[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 148 (Wednesday, September 14, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4598-S4602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4483
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, have you ever gone out to eat
at a restaurant with a group of people, but your order was cheaper than
everyone else's? Maybe you weren't as hungry or the restaurant the
group picked was more expensive than you could afford so you were
selective about what you ordered. Then, when the check comes, someone
suggested the group split it evenly.
Now, what is your immediate reaction? You are upset, of course,
because you ordered the salad not the filet mignon or you drank water,
not the expensive bottle of wine. You ordered what you wanted, and they
ordered what they wanted; you shouldn't be on the hook for their cost.
Sadly, this illustration is far too real, as last month, Joe Biden
announced that he would cancel billions of dollars in student loans.
Now, let's be clear. He isn't canceling student debt. No, he is
transferring that debt to every American taxpayer. Now a construction
worker in Florida is having to foot the bill for the loans of a Harvard
grad, which they voluntarily accepted for an education they received.
So here is what Democrats are trying to say to that construction
worker: You didn't go to college; Democrats don't care. You will pay
the debt of lawyers and doctors, and you will pay for those who want
Ph.D.s in poetry. Talk about poetic injustice. You went to community
college or a State school and worked to graduate debt-free. Tough luck.
Joe Biden wants you to pay for the advanced degrees of the privileged
few. Your tax dollars are now the money pot for other people's student
debt.
Of course, Joe Biden's plan doesn't even begin to address the real
reason for rising higher education costs. That is universities'
decades-long practice of unnecessarily raising tuition.
As Governor of Florida, I addressed that problem and challenged our
universities to keep education affordable.
Look at the University of Florida. Undergraduate tuition and fees for
this academic year are less than $6,500. It is the fifth best public
university in the country. You will get a fantastic education
there. Meanwhile, at Harvard, tuition fees for an academic year cost
more than $57,000.
There are ways to make education affordable, but the Democrats and
elites aren't interested in those solutions. That is why Joe Biden is
engaging in this reckless move even though it doesn't solve the real
issue and even though he lacks the proper constitutional authority.
Everybody knows this. That is why, in July of last year, Nancy Pelosi
herself denied that the President had such power.
She said:
The president can't do it . . . That's not even a
discussion.
Yet now the Department of Justice is engaging in
interpretive gymnastics to co-opt legislation that was passed
to help our servicemembers in the aftermath of 9/11. It is a
desperate attempt to stretch a good law well beyond its
intent so that Joe Biden can give handouts to his liberal
voters and Harvard pals.
Biden wants to spend money that Congress has not appropriated for a
loan forgiveness that Congress has not authorized. It is illegal. It is
unconstitutional. It is a gross abuse of authority, and I won't stand
for it. Congress must assert its authority here. We have the power of
the purse, not the President.
That is why I have introduced the Debt Cancellation Accountability
Act. My bill would require the Department of Education to get an
express appropriation from Congress before they could propose waiving,
discharging, or reducing student loan debt to two or more borrowers in
an amount greater than $1 million. If we want to transfer the debt of
some and make everyone pay for it, then Congress has to make that
decision.
We should simply put it up for a vote. Of course, the Democrats here
in the Senate won't do that. Surely, they could have passed a bill by
now if they had really wanted to, but they wanted Biden to do it alone.
It is easy to see why. In just the past few weeks, we have heard
families from across the country speaking out against Biden's unfair
and disastrous proposal. I am hearing about it from Floridians every
day, and I know my colleagues are too.
I would like to thank Senators Barrasso, Lummis, and Braun for
supporting my Debt Cancellation Accountability Act and for choosing to
stand with me against Biden's overreach.
Let's pass this bill today to reverse Joe Biden's unlawful decision
and force Congress to decide this issue.
Before I ask for unanimous consent, I would like to turn to my
colleague Senator Braun from the great State of Indiana.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. BRAUN. I thank Senator Scott.
Mr. President, President Biden's student loan debt transfer does not
cancel or forgive anything. These debts will still be paid. It is not
like they go away.
What else does it say about the whole idea that, when you take on an
obligation and you agree to it, you can just shirk it or get rid of it?
There are many people across the country who would want to be in on
that gambit as well. He has simply shifted the cost of repayment on to
everyone, including to the 65 percent of American workers who chose not
to get a college degree. What about the aspiring plumber or electrician
who borrowed $20,000, $30,000, or $40,000 for his or her own business?
