Sen. Cruz Blasts Biden's 'Gall' Comparing Student Loans With Pandemic PPP Money
(Newsmax/"Rob Schmitt Tonight")
By Charles Kim | Saturday, 22 October 2022 10:56 AM EDT
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blasted President Joe Biden for his comments touting student loan forgiveness, when he compared the debt relief to the COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program.
"Unbelievable gall," Cruz posted on Twitter Friday. "Dems kept America shut down and disintegrated small businesses and jobs of working Americans…now he's comparing PPP loans that people got to deal with those government mandates to loan forgiveness he gave to his Ivy League slacker fringe liberal base to buy their votes."
According to The Washington Post, Biden’s student debt relief would forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for borrowers making up to $125,000 per year individually, or families with a combined income of $250,000.
Those with Pell Grants could receive another $10,000 off their loans, according to The Post.
A federal appeals court, however, stayed the program Friday night while it considers an injunction filed by six Republican states, according to the report.
"We are pleased the temporary stay has been granted," Republican Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, one of the states' officials who sued the administration, said in a statement to The Post. "It's very important that the legal issues involving presidential power be analyzed by the court before transferring over $400 billion in debt to American taxpayers."
Speaking at Delaware State University Friday, Biden lashed out at GOP critics of the plan, naming two who received funds during the pandemic.
"I don't want to hear it from MAGA Republicans who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts, even millions of dollars, in pandemic relief loans forgiven," Biden said Friday. "[Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene, she and her husband got over $180,000 in business loans."
The $800 billion PPP program was signed into law by former President Donald Trump at the height of the pandemic in April 2020 and extended by Biden in March 2021, MarketWatch reported in January.
The program was designed to keep businesses afloat and workers employed as the nation shut down battling the pandemic, saving an estimated 3 million "job years."
The news outlet estimated that between 23% to 34% of the funding went to the workers at about 93% of the nation's small businesses.
While workers did see some benefit from the program, the balance of 66% to 77% of the money flowed to the business owners and shareholders, including creditors and suppliers, a study published in January by the National Bureau of Econimic Research found.
According to the study, around 75% of the money went to the "top quintile" of households and compared "unfavorably" to other pandemic relief measures like enhanced unemployment benefits and stimulus checks.