OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Every member of the Nebraska congressional delegation, unsurprisingly, pushed back on President Joe Biden’s executive order forgiving the student loan debt of tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans.
Biden on Wednesday promised to forgive $10,000 to anybody with federal student loans and up to $20,000 to Pell Grant recipients.
While Biden argued that student loan debt can be a lifelong burden that deprives people of a middle-class life, Nebraskans in Congress, all Republicans disagreed with the policy.
Senator Ben Sasse said Biden’s plan baptizes a broken system and instead of focusing on the institutions causing the debt “his debt forgiveness scheme forces blue-collar workers to subsidize white-collar graduate students,” said Sasse.
Rep. Don Bacon called it Robin Hood in reverse, saying it hurts those that already paid off their loans.
“Those who worked two jobs to pay off their school debt or selected the most cost effective means to gain an education got the shaft from Joe Biden,” said Bacon.
Senator Deb Fischer hit on both Bacon’s and Sasse’s points while also saying it’ll add to inflation.
“Yet another economically backwards policy from the Biden administration that unfairly pushes the burden of these loans onto all American taxpayers and further fuels the inflation fire,” said Fischer.
Still, according to Educationdata.org,nearly a quarter of million Nebraskans stand to benefit.Their stats show that the average Nebraskan with loans owes around $31,000. And the move by Biden will take at least 18 percent of Nebraskans off loans entirely.
Over half of Nebraska borrowers are under the age of 35.
Nebraska’s newest member of Congress, Rep. Mike Flood called on congressional Republicans to continue to work against Biden.
“Instead of this, Congress needs to work to make education more affordable and to fight against Joe Biden’s policies that are encouraging colleges to raise tuition and push working families and students into even further into debt,” said Flood.
While the plan limits student loan forgiveness to anybody making below $125,000 a year, Flood’s colleague Adrian Smith said it will help the wealthy.
“This is a disastrous combination that will benefit the highest earners while leaving lower and middle-income Americans on the hook for a radical, reckless proposal with no accountability. President Biden must abandon this debt transfer scheme,” said Smith.
Nebraskans in total owed about $7.9 million in student loan debt.
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