There would be no end to it.
We should focus on getting more value out of colleges rather than
giving them another reason to hike prices. Sadly, the only place where
that has been focused on is in my own home State, where Mitch Daniels,
the ex-Governor of Indiana, froze tuition into 10 years. That is
getting more value out, and that is why their enrollment has gone way
up.
With a national debt of nearly $31 trillion, we can't continue to
pile on more debt. When Senator Scott and I got here just a little over
3\1/2\ years ago, we were $18 trillion in debt. We throw ``trillions''
around now like we used to ``hundreds of billions,'' and it is on the
backs of our kids and grandkids every time we do it.
Today, Federal Student Aid owns $1.6 trillion in outstanding Federal
assets--in other words, student loans. The loan program needs to be
completely redone so that colleges will be motivated to lower costs.
This is an excuse to do the opposite.
Finally, President Biden's actions are illegal in the first place.
The President doesn't have the authority to cancel all of this debt. I
am hoping it gets taken to court, because what does it say, again, for
future generations or anyone who makes a commitment to take on debt who
can shirk it with the stroke of a pen?
Even Speaker Pelosi agreed on this point, saying she didn't think it
was legal. Yet it doesn't make any difference in this day and age as we
plow forward.
This is why the Debt Cancellation Accountability Act requires the
Department of Education to get express appropriation from Congress to
pay for any Federal student loan the Department proposes to waive,
discharge, or reduce.
I yield the floor to Senator Scott.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. I am so thankful for Senator Braun's support on
this bill and for all of the work he has done to raise awareness about
Biden's reckless spending agenda and to stand for fiscal sanity.
Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent
that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be
discharged from further consideration of S. 4483 and that the Senate
proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be
considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Massachusetts.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, this is a
shameful attempt by the Republicans to keep working Americans buried
under mountains of student debt.
[[Page S4599]]
President Biden's decision to cancel up to $20,000 of Federal student
debt for as many as 43 million Americans with incomes under $125,000 a
year is a historic step to delivering life-changing relief to working
families and to helping rebuild America's middle class.
Senator Scott's bill is just one of the Republicans' desperate
efforts to block cancelation for millions of Americans. Now, the
Republicans are happy to pass out tax breaks and regulatory loopholes
for billionaires and giant corporations, but they are fighting tooth
and nail to keep working families from getting a penny of relief.
Evidently, Senator Scott believes that $2 trillion in Republican tax
cuts that were not paid for is fine so long as those tax cuts are aimed
mostly at millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. But a
program that costs a fraction as much and for which 90 percent of its
benefits go to people earning less than $75,000 a year is now somehow a
moral outrage.
Today, he claims to worry about those taxpayers who he says will
shoulder student loan cancelation, but where was Senator Scott, or
then-Governor Scott, when Donald Trump and the congressional
Republicans handed out $2 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires and
giant corporations, not a penny of which was paid for? Where was he
then?
Well, he endorsed the Trump administration's plan to cut taxes for
corporations, and he celebrated those tax breaks for the richest among
us. He wasn't worried about how taxpayers would pay that off--not a
word about the fairness for all of the people who would bear that
burden, so long as the benefits went mostly to the rich and powerful.
Senator Scott has basically laid it all out there for America to see,
and that difference--helping billionaires or helping working families--
pretty much sums up Republican and Democratic differences across the
board. If we are cutting a break for the rich and the powerful, the
Republicans are on board. If we are trying to help out working people,
congressional Republicans take to their fainting couches and claim to
be so worried about the national debt.
Student loan cancelation is very popular in America, including with a
majority of people who have no student loan debt. That is because there
is scarcely a working person anywhere in America today who does not
know someone who is choking on student loan debt. Yet, evidently, the
Republicans in Congress live in bubbles that prevent them from meeting
any of the millions of people out there who have busted their tails,
who have worked multiple jobs, who have made their payments, and who
still watch their debt loads continue to climb.
So let me just set the record straight here. I want to repeat an
earlier point. Nearly 90 percent of relief dollars from President
Biden's cancelation will go to Americans earning less than $75,000 a
year, and none--none--of the help goes to people making more than
$125,000 a year.
