[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 79 (Tuesday, May 7, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S3376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Student Loan Debt

  Mr. President, now on a related matter, last week brought news that 
some of the biggest names backing President Biden's reelection campaign 
are also behind major leftwing groups stoking campus chaos--from 
training on occupation and resistance tactics to outright Hamas 
apologists. And as the Democratic Party's biggest donors fund campus 
radicals' anti-Semitic sabbatical, the Biden administration is still 
trying to cover the cost of tuition for the classes they are missing.
  The administration's student loan socialism scheme would force 
working families around the country to cover college degrees for the 
Nation's highest earners. It is hard to conceive of a more patently 
regressive social policy. By one analysis, the highest earning fifth of 
American households hold nearly a third of all student debt. By 
contrast--and this is particularly interesting--the lowest earning 
fifth hold only 8 percent of student debt. Families across the country 
are still struggling with sky-high prices and soaring interest rates. 
It is harder to fill the refrigerator and gas tank, tougher to buy a 
house or a car, but President Biden thinks that this is the time to 
send billions of working Americans' tax dollars to the college 
graduates who already have a leg up in earning potential.
  Now, let's remember, the Supreme Court already declared this policy 
illegal. Just last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that the executive 
branch lacked the statutory authority to implement blanket student loan 
forgiveness. Well, like many of the chaos agents who have taken over 
college campuses in recent weeks, President Biden seems to have no 
problem disregarding the law.
  We are talking about a scheme that has already spent hundreds of 
billions of taxpayer dollars. And the proposed rule administration 
bureaucrats placed in the Federal Register would cost nearly $150 
billion more and has already drawn over 28,000 comments from the 
public.
  Here is what some of these frustrated taxpayers have to say:

       There is no such thing as free money. As a homeowner, we 
     are not getting mortgage forgiveness.
       This would be a burden on taxpayers. This would be unfair 
     to people that have already paid student debt, or those who 
     have paid down significantly student debt.

  And one particularly frustrated taxpayer said this:

       I acquired $30,000 in student loan debt, which required 
     hard decisions and accountability. I work[ed] the entire time 
     I was in college, both during the school year, summers and 
     breaks. It meant instead of buying an expensive car or 
     getting a nice apartment I lived within my means and paid my 
     student loan payment every month that I agreed to make.

  The American people know the President is handing them a raw deal. 
Apparently, either he isn't listening or he doesn't care.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.