[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S181]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             STUDENT LOANS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on a related matter, there are lots 
of egregious ways that President Biden has wasted taxpayer money trying 
to buy up his low approval ratings, but the Democrats' proposal for 
student loan socialism is really one of the worst.
  It is like the Democrats paid scientists in a lab to invent the most 
unfair government handout that could possibly, possibly exist. 
Democrats want to take the graduate school loans of doctors and lawyers 
and white-collar professionals making six figures and put their debt on 
the shoulders of Americans who didn't take out loans at all.

  To the middle-class families who saved, sacrificed, and skipped 
vacations to pay for more of their kids' college, the Democrats want to 
turn you into suckers.
  To the plumbers, firefighters, checkout clerks, and auto mechanics 
who made career choices to avoid taking on debt, the Democrats think 
dentists and the lawyers deserve extra handouts at your expense.
  To the patriots who volunteered to serve our Nation in uniform as 
part of a plan to attend college debt-free, the Democrats want to 
change the rules behind your back.
  President Biden and his party wake up every day looking for ways to 
transfer money and power away from the working class toward elites. But 
even for today's Democratic Party, this one is especially galling.
  This is ``reverse Robin Hood'' policy: Democrats stealing from the 
working class to reward people who are comparatively better off. It 
just isn't fair on a personal level. It is also staggeringly reckless 
fiscal policy.
  Remember, this whole undertaking was first set up as a short-term 
emergency measure at the very start of COVID--those earliest weeks when 
the entire economy seemed to be in a free fall. That was almost 3 years 
ago.
  Shortly afterward, thanks to the bipartisan CARES Act that came out 
of the Republican-led Senate, the economy rebounded. Household savings 
actually went up. Many white-collar professionals spent months, if not 
years, working remotely from the comfort of their living rooms. Any 
legitimate reason for pausing loan payments evaporated just a few 
months after it began, but the Democrats have kept it going, year after 
year. Now they want to magically wave away people's debts altogether. 
Needless to say, this would be enormously expensive for the country.
  If you add up the cost of three things: the nearly 3-year-long 
``pause'' thus far, the mass jubilee the Biden administration is trying 
to defend in court, and the Democrats' proposal to turn the income-
driven payment program into permanent socialism, the total cost of 
these three measures is projected to hit $1 trillion--$1 trillion.
  This estimate is from our colleague Senator Cassidy, who is shining a 
bright spotlight on these terrible policies as the incoming ranking 
member of the HELP Committee.
  On top of all the reckless inflationary spending the Democrats have 
pushed through, they want to redistribute up to another trillion 
dollars away from working-class Americans toward college-educated 
people who already earn higher salaries on average.
  The Democrats want to squeeze even more money out of cashiers, 
welders, first responders, janitors, and cosmetologists and send it to 
a group of people who already outearn those people on an average 
basis--more reckless spending, more debt inflation, and no fairness for 
American families.

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