Now, actually, those numbers shouldn't be shocking. Think about who
owns student loan debt. Senator Scott talked about Harvard multiple
times in his speech, but it is not the wealthy people who go to Ivy
League schools who end up with the student loan debt. It is middle- and
working-class Americans who were born into families who couldn't afford
to pay out-of-pocket. In fact, 99.7 percent of borrowers did not attend
an Ivy League school. So that would mean--what?--three-tenths of 1
percent of people who went to Ivy League schools borrowed money.
By comparison--I just looked it up while the Senator was speaking--at
the University of Florida, 15 percent have to borrow in order to make
it through to graduation. At Florida State, 26 percent--that is one in
every four people at Florida State--has to take out money in order to
be in college. At Florida A&M, the numbers are even higher: 68 percent.
More than two-thirds of the people who are in school have to take out
money in order to make it through college. This is true across the
country. At State schools, about half of all students have to borrow to
make it through. At historically Black colleges and universities, the
number is about 90 percent.
So let's be really clear about who exactly congressional Republicans
are trying to take relief away from. It is not Ivy Leaguer doctors and
lawyers. Who are the people the Senate Republicans say aren't worthy of
the kind of help that billionaires and giant corporations could get in
their big tax package? Who do Senate Republicans think should be
squeezed harder? Who do Senate Republicans say should simply be left
behind?
Well, the Senate Republicans want to leave behind the 42 percent of
borrowers who do not even have a 4-year college diploma. These are
folks who took out money--loans--in order to become a nurse's aide, to
become a mechanic, to go to beauty school, to get a commercial driver's
license to drive a truck, and, too often, the wages that they were
promised never materialized.
Senate Republicans say: Let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets the most help under President Biden's cancelation? Senator
Scott said this is all about doctors and lawyers. Let's take a look at
that.
The share of student loan borrowers who earned a cosmetology
certificate is about double the share of borrowers who got professional
degrees in law and medicine combined.
Senate Republicans say: Let those cosmetology certificate holders
struggle. Leave them behind.
Similarly, there are more student loan borrowers who took out debt to
earn a certificate for driving trucks and working on the railroad than
those who did so to become dentists and optometrists.
Senate Republicans say: Let those truckdrivers and railroad workers
struggle. Leave them behind.
It is not just the people who have 2-year degrees or certificates who
get help under President Biden's cancelation. It is the people who
don't have any degree at all. These are people who did everything our
country asked them to do by graduating from high school and advancing
their educations, but life happened: They got pregnant or they had to
take care of a sick family member, and they had to leave before
finishing their degree.
Senate Republicans say: Let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is women, who hold nearly two-thirds of all
outstanding student loan debt. Black women, in particular, shoulder a
disproportionate amount of the student loan debt burden--Black women,
who hold more debt than any other group.
Senate Republicans say: Let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is Black Americans, who borrow more money to go to
college, borrow more money in college, and have a harder time paying it
off after college. They are the ones who will see their debt eliminated
under President Biden's cancelation plan. Senate Republicans say: Let
them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is the 50 percent of Latino borrowers with debt who
will see their student loan debt completely eliminated. Senate
Republicans say let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is the millions of people who couldn't save for
retirement, or buy their first home, or start a family because of
student debt. Senate Republicans say let them struggle. Leave them
behind.
We are living in a moment when the President of the United States has
reached out, literally, to tens of millions of families and said: I am
putting government on your side. But the congressional Republicans are
determined to make this country work even better for the rich and the
powerful. That is why they are trying to pass the bill that Senator
Scott has advanced.
These Republicans are all for giving handouts to giant corporations
and billionaires. But the minute--the minute--that our country creates
a little breathing room for the millions of hard-working people whose
biggest sin is they tried to get an education and they grew up in a
family that just couldn't afford to pay for it, those Senate
Republicans are right here on this Senate floor trying to undo it.
I want to take a minute and just look at the bigger picture to see
how we got here.
We have a student debt crisis because our government stopped
investing in higher education and began shifting the costs of college
onto working families.
I went to a great public university that costs $50 a semester--a
price I could pay for on a part-time
[[Page S4600]]
waitressing job. I got to become a teacher, a law professor, and a U.S.
Senator because higher education opened a million doors for a kid like
me. But that opportunity no longer exists in America.
Today, college costs thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars.
And instead of investing taxpayer dollars to help bring down those
costs, the State governments reduced their financial support, and the
Federal Government told everyone to borrow the money they needed to
cover the rising costs of going to school. That has left millions of
Americans drowning in student loan debt.
