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White House: Republicans exposed
Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP
US President Joe Biden wants to relieve students: University graduates should be waived part of their student loans.
According to government figures, this could free up 20 million people from debt.
Criticism has come from Republicans who say the relief is unfair.
But the White House is now hitting back on Twitter.
The government's media department lists which debts the individual critics were forgiven as part of the so-called Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) during the corona pandemic.
The PPP, set up under Donald Trump, was intended to relieve the self-employed and non-profit organizations in particular during the crisis.
With its action, the White House apparently wants to draw attention to a certain hypocrisy of the criticism.
The White House began by tweeting a video in which right-wing Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized the government's student loan plans as unfair to taxpayers who never went to college.
These would now have to pay for college graduates.
The White House captioned the video: "Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene was forgiven $183,504 in PPP loans."
But a tweet wasn't enough.
Republican Vern Buchanan tweeted that Biden's "reckless" gifting of student loans was "unfair" to the 87 percent of Americans who have no student loan debt.
The White House captioned the tweet, "Congressman Vern Buchanan has been forgiven over $2.3 million in PPP loans."
The government account then used the same scheme to deal with other Republicans who had expressed criticism on Twitter.
Congressman Markwayne Mullin was forgiven about $1.4 million, Representatives Kevin Hern and Mike Kelly about $1 million each, and Representative Matt Gaetz about $480,000.
Millions of people in debt
Studying in the United States often costs enormous amounts of money.
Colleges often charge anywhere from $10,000 to $70,000 a year, so many students have to take out loans.
According to government estimates, the average college graduate starts out with $25,000 in debt.
It often takes years or even decades to pay off the loans.
According to the White House, around 45 million Americans owe university fees.
Their college debt totals $1.6 trillion.
According to Biden's plans, former students who earn less than $125,000 a year should now benefit.
They are to be waived $10,000 unless they have received a federal grant.
Former students who have received support through the so-called Pell Grant program for the most needy are to be relieved of $20,000.
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