While many college students and graduates around the country are celebrating President Joe Biden’s Wednesday announcement that he will cancel up to $20,000 in their federal student loan debt, outspoken former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called the move “a scam.”
“This is total pandering before the mid-terms to try and get out the youth vote,” Walker told Dori Monson Show listeners. Walker, who is now the president of the conservative group Young America’s Foundation, blasted the move as a “scam” that could “actually drive up inflation.”
The debt forgiveness proposal is less than what other Democrats were seeking but could affect tens of millions of Americans who have not yet paid off their student loans. Biden’s plan would cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for those earning less than $125,000 a year. Another $10,000 in relief would be available for low-income students who received Pell grants. It does not apply to private loans.
In Washington state, this could affect more than 760,000 people, according to a state Attorney General’s office 2017 report.
Because of likely legal challenges, there is no timeline for when potential student debt relief could actually occur.
“This is raw political pandering,” criticized Walker. He pointed to a 2016 report by President Barack Obama’s administration, citing that “over an entire career, someone who gets a college degree makes as much as $1 million more than someone who didn’t go to…