What is worse, families have had to navigate a broken student loan
system riddled with bad actors who are trying to take advantage of and
profit off keeping them in debt.
During the Trump years, Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education,
threw in with the for-profit schools. And when students who had been
cheated asked for some help, she turned her back.
I have long pushed for more accountability and more oversight to
bring down the cost of college and to make higher education and
training programs more accessible. I have a plan for that. In fact, I
have more than one plan for that, and I welcome any Republican to join
me in helping make any of these options reality.
But cancellation is the first step to fixing a broken student loan
system and to delivering relief to families who have been trapped in it
for far too long.
One final point: The President's plan to cancel student debt will
make a huge difference for tens of millions of Americans in their day-
to-day lives. But it will do so much more. Debt cancellation is about
strengthening our whole economy. Better educated workers make us a
wealthier nation and one with more opportunity, not just for those at
the top but more opportunity for everyone.
Just consider one example. Following World War II, a grateful nation
said to returning GIs that taxpayers would pick up the cost of college
and technical training. More than 2 million veterans went to college or
graduate school and nearly 6 million used this opportunity to pursue
vocational training to become construction workers, electricians,
mechanics, and other careers. Together, these men--and they were nearly
all men--built America's middle class.
Taxpayer investments in post-high school education meant that
millions of people were better educated, and they helped fuel an
economic boom that lasted for decades and lifted this entire Nation.
And it was a bargain. Every dollar that was spent on educating our
veterans generated $7 to taxpayers. That is not even counting for the
significant boost to productivity from a more educated population. Just
think about that: a 7-to-1 payoff for investing in higher education for
all our people.
President Biden saw something that he could do to help tens of
millions of Americans struggling under the weight of student debt and
invest in the future of our economy, so he did it. Debt cancellation
was the right thing to do. That is why the majority of Americans--with
or without loans--support cancellation.
I am celebrating because cancellation will provide life-changing
relief for working families across this country. That is why I object
to the Senate Republican's shameless attempt to deny people the relief
they need.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. BRAUN. So the plan that the Democrats are going to give you, not
only on this, was put out clearly in President Biden's blueprint for
our country to put us $45 trillion in debt in 10 years, where we will
be paying as much on interest as we do on discretionary spending
domestically or the military budget. That is no business plan.
How do you think they are going to pay for the debt forgiveness? They
are going to borrow the money to do it, to backfill to pay the people
who are owed the money.
One other point of clarification. When you had a practical bill--the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was done before Senator Scott and I got
here--it was a plan to grow economic activity, a way to pay for it. Had
COVID not come along, the CBO was ready to say that it was paying for
itself because we were growing the economy at 3 percent. And the $150
billion per year over 10 years, which is chump change now compared to
the $3 trillion the Democrats have put us in debt over the last year
and a half, was growing the economy with zero inflation, raising wages
in the toughest spots for those wage earners. We have always tried to
do it without borrowing it from our kids and our grandkids.
I yield back the floor to Senator Scott.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, so let's remember what we are
talking about here. We are not canceling debt; we are transferring
debt. We are transferring the debt because this obligation doesn't go
away. Somebody still owes this money.
What we are saying is, people who decided--they made the choice--to
go to college or go to some higher education, they are not going to
have to pay their debt. And people who didn't and already paid off
their debt, they are going to pay for it.
My colleague from Massachusetts never acknowledged the example. We
all remember when we went out to dinner and we didn't spend the most
money and how somebody suggested that, oh, let's just share it. So we
paid for the expensive wine, and we paid for the expensive meal. That
is not fair.
When you talk to Americans around the country, and they say: Would
you like to forgive all the debt? Absolutely. Free is great.
But when you say: You are going to pay for it, they say: Absolutely
not. Why would I pay off the debt for somebody else?
Let's remember just what my bill does. It doesn't say we can't
forgive student loans; it says that Congress ought to decide if we do
it. This is going to cost up to $1 trillion.
I don't think we ought to, so-called, transfer this debt, but my bill
will at least give us a chance to have a debate on it. But that is not
what my colleague wants to do.
I hope my colleague understands that her objection is absolutely a
slap in the face to all those workers in Massachusetts and around the
country who didn't go to college: construction workers, small business
owners, chefs, flight attendants, firefighters, landscapers, and so
many other groups of people who have made the decision not to pursue a
higher education for whatever reason.
