On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” Washington Post columnist, CNN Commentator, and “PBS NewsHour” Special Correspondent Catherine Rampell stated that President Joe Biden’s loan cancellation plan shows “the demographics of the Democratic Party have shifted, and it is increasingly a highly-educated, higher-income party, and so they feel like they have to give away some goodies” to the higher end of the income scale and it’s a “sort of flip side of some of the arguments that you’ve heard from Republicans over the years, that the only way to help the poor is to give tax cuts to the rich.”
Rampell said, “Democrats seemed to have decided that the only way to help the needy, the only way to help the poor and the middle class is also to give some money to the rich, which is a sort of flip side of some of the arguments that you’ve heard from Republicans over the years, that the only way to help the poor is to give tax cuts to the rich. In this case, the argument from the progressive left is, well, the only way we can help people who are struggling with student debt is to also give forgiveness to households making $250,000 a year, which is what this plan does. Now, it may not be that those people get the majority of the benefits, but they will get money. I mean, that is money that could be used for other purposes. That is money that could be used on the child tax credit or a million other things that progressives normally claim to care more about. I find it a little bit frustrating that the progressive left has insisted on — in a number of their ways of thinking about remaking government — has insisted on the only way to help those who are needy is also by giving away benefits to the upper middle class.”
She continued, “And sometimes, the argument is a political one, like, well, the only way we can get buy-in is if rich people benefit, too. I think, in this case, it’s basically that the demographics of the Democratic Party have shifted, and it is increasingly a highly-educated, higher-income party, and so they feel like they have to give away some goodies essentially to the investment banker who recently — the future investment banker who just got their MBA is going to get debt relief from this, for example. Someone who might be a plastic surgery resident today who might have a moderate income who’s going to make $400,000 next year, they’re going to get some of their debt wiped out. The way that this was designed effectively gives away quite a bit of money — making the plan more expensive than it otherwise needs to be, essentially — to some of these constituencies that I think the party has now decided are more important to them.”
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