We put five children through college (one is still attending). We saved up. We never took out any loans, as we didn’t want our kids burdened with debt. Our kids went to William and Mary, Mary Washington, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania. So far, the total costs for these colleges have been well more than $600,000.
Last week, Biden forced taxpayers to assume nearly $6 billion in federal student loans for 560,000 borrowers. News stories announced the decision on forcing taxpayers to pay off the loans for others appears delayed until closer to the election. While some debt is likely to be paid off by taxpayers, Democrats will probably keep other borrowers locked in politically by continuing to freeze repayments and warning that Republicans will end that.
Should we have just borrowed all of this money and sent our kids to public universities? If so, we could have had $600,000 to spend on all sorts of other things — nicer cars, nicer houses, or fun trips. Or it is money that we could have given our children and grandchildren when we die. We always purchased used cars that were a year old. My Ford Taurus lasted for 16 years and had more than 225,000 miles. My wife’s Pontiac Transport lasted almost as long before rust meant that it could no longer pass the state’s yearly safety check.
Unfair to Financially Responsible
But we didn’t complain. We promised our children that if they worked hard and got into a good college, we would figure out a way to pay for them to go there. We were proud of our children’s hard work, and we thought that going to a top university was important for their success in life.
So, because we saved up and behaved responsibly, President Joe Biden will punish us. Those who didn’t save or work 80- to -90-hour weeks, who spent their money on nice things, now get us and other taxpayers to pick up the tab for their kids’ education.
How exactly is that fair?
Nor is it fair to those who don’t go to college. The people who go to college generally tend to be the future wealthy in the country. Why should those who didn’t go to college and are relatively poorer end up giving large amounts of money to those who did go and are going to be wealthy?
Making Our Country Poorer
Has anyone thought about the impact that these policies will have on people’s behavior? It tells people that they don’t need to save up to send their kids to college. That they don’t need to save up to buy their first homes. If Biden wins and enacts his programs, Americans will surely reduce their already low savings rates. That will make our country poorer.
Biden’s rhetoric keeps on discussing preferential treatment for public universities, and could be the death knell for many private schools, which already have a hard time competing against heavily taxpayer-subsidized public universities. The Obama administration put private, for-profit colleges out of business, and a Biden administration will finish the job with many nonprofit private colleges.
Student debt has ballooned over the last decade, but the cause is rather ironic. At the beginning of the Obama administration, the government took over student loans from banks. But the government was much less concerned than banks were about getting their money back. It just kept giving out loans, even if it looked like the student would never be able to pay it back. So now we have a situation in which the government lends out too much money to some people who went into fields that don’t pay enough.
Biden and the Democrats are outright buying votes. Promising tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to young people is nothing short of bribery. And to do so, they are using my family’s money and the money of other families that made sacrifices for their children.
This article first appears on The Federalist.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Dr. John R. Lott, Jr. founded the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC). An economist and a world-recognized expert on guns and crime, Lott served the Trump administration as the Senior Advisor for Research and Statistics at the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Policy.
“Government” has no business being in the loan business.
James Madison wrote “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” He later added, “[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
Let’s go, Brandon! Remember in November.
My kids both worked and paid off their student loans, why should my taxes go to pay off other kids loans, Biden has no right to use my tax money to pay off (mostly rich) kids loans, how dare he, how dare he!
You’re right. For sure he’s buying as well as stealing votes. This clown is not capable of securing votes because he’s competent so must use tactics losers woujd have to use. You get a loan …you pay it back. That simple. What I see as a problem tho is the TOTALLY FREE ride the inept clown is giving illegals. Free everything. Now they get licenses! Of course….so they have an identity..,.to vote. He’s the absolute worst President in US history and Harris is his marching worst VP in history. Both are jokes which is not funny, except to all the terrorists, criminals coming here and to world leaders
Great
LOL. Democrats VOTED for it! Thank Them.
Ohh no
And, why should we pay off the loan for some snowflake, that took out $100,000+ loans for a gender studies degree, and they CAN’T get a job? Demoncrats are BUYING votes with OUR money!
My wife has two Master’s degrees in Psychology but they kept moving the markers. Even though she has been working as a Mental Health Therapist for YEARS she cannot be licensed unless she gets a third degree, a doctorate. She is stuck making less than a BA degree social worker. Although I completely see the argument, we will take the student loan payoff, if offered, because the government screwed us over on moving the licensing markers twice on us and at this point she will retire (I already am) before we can ever make enough to repay it on few years of hourly she has left and my social security before we die.
Just informing, there are many different ways the system failed. Oh and I have no issue calling out Grand Canyon University for screwing her out of four years of school to end up with the “cutting edge degree” no state in the country will look at twice for licensing. The first time going her degree was “one elective short” of eligible. That’s right she could have taken Klingon or origami for a semester and been eligible for licensing after the first time degree. Then the markers changed again. IF she was licensed, doing the SAME JOB for the SAME employer she would make three times what she makes.
It is bs.
Accountabilitey is no longer in effect. Murder, rape, assault, burglary, arson….now school loans because Sandy Cortez & other squad members think school loans are racist…soon it will be home loans,…then any loan.
The Federal government gave out billions & billions of dollars to people who took out fake PPE loans & will do little to recover the money. This would include loans taken out by elites & millionaires, friends & family of Congress & the WH & dirt bags while real people & small businesses couldn’t get the “free” money.
The monies never trickle down to those in need.