There are many others who worked hard to get scholarships or those
who worked part time to afford college or plenty others who took the
time to pay off their loans. I am going to stand with those people,
working-class people--people who are responsible, hard-working
Americans who absolutely are willing to pay off their obligations.
I think about people like my dad. My dad had a sixth grade education.
He was a truckdriver. He worked his tail off. I can't imagine what he
would think about working hard every day, then being forced to pay for
some other person's degree as a doctor or a lawyer. He would be beside
himself. He would think it was so unfair.
It is not how the real world works. It is a Democrat fantasyland that
Joe Biden is trying to turn into reality.
People used to take pride in paying off their debts and working hard
to see their commitments come through. Democrats want to destroy that
and destroy ideas of fiscal responsibility. They want to forget that we
are $30 trillion in debt. They want to forget that we still have
record-high inflation as a result of wasteful spending.
My colleague wants to pretend that we are in this fantasyland because
objecting to my bill is an endorsement of Biden's reckless plan and his
unconstitutional debt transfer, from the overachiever, to the Harvard
grad, to the working class.
As Members of Congress, we should be interested in checks and
balances and the separation of powers. We should guard the powers of
the Constitution that is especially reserved for the legislative
branch. Spending a trillion dollars with no congressional oversight is
wrong. That is not exactly how our Constitution was set up. This
shameless decision to block my bill is just another example of how far
Senate Democrats will go to appease the radical left.
[[Page S4601]]
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Ms. WARREN. So I am still waiting for an answer to the question:
Where were these Republicans who were talking about fiscal
responsibility and what is fair in terms of transferring costs, when it
was the billionaires and the giant corporations who were getting a $2
trillion tax break?
Let us remember--because I was here when that happened--even the
conservative economists and think tanks were saying this is going to go
on the debt balance because it is not paid for.
No. At that moment, they were willing to say: But it is going to
produce all kinds of wonderful benefits--which, of course, did not come
to pass.
What about the example I gave, the example about the investment that
we made as a country in our returning veterans; the fact that we
invested so 2 million of them could get college diplomas, so that
millions more could get technical degrees? What about the fact that the
numbers show American taxpayers got a return on that investment of 7 to
1? This really is about who we invest in.
It seems that what Senator Scott is saying is people shouldn't go to
school. If you are in a family that you can't guarantee that you are
going to have some assets to back you up, if you ever have to think
about the fact that you might get sick, you might fall down, you might
get hurt, and you might not be able to finish, or you might not be able
to turn that degree into a high-paying job, or you might graduate at a
moment when the economy is in a slump, what Senator Scott seems to be
saying is: Don't order off that menu. Don't go to school. Don't try to
get a post-high school certificate in cosmetology. Don't try to get a
certificate for truckdriving school. Don't try to get a 2-year diploma.
Don't try to get a 4-year diploma. That is not going to make America a
better or richer country. That is not going to be an America that is
going to open opportunities.
The next time Senator Scott or any other Republican talks to me about
fair, I would ask them to explain to me what is fair that the daughter
of a janitor a half a century ago could go to a good 4-year college on
$50 a semester? Why? Because American taxpayer invested in those public
colleges and universities. And today that opportunity is not there for
a single one of our kids.
When you want to talk about who has college debt, instead of talking
about the three-tenths of 1 percent of Ivy League grads who have
college debt, look at the 68 percent of Florida A&M grads who have
college debt. That is shameful. We need to be an America that is about
creating more opportunities, not closing them off for tens of millions
of people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, first off, my colleague never
addressed the issue that this is a transfer of obligation. I mean, you
can have a conversation about what we should have done with regard to
tax cuts in the past, but this is a transfer of obligation. This is a
transfer of obligation of people who decided to go to school.
We should do everything we can to help people, but we are not
addressing the problem here. I addressed it when I was Governor. When I
became Governor in January of 2011, tuition in Florida was going up 15
percent a year, plus inflation. I stopped it. We didn't see tuition
increase while I was Governor, and we became the No. 1 higher education
system in the country according to U.S. News & World Report.
We solved the problem of the cost of higher education to make sure
people could afford education. We did it because we invested, we kept
tuition low, and we paid our universities based on three things: do you
get a degree, how much money you make, and what does it cost to get a
degree. So, guess what, all of our universities became more efficient
and more accountable.
That is how you fix the problem. This does not fix the problem. This
does nothing to reduce tuition. This does nothing to hold our
universities accountable. This does nothing to stop our universities
from raising tuition. This does nothing to require our universities to
make sure our kids get a job. This does nothing to make sure our kids
get good-paying jobs.
