, “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness.  He does NOT.”  She added, “That has to be an act of Congress.”  I don’t agree with Nancy on much, but I do agree with her on this.  Or at least I agree with the Nancy Pelosi of one year ago.  Today, she is supporting Biden’s plan.  Maybe she just forgot her earlier statement.  She is 82.  Maybe it’s time for her to go home and take some memory classes.

And finally, this could be the death knell for the entire student loan program.  What idiot would ever pay back their student loan in the future?  Debt forgiveness will become the expectation, not the exception. 

 

PS – Colleges like Harvard, which has an endowment of over $50 Billion, should be ashamed to have any student endure more than five years of repayment of student loan debt before THEY cancel it.  That would elevate the value of their degrees and begin to change their reputations as loathsome, elitist institutions.

Don't Be Deceived

 

It saddens me that I have to continue to remind my readers about the duplicitous nature of our government and its leaders and the media.  About two years ago, I wrote an article entitle “How Can I Lie to Thee, Let Me Count the Ways”.  It was about how politicians and journalists (so called) can distort the truth through lies of omission, exaggeration and even “in your face” boldface lies.  Well, last week there a couple of whoppers that you need to be informed about.

First, Joe Biden got on national TV and tried to tell the country that there was “Zero” inflation in July.  For the naysayers, let me quote him exactly.  He said, “I just want to say a number: Zero.  Today, we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July.”  That, of course was not true.  Just a few minutes before, it was announced that we experienced 8.5% inflation in July.  But then Joe confused his audience even further by trying to explain his claim.  He went on to say, “Here’s what that means.  While the price of some things went up, the prices of others things went down by the same amount.  The result?  Zero inflation last month.” 

What he didn’t tell you was that was a month to month comparison, and that is NOT how economists measure inflation.  Inflation is measured by comparing the current month’s prices to the same month in the previous year.  And THAT number was 8.5%, another almost 40 year high.  He also didn’t tell you that if you had done the same month-to-month comparison in June, you would have found a 17.2% increase.  I don’t remember him touting that number last month.  Plus, after a huge month-to-month gain like that, is it right to be bragging about a monthly result that was just as bad?  Either Joe doesn’t understand the fundamentals of our economy or he is trying to deceive a small number of people who will hear his claim of ZERO inflation and not question it.  Either way, it speaks poorly of the President’s grasp of the issue or his honesty.

Joe does, however, seem to have an affinity for the word Zero.  Remember, last year he claimed that his $3.5 Trillion Build Back Better bill would cost us “Zero”.  Unfortunately for Joe, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) and fact checkers found that claim to be totally false.  Not only would it have to be paid for by increasing taxes, but it would also add hundreds of billions of dollars to our nation’s debt.  Beware of politicians who suggest that their programs won’t cost you anything.

The other “whopper” of the week was told by our Attorney General, Merrick Garland.  When speaking of the raid on Donald Trump’s home at Mar-A-Lago, Garland said that he and the FBI do not make decisions like this lightly, and that, “where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search, and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken.”  Now, what he said might be true, and by making that statement he is suggesting that is exactly what he and the FBI did in this particular case, but that is not at all true.

First of all, he could have just attained a subpoena for the materials that he wanted.  That would have been “less intrusive”, but that is not what he did.  He obtained a search warrant, which was very public, with lights flashing and 30 armed FBI agents in the pitch darkness of the early morning in Florida.  Second, the warrant, which we have now seen, was not “narrowly scoped”.  This warrant allowed FBI agents to search any room in his home not occupied by other people and to take “any governmental and / or Presidential records created between January 20/2017 (Trump’s inauguration day) and January 20/2021 (Biden’s Inauguration day).  This allowed 30 agents to search every room or other buildings for eight hours (a total of 240 man-hours).  This search allowed them to forage through his safe and Melania’s closet.  It also, somehow, included taking his passports.  I would not describe this as a “narrow scope”.  You can decide.  Don’t take Merrick Garland’s word for it.  Use your own judgement.

There have also been a couple more attempts at misdirection by this administration.  They just passed the “Inflation Reduction Act” by twisting arms in their own party and without a single Republican vote.  What an achievement!  (that is sarcasm) According to the CBO and many Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, this act will not have any impact on inflation.  In fact, there are hundreds of conservative economists who predict that this law will actually make inflation worse.  Don’t be deceived by the name.

Finally, Democrats will tell you that last night’s drubbing of Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primaries is a sign that democracy is under assault.  Actually, that is a sign that our democracy can work as designed.  The people of Wyoming voted her out of office because she is engaged in an obsession with Donald Trump and not working on the needs and desires of the Wyoming citizens.  Don’t believe the misdirection.  This is exactly how our democracy is supposed to work.  The power is in the hands of the people, not the press or the politicians.  Watch out for the deception as it will come in many forms from both DC and the media!!