‘There Are a Lot of People Very Close to the President Who Privately Understand That This Is a Complete Disaster’

By Charles C. W. Cooke 

Thursday, June 02, 2022 

 

So says the Washington Post’s James Hohmann, in a conversation with The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes about the Biden administration’s inexplicable desire to force taxpayers to pay off rich people’s student loans. Here’s the segment: 

 

Charlie Sykes: How did they not get this? James, I’m sorry… How do they not get this? You look at the states — like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio — what percentage of the population has college degrees? And yet you are asking all of those people who are experiencing high anxiety to pay for this transfer of wealth…. And then I’m sorry, I know that Twitter is not real life … but all of these folks saying, ‘This is a betrayal. Only $10,000? I have $50,000 in college debt. If the Democrats are only going to forgive $10,000, well, then I’m not going to vote for them.’ Suck it, Buttercup. 

 

I mean, seriously, where does Joe Biden think this groundswell is going to come from, except for this small group of highly-entitled college graduates who dominate the staffing and the inner workings of the Democratic party? 

 

James Hohmann: I’ve asked, I’ve repeatedly asked people. And I’ve asked a lot of people in the White House this question, and essentially the answer is that this is the fault of Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock. 

 

Charlie Sykes: What? 

 

James Hohmann: Stacey Abrams has been browbeating the White House on this, and says that this is the only way she could win — that this is going to be a base turnout election. This isn’t about persuading people in the middle, it’s about getting the base to turn out. And the base isn’t going to turn out if they don’t do this, and that they have all sorts of stats about how a lot of graduates from HBCUs have all this debt. And so there are a lot of people very close to the president who privately understand that this is a complete disaster for them. But the president is being pulled really hard by these woke leftists who … believe it’s all about the base. They just don’t get it because they haven’t spent time in the WOW counties or in Apple Valley, Minnesota. 

 

If there are “a lot of people very close to the president who privately understand that this is a complete disaster for them,” then those people need to speak up now, before Biden commits a generational political mistake. The move is statutorily illegal, it is morally revolting, and it is disgracefully self-serving. If Biden does it, he will damage our system of government, tear the country further apart, and confirm forever that he is little more than a puppet. If, indeed, there are people on his staff who can see this too, then worrying “privately” ain’t gonna cut it.