President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive some student loans was attacked Sunday by former adviser to Bill Clinton, Paul Begala, who despaired at what he called “terrible policy.”
Addressing the $300 billion loan bailout during CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Democrat strategist found any number of flaws in the plan.
“Well it’s bad policy as well as bad politics. For that amount of money, you could fund free pre-K for every 3 and 4-year-old for 10 years. You can do a lot more good for poor people, communities of color and the underprivileged by doing pre-K. You could forgive all medical debt, which unlike student debt is not freely entered into,” Begala said, adding he was a “progressive.”
He called Biden’s plan “terrible policy” noting Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan also came out against the plan which fellow Democrats had previously deemed beyond the president’s powers.
Begala said Ryan couldn’t “stand this idea.”
He listed multiple Democrats who saw the policy diminishing their election chances, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Col.
“What is my party doing with this? They’re disadvantaging — I think they’re not helping the people we’re here to help, which is poor people and underprivileged communities. And they’re not helping their politicians who are running,” Begala concluded.