[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 108 (Wednesday, June 21, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         STUDENT LOAN GIVEAWAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in opposition to President 
Biden's student loan scam and urge my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle to vote to override President Biden's veto of H.J. Res. 45, which 
would overturn this ridiculous misuse of taxpayer dollars and transfer 
of wealth from the working class to our country's most wealthy and 
educated citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, middle Tennessee is home to many hardworking, blue-
collar workers who do everything they can to provide for their families 
and live within their means. Many of them made tough decisions to 
forego attending college to pursue careers in skilled trades like 
becoming an electrician, a plumber, or carpenter, each valuable skill 
sets and careers that keep our communities running and provide services 
we could never live without.
  In fact, 66 percent of the folks in Tennessee's Sixth Congressional 
District have no college degree. This, along with those who responsibly 
took out student loans and paid them back, means that an estimated 
759,000 people whom I represent are ineligible for the Biden 
administration's proposed student loan giveaway.
  To put this into perspective, the total population of Tennessee's 
Sixth Congressional District is 768,525. A whopping 98.7 percent of 
folks whom I represent will never see a penny of the billions being 
wasted on this ill-guided proposal. What is even worse is that it will 
cost the folks of my district an estimated $1.53 billion, or almost 
$2,000 per individual.
  At a time when the U.S. national debt has surpassed $32 trillion for 
the first time in our country's history, meaning that each citizen owes 
almost $100,000 of the national debt, the last thing Americans need, 
and that Tennesseans need, is another 2,000 in debt to pay for other 
people's decisions to pursue college degrees.
  Mr. Speaker, when we debated this legislation on the floor 
previously, I said that America is a country built on the idea of 
freedom. Freedom does not mean freedom from individual responsibility, 
but freedom from unreasonable constraints. By forcing Tennesseans to 
foot the bill for the college degrees of wealthy lawyers and doctors in 
New York and California, President Biden is chipping away at our 
freedom.
  Back home in my district, where the median household income is 
$57,373, President Biden's student loan bailout will cost almost an 
entire paycheck for the hardworking folks of Tennessee's Sixth 
District.

  Now, Mr. Speaker, I encourage the President and those who support 
this transfer of wealth from blue-collar folks of Tennessee to coastal 
elites to take a visit to my constituents and tell them this news that 
their hard-earned paychecks will be going to some of the most well-
educated and wealthy Americans in our country.
  I have a feeling that a lot of folks who support this policy would 
have a hard time going door-to-door taking paychecks away from people 
without college degrees so that those with college degrees can reap the 
rewards and benefits of the President's policy.
  Mr. Speaker, let's call this proposal what it is: An election-year 
gimmick that has no chance of ever becoming law through the normal 
procedures of being passed by the House and the Senate. Even some 
Democrats understand this policy is just plain wrong and that is why 
they joined Republicans to pass this legislation, which would have 
stopped this proposal in its track.
  Now is our chance to override the President's veto. Let's hope more 
commonsense and fiscally responsible Democrats will join us to send a 
message to the President to reverse course on this disastrous decision.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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