So I am very disappointed in my colleague in that she would still not
address the issue that that is a complete transfer of obligation from
some people who decided to go get a higher education to people who
decided not to.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, would the Senator yield for a question?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Would the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. I yield the floor.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I want to ask the Senator if he believes
that the 68 percent of students at Florida A&M University who have
student loan debt should never have gone to college because it turns
out their families couldn't afford to pay for college in Florida.
Should they just never have tried?
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Are you finished?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Absolutely. I did everything I could to make
sure all of our students had the opportunity to go to school. We made
sure that they could afford to go to school.
What I have said in my bill today is this ought to be done by
Congress. And let's don't just do some blanket transfer of obligations
here. Congress should be doing this. This is going to cost us up to $1
trillion, and we are going to have people like my dad, if he was still
alive--a truckdriver with a sixth-grade education--pay for some Ivy
League kid to go to school, and that is wrong.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, can I ask for a clarification of that
answer?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Ms. WARREN. So, among the 68 percent of Florida A&M students who have
student loan debt--I believe I heard the Senator say he made it
possible for them to afford college, and I am wondering if he could
explain how they could have afforded college without taking on that
whole student loan debt.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I am not suggesting you
shouldn't borrow money, but what I am suggesting is, if you do borrow
money, you made that decision, all right? You shouldn't transfer it to
somebody like my dad, who had a sixth-grade education, couldn't afford
to go to school, didn't go to school. There shouldn't be a transfer to
make sure they pay off your debt. That is a decision you make. You
should pay it off.
Now, if you have an issue because you can't pay it, let's deal with
that issue. That is not what this does. This says, whatever your
issues, Joe Biden says, by himself, without any act of Congress--he
gets to make a decision by himself: Poof, your debt goes away; somebody
else picks it up. That is not right.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I am really delighted that my colleague
from Florida is suddenly concerned about transfers of wealth--I really
am--because, as he may or may not know, over the last 30 years, there
has been a massive transfer of wealth. The problem is, it has gone in
the wrong direction.
We are talking about the shrinking of the middle class. We are
talking about trillions of dollars going to the top 1 percent. And we
are ending up in a situation today where you have billionaires and you
have large corporations that don't pay a nickel in Federal taxes.
I always find it interesting that whenever Congress does something--
ever so rarely--that benefits working people and low-income people,
there is an uproar: Oh my God, you are helping young people and working
people; you are helping poor people. What a terrible thing to do.
But there is massive silence when you give gigantic tax breaks to the
1 percent or large corporations that are now doing phenomenally well.
So my colleague from Florida is interested in the transfer of wealth?
Let's work together. Let's make sure that the working class in this
country--not just the billionaires--get a fair shake. Let's help young
people. Let's start canceling the student debt that we should have done
years ago.
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The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, well, first off, let me make
sure my colleague from Vermont knows my background. I actually grew up
in public housing, born to a single mom. I do care about people, making
sure you can get an education. That is why I did exactly what I did in
Florida. I made sure people had the opportunity to get ahead.
The 4 years before I became Governor of Florida, the State lost
832,000 jobs. By cutting taxes and reducing the regulations and
streamlining things, we added 1.7 million jobs so people all over my
State could get a job. That is how people get ahead. You don't get
ahead by just somebody transferring obligations from one person to
somebody else. That improves a few people's lives, but that is
completely unfair. That is not how this country was set up, that some
people are going to pay for somebody else's obligation that they
decided to pick up, and that is all I am talking about.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, you know, I really do think about this
transfer question, and I find myself asking: Who paid for Jeff Bezos's
yacht? Is it the taxpayers who said: Now, we--America's middle class,
America's working class--are actually going to have to pick up the
slack. And they will be the ones who have to pay to keep the military.
They are the ones who will have to pay for roads and bridges. They are
the ones who will pay for investment in science. But the billionaires
can get richer and richer and richer and pay little or nothing in
taxes. That is a giant transfer, and yet none of our Republican
colleagues seem interested in talking about that transfer and just
putting a stop to the outflow from hard-working, middle-class families
over to the billionaires and the giant corporations.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I think who paid for Jeff
Bezos's yacht is all the people who bought packages from Amazon. And by
the way, if you do get one that says ``Made in China,'' I hope
everybody will send it back.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.