Holy Moly, There Sure Are A Ton Of Republicans Complaining About Loan Forgiveness Who Have Also Had Loans Forgiven

On Wednesday, Joe Biden made Republicans mad: He announced something that will make millions of Americans’ lives significantly better. The 46th president announced that he was offering (modest) student loan forgiveness, erasing up to $10,000 in federal loans (and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients) and cutting monthly payments in half. Those in Income Based Repayment plays also saw the overall payment period, which used to be 20 to 25 years, dramatically shortened.

The move isn’t as extreme as it could/should have been, but it will dramatically help an entire generation who’ve been victims of never-higher tuition and ever-escalating interest rates that made paying back loans all but impossible. So you know what that means: It was time for Republicans to be horrible hypocrites.

The Twitter account for the GOP House judiciary was among the critics, writing, simply, “If you take out a loan, you pay it back. Period.” Fair enough! Or it would be if so many Republicans didn’t also receive some form of loan forgiveness, in many cases not that long ago.

Indeed, many in the GOP, including lawmakers and pundits, participated in Donald Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, receiving sizeable business loans at the height of the pandemic. In many cases, those loans went to larger businesses, as well as Trump pals. And in many cases, those loans were [drumroll] forgiven, and without anyone throwing a hissy fit. What’s more, those PPP loans, and their erasures, are in the public record.

One of them was Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia representative and recent “swatee” went on Newsmax, where she called the loan forgiveness “completely unfair.” She didn’t say so when her construction company’s $182,300 PPP loan generously went up in smoke.

Or take Steven Crowder. The braying podcaster and premarital sex-hater was up in arms about before Biden made his announcement. But he had no problem when the over $70,000 loan for his company went poof.

Ben Shapiro, of course, was on the list of PPP loan forgiveness recipients, as were others in right wing media.

Even Jared Kushner got a PPP loan, and he was once the son-in-law of a sitting president.

And let’s not forget about Donald Trump. The self-professed smart businessman and rich guy — who keeps having to ask his cash-strapped supporters for cash — has declared bankruptcy six times.

Of course, none of this was mentioned by the many conservatives hooting and hollering over the idea that the government could make a loan magically disappear. Or as cartoonist Tom Tomorrow put it, “Lot of grifters who took out PPP loans that were forgiven are very upset about this modest student debt relief.”

Anyway, let’s go Dark Brandon.