Forbes Slams Biden’s Student Debt Forgiveness Push, Says It’s A Slap In The Face To Those Who Played By The Rules

American publishing magnate, Steve Forbes, ripped Joe Biden and the Democrats for pushing to cancel billions worth of student loans, saying it is a slap in the face to people who ‘played by the rules’ and paid off what they owe from the government.

Forbes, who is Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine, made the remark on Saturday, as a Fox News segment kicked-off with a clip showing then-Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren, confronted by a man about her push to forgive student loan debt.

The man in the video asked Senator Warren: “I just wanted to ask one question. My daughter’s getting out of school. I’ve saved all my money. She doesn’t have any student loans. Am I going to get my money back?”

“Of course not,” the lady senator responded.

The man retorted again: “So you’re going to pay for people who didn’t save any money and those of us who did the right thing get screwed?” My buddy had fun, bought a car, and went on vacations. I saved my money. He made more than I did, but I worked a double shift, worked extra. My daughter’s worked since she was 10 … That’s exactly what you’re doing. We did the right thing and we get screwed.”

Responding to the clip, Forbes said that student debt forgiveness is unfair to those who did their part to repay their obligations.

“Yes, there is and it makes people who paid their debts, took their obligations seriously, look like fools,” he said, when asked if there’s an issue about the push of Democrats to cancel student loan debt.

A ‘mockery of people who’ve played by the rules’

“And if they have this debt forgiveness of any kind of scale, we’re going to have people wondering, ‘Why should I pay those obligations? Why should I take those extra jobs? Why should I sacrifice a private university to go to an in-state university to save money and honor my obligations?’” he continued.

“So, you make a mockery of people who’ve played by the rules.”

Forbes explained that the government should instead plug what he called “bureaucratic obesity” where “more and more money” goes to the universities, while students are stuck with the debt.

“The very government programs studies have shown, that are supposedly helping students, instead lead to higher tuitions, the universities get the money, the add administrative costs, and the students get stuck and their families get stuck with debt and in some cases grants, but with higher debts. So, the universities get the money and students get left holding the bag,” the publishing executive, who was also a candidate in the 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential primaries added.

Not right to subsidize student debt

Forbes was then asked whether he agrees with the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s piece back in January stating that “the government subsidizes debt, colleges raise their prices, students are told to get more degrees, credential inflation kicks in, and taxpayers eat the losses.”

“They do indeed”got it right, Forbes commented. “There are 255 million adults in this country, 45 million have student debt, 210 million do not. Why should those 210 million be subsidizing the other 45 million? It’s not right.”

He added: “The root cause of the problem is bureaucratic bloat, obesity in the universities, they get more and more money, more and more administration cost and students and the taxpayers get left holding these obligations. Not right.”

Biden wants ‘immediate’ action to cancel student loans

Meanwhile, aside from Senator Warren, other far-left leaning Democrats like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Senator Bernie Sanders also rallied behind abolishing student loan debt — prompting Joe Biden, who was recently proclaimed by the media as the winner of the presidential election, to call on Congress for “immediate” action to cancel billions worth of student loans.

Democrats have already earlier suggested that the former VP sign an executive order to forgive student debt currently pegged at US$1.5 trillion.

“Immediate US$10,000 forgiveness of student loans, helping people up there in real trouble,” Biden said earlier as he outlined some aspects of his plan to cancel student loan debt.

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.