If there is anyone who is known for highlighting the importance of the working class, it would be “Dirty Jobs” Mike Rowe.
His long-standing concern about the lack of skilled workers has led him to emphasize the fact that the only focus on a college degree is detrimental for our nation. He’s indicated in the past that he’s not a fan of student loan forgiveness because of the fundamental unfairness of it all. Plus, it doesn’t solve the problem of high tuition, indeed, it makes it worse.
So if there was anyone who was going to have a notable reaction to Joe Biden’s student loan bailout, it would be Rowe.
Rowe did not disappoint, letting loose on Joe Biden in a Facebook post, calling the bailout the “biggest pre-Labor Day slap in the face to working people I’ve ever seen.”
I work hard on this page, (not as hard as I could, perhaps, but pretty hard), to avoid the politics of the moment, and comment only on topics that impact the foundation I’m proud to run – a foundation that awards work-ethic scholarships to individuals who choose to forego an expensive, four-year education in favor of a skilled trade. As much as possible, when I weigh in I attempt to be respectful and recognize both sides. Today however, I only see one side. Today, I can find nothing to respect in the President’s decision to transfer billions of dollars in outstanding student loans onto the backs of those people my foundation tries to assist – the same people I’ve spent the last twenty years profiling on Dirty Jobs.
With that in mind, I’m not going to write the piece I just sat down to write. Instead, I’m going to share the attached article from Charlie Cooke, who writes better than I do, and shares my disdain for what just happened. Share this article with others who share your disdain. This decision is without question, the biggest pre-Labor Day slap in the face to working people I’ve ever seen.
Cooke’s post notes how this is something all of us — including the air conditioning technicians who saved to open their own business — are going to have to pay for.
But, well. . . They are such absolute idiots that the president made of them.
Squirm if you like, but that’s the truth of the matter: As of today, the six air-conditioning technicians in my house are on the hook for college loans that were signed for, spent, and enjoyed by other people. Confirming the measure today, President Biden announced that any American who has both college debt they vowed to repay and an individual yearly income under $125,000 (or a family yearly income under $250,000) will be given up to $20,000 by the Treasury — which means by you, and by me, and by everyone else who pays taxes in America.
Think about how a $50,000 family might feel about being forced to bail out a couple of lawyers who make up to $250,000.
Why then is Biden doing all this?
The answer, I’m afraid to say, is disgustingly classist: Because Joe Biden and his party believe that college students are better than everyone else. Joe Biden’s party believes that college students are better than everyone else. Joe Biden and his party believe college students should have more respect than they do. They think those students deserve huge sums of money.
Are you looking for electricians, managers of delis, chefs, waitresses and mechanics? Screw ’em. College graduates are more successful than those who don’t have college degrees, but their unemployment rate and income is also lower. But non-graduates don’t have access to the president, so they don’t matter. They’re tradesmen, the riff-raff, the great unwashed. They’re background noise, dirty-handed types, second-classers. They don’t deserve $10,000 in debt reduction. They don’t deserve $10,000 in debt reduction. What are they going to do? Take it with you on a hunt? Donate it to your church. They are responsible for ensuring that the better people get subsidized, so the best people can go to college.
It’s a crass effort to buy the votes of the “privileged, accredited, self-dealing clerisy that his ever-dwindling political party now calls its base.” It’s using our taxpayer dollars to do it as well, which adds insult to injury — not only don’t we benefit, we actually have to pay for it and it will make inflation far worse, an additional cost on us all. But Biden doesn’t care about that because it’s all about the Democrats doing all they could to hold onto power.
But Biden will find out that this gambit doesn’t work, because not only is it infuriating everyone for all the reasons I’ve said, it’s infuriating some of those in the base as well who don’t think it goes far enough. This is why some Democrats have gotten onboard with it, and they are calling for a revolt against Biden.
Is there any thing Biden would do differently if he were trying to destabilize the country? I don’t think so.
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