After announcing his student debt cancellation policy that will forgive up to $20,000 in student debt on Wednesday, President Joe Biden received some backlash from conservative critics. But the White House responded with its own heat.
The White House Twitter account reminded Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a frequent Biden critic, that she was once a recipient of the Paycheck Protection Program, established by former President Donald Trump during the pandemic to help small businesses.
“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,” it wrote above a clip of Greene in an interview with Newsmax.
In the clip Greene says the new loan forgiveness policy is unfair to taxpayers who will have to pay off the debt—and that it’s a part of the administration’s agenda to win votes in November, mockingly saying that the timing is purely coincidental.
In additional posts on Twitter Thursday, the White House called out Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), who it says, had over $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven; Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who it says, had over $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven; Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), who it says, had over $1 million in PPP loans forgiven; and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who it says, had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven.
Each Republican the White House put on blast had criticized Biden’s student loan forgiveness.
President Joe Biden also had his own response for congressional Republicans criticizing and mocking his student debt forgiveness plan.
“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,” he wrote on Twitter Thursday.
Biden’s tweet echoed his speech from Wednesday after announcing his student debt cancellation policy.
He based some of his presidential campaign on the potential of student loan forgiveness, and going through with the plan could be helpful for Democrats ahead of midterm elections in November. Loan forgiveness, like the Inflation Reduction Act before it that addressed climate change and health care, is giving Biden some policy wins to point to.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Twitter said Biden’s student debt cancellation is a “wildly unfair redistribution of wealth toward high-earning people,” with no comment on the policy’s income-based cap.
“Democrats’ student loan socialism is a slap in the face to working Americans who sacrificed to pay their debt or made different career choices to avoid debt,” he said in a statement posted to his website.
Sen. Ted Cruz called the policy insane and illegal.
“We have the highest inflation in 40 years/highest gas prices ever, but Biden wants to spend even more at the expense of hard-working Americans,” he wrote on Twitter. “The middle class will be stuck with the bill – it’s debt transfer. This is just a Hail Mary before midterms.”