Official White House Twitter account