Washington Post Blasts Biden’s Student Loan ‘Mistake’: ‘A Windfall for Those Who Don’t Need It’

Anna Moneymaker, Getty

The editorial board of the Washington Post published a scathing editorial in the wake of President Joe Biden announcing student debt forgiveness of up to $20,000 for anyone making under $125,000 on Wednesday.

The editorial’s headline denounced the move as “a regressive, expensive mistake” and the argument in the piece itself was even more scathing.

“Under progressive pressure to force grandiose policy changes, President Biden has generally embraced sensible reforms over flashy gimmicks. But his Wednesday student loan announcement did just the opposite,” the editorial board began, clearly laying blame for the policy on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

The board then defended former President Donald Trump’s 2020 decision to pause student loan payments during the pandemic, but concluded no such emergency rationale exists anymore and can be given to Biden’s recent move.

The article then explains why the board labeled the debt relief “regressive.”

“It takes money from the broader tax base, mostly made up of workers who did not go to college, to subsidize the education debt of people with valuable degrees,” the board argues, adding:

Though Mr. Biden’s plan includes an income cap, the threshold does not reflect need or earnings potential, meaning white-collar professionals with high future salaries stand to benefit. Student loans, moreover, are a poor proxy for household income

The board goes on to call the policy “expensive” and likely “inflationary,” arguing that the $300 billion price tag for student debt relief wipes away any long-term gains made by the Inflation Reduction Act in terms of combatting the deficit.

The board concluded by acknowledging Biden didn’t go as far as many progressives would have liked and argued that a better policy would have been “expanding Pell Grants and other college finance programs pinpointed to the truly needy.”

The solidly left-leaning paper concluded by pulling no punches and concluded Biden’s program will only “provide a windfall for those who don’t need it — with American taxpayers footing the bill.”