Republicans called out on PPP loans after criticism of student loan forgiveness

After more than a year of debates, protests, meetings, and deliberations, President Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise to cancel some of the federal student debt held by millions of Americans. 

Under Biden’s plan, borrowers can qualify for up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness, and recipients of Pell Grants are eligible for an additional $10,000 in forgiveness.

As soon as the plan was announced, it was attacked by many from the far right, but the White House was ready for its critics.

The administration came out swinging as they pushed back on criticism from Republicans in Congress about the student loan forgiveness plan announced last week by Biden. 

The White House wasted no time in highlighting that some of the lawmakers making the loudest noise about the student loan forgiveness were lawmakers who shamelessly accepted loan relief during the coronavirus pandemic. 

One of the major critics was Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She was the first lawmaker the administration called out after a video surfaced of her criticizing the student loan debt relief measure on a conservative news channel. 

Said Green, “They (taxpayers) shouldn’t have to pay off the great big student loan debt for some college students that pile up massive debt going to some Ivy League school.” 

A snippet of Greene’s video was reposted by the White House on Twitter with a comment pointing out that Green’s company applied for Paycheck Protection Program loans in an amount much larger than the $20,000 maximum student debt forgiveness President Joe Biden proposed. 

“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,” the Biden administration wrote on its official account. That money went to Taylor Commercial, the congresswoman’s family construction business. It was the start of a series of a half-dozen tweets calling out conservatives, including Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Oklahoma U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin, who is now the favorite to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. 

Greene’s camp accused the Biden administration of continuing to “make MTG a target simply because she is outspoken against Democrat policies” but did not respond directly to the information in the tweet about the Rome Republican. 

Georgia U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde is also in the cross hairs of hypocrisy on this issue and faced similar criticism after making remarks on social media about student debt relief. “Joe Biden isn’t ‘forgiving’ or ‘canceling’ student loan debt, he’s simply transferring borrowers’ burden to working and middle-class Americans.” 

As a result of his social media comments, numerous people replied to Clyde with screenshots showing the forgivable PPP loans his gun store obtained. Clyde Armory received $154,950 in PPP loans. Georgia GOP U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker also came under fire. He hammered the student loan forgiveness announcement but received $182,800 in PPP loans for his poultry business, which was forgiven by the federal government.