CNN senior political analyst John Avlon joined Thursday’s edition of New Day to declare that GOP opposition to President Biden’s student loan forgiveness order is unwarranted because it is “good economic policy” and the White House is correct to say that Republicans aren't in a position to complain because of their history of cutting taxes.
Guest co-host Kaitlan Collins led Avlon by declaring that beyond the debate on whether is a good decision or not “it will in the end, though, help a lot of people.”
Agreeing, Avlon suggested that the policy is a good one because it happens to upset both the “far-left” and “far-right,” “. Look, in the outlines of this policy you can see the Biden Administration trying to find that goldilocks sweet spot, right? You know, they're trying to make sure it's capped at 125,000, that it's more generous for people who have had Pell Grants… But still you see folks on the far-left grousing it's not hot enough, they wanted a $50,000 loan deferment and then folks on the far-right saying it's, you know, school-based socialism and terribly unfair.”
A policy is not a good one, just because it upsets hardcore progressives and Republicans. Under that logic we should build bridges that stop halfway across rivers. Still, Avlon continued to praise the policy:
A lot of folks who have been struggling with school debt, you know, on the bottom half of the economic scale are going to find themselves with a lot more breathing room than they had previously and I don't see how that's bad politics at the end of the day, as well as good economic policy if you're trying to grow the economy out from the middle and bottom as Biden campaigned on. So it's a promise kept from the political standpoint.
Later, after Avlon conceded that the real challenge for Biden will be the legal battle, Collins asked about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comments and the White House’s response to them:
Mitch McConnell was saying yesterday, there are a lot of people who didn't go to college because they, you know, lived within their means and adjusted for this and so they did not go to college for this choice and they were basically saying it’s unfair because of that and the White House's push back on Republican criticism, well, no one is complaining about tax breaks for example. Republicans aren't complaining about how unfair that is.
People, including rich people and corporations, aren’t reimbursed for previously higher tax rates, so the White House’s analogy is absurd, but Avlon tried to claim the opposite, “And I think that is a fair point.”
Avlon concluded by also trying to pretend Biden is doing something about the cost of college, “and among the other things that were announced yesterday targeting schools that had been really predatory towards college students, with-- really forcing people into debt and also really trying to emphasize the kind of loan forgiveness for people in public service professions.”
Anyone who has recently been to college knows that every school is predatory because there’s no accountability when the administrators know that a student can get a loan for whatever number they pick for that year’s tuition rate.
This segment was sponsored by SoFi.
Here is a transcript for the August 25 show:
CNN New Day with John Berman and Brianna Keilar
8/25/2022
6:20 AM ET
KAITLAN COLLINS: There has been a lot of debate over who benefits, who doesn't, is this a good decision, is it a bad decision. It will in the end, though, help a lot of people.
JOHN AVLON: Absolutely. I mean, millions of people. Look, in the outlines of this policy you can see the Biden Administration trying to find that goldilocks sweet spot, right? You know, they're trying to make sure it's capped at 125,000, that it's more generous for people who have had Pell Grants, that it's coinciding with the final renewal of this extension which has had folks not paying their school debt through the pandemic. But still you see folks on the far-left grousing it's not hot enough, they wanted a $50,000 loan deferment and then folks on the far-right saying it's, you know, school-based socialism and terribly unfair.
I think the fundamental point is that a lot of folks who have been struggling with school debt, you know, on the bottom half of the economic scale are going to find themselves with a lot more breathing room than they had previously and I don't see how that's bad politics at the end of the day, as well as good economic policy if you're trying to grow the economy out from the middle and bottom as Biden campaigned on. So it's a promise kept from the political standpoint.
JOHN BERMAN: Well, from a purely political standpoint there are people who look at this and say the people it helps are young university grads who are skewing toward the Democratic Party.
AVLON: Yeah, you know, that's a perennial, you know, accusation on the part of conservatives who say, look, Democrats are going to try to give folks a lot of free stuff and buy votes in effect, but you know, the flip side is saying that this is somehow by being weighted to college graduates, only a quarter of Americans attend college, that itself is elite.
But again, there are income caps at this to make sure it's helping people disproportionately who have Pell Grants, who are in the middle class or certainly not rising the wealthy.
I think the bigger challenge, if you want to skate to where the puck’s going, is looking at the legal challenges that will come down. The Department of Justice put out an OLC opinion saying this is--
COLLINS: Yeah.
AVLON: -- based on the 2003 law and the pandemic, but there will be challenges to this and so watch this space. Even though a lot of Democrats are breathing easier today politically because Biden made good on a promise, you know, there will be challenges to this.
COLLINS: But do—do-- president Biden's critics have a point when they say, you know, there, what Mitch McConnell was saying yesterday, there are a lot of people who didn't go to college because they, you know, lived within their means and adjusted for this and so they did not go to college for this choice and they were basically saying it’s unfair because of that and the White House's push back on Republican criticism, well, no one is complaining about tax breaks for example —
AVLON: Yeah.
COLLINS: -- Republicans aren't complaining about how unfair that is.
AVLON: And I think that is a fair point and among the other things that were announced yesterday targeting schools that had been really predatory towards college students, with--
COLLINS: Yeah.
AVLON: -- Really forcing people into debt and also really trying to emphasize the kind of loan forgiveness for people in public service professions. Look, the right's going to hit this because they probably see it as potentially popular but also a dangerous precedent.
I think for the people being affected by it, especially given that those -- folks will have to start paying their student loans again at the end of the year, this will give folks some breathing room in a meaningful way if they took that risk to go to college. Is it going to be without controversy? No. People particularly who just paid off their loans might be frustrated--
COLLINS: Yeah.
AVLON: I get that, but for those struggling with the debt right now this is a bit of a life raft.
