Wednesday night's edition of Don Lemon Tonight had a rare moment of sanity when discussing President Joe Biden's student loan bailout. CNN economics commentator Catherine Rampell slammed the plan as essentially a waste of money since it is structured in a way that bails out wealthy people with MBAs and medical degrees who are perfectly capable of paying the loans back.
Host Don Lemon noted, "there's been a lot of pushback on this from a lot of folks, and even some Democrats are pushing back." Possibly referencing Rampell's comments earlier in the day on CNN in which she threw cold water on the plan, Lemon asked Rampell: "You say this isn't a good use of federal money. Why do you say that?"
Rampell responded that "the way this plan is structured, you also get student debt forgiveness for households making up to $250,000. Not only that, you get debt forgiveness for people who just graduated from an MBA program and are about to start their investment banking job."
"Do we really want to be spending all of this money? God bless the work that doctors do, but are they the neediest population here? Rampell asked before adding that "this is a very, very expensive way to deal with a problem that ends up giving a lot of money to people who don't really need it."
Continuing to rail against Biden's student loan bailout, Rampell tore into leftist policy which she referred to as "progressive policy."
"This is my issue with a lot of Progressive policy approaches right now, that this approach of just sort of like, spending a lot of money, and hoping some of it ends up in the right hands of the needy. But you end up making programs cost a lot more than they need to. And you end up giving away a lot of cash to people who don't. And it's not like there are unlimited resources in the world," Rampell ended by correctly noting.
Occasionally common sense does accidentally air on CNN.
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To read the transcript of this segment click "expand":
CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight
August 24, 2022
11:15:37 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: Catherine, there's been a lot of pushback on this from a lot of folks. And even some Democrats are pushing back. The former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has said that it's going to make inflation worse. You say this isn't a good use of federal money. Why do you say that?
CATHERINE RAMPELL: I think, the inflation stuff I think directionally it could make inflation a little bit worse, I think it's probably gonna have a minimal effect to be fair. My concern is that it's not a particularly targeted way to help people who are struggling with student loan debt. And there are people who are struggling with student loan debt. Maybe they never graduated, for example. So they never got the payoff of their investment when they took out this debt, they never got the degree, they never got the higher income that supposed to go with that. Or maybe they got a degree that's worthless. Those are people who I think we definitely should be helping.
But the way this plan is structured, you also get student debt forgiveness for households making up to $250,000. Not only that, you get debt forgiveness for people who just graduated from an MBA program and are about to start their investment banking job. It doesn't account for the fact that what people's income is today is not representative of what their future incomes are. A medical resident looks like they're not making a lot of money today, but their long-term income is quite high.
Do we really want to be spending all of this money? God bless the work that doctors do, but are they the neediest population here? And so, I think it sort of represents a failure of imagination to think about how you could target those who are affected, and there are the other things the Biden administration is doing to try to target those people, but this is a very, very expensive way to deal with a problem that ends up giving a lot of money to people who don't really need it.
LEMON: You think it should be addressed, but there was a more creative way to do it?
RAMPELL: Yeah, I think this is going to cost about a half trillion dollars. And some of that money will go to black borrowers who were defrauded or who make less money, you know, because of other reasons related to discrimination and everything else. Some of that money will go to wealthy white professionals who took out debt for a degree that pays off that will allow them to be able to repay their student debt payments.
So, you know, I feel like this is sort of a problem with a lot of—this is my issue with a lot of Progressive policy approaches right now, that this approach of just sort of like, spending a lot of money, and hoping some of it ends up in the right hands of the needy. But you end up making programs cost a lot more than they need to. And you end up giving away a lot of cash to people who don't. And it's not like there are unlimited resources in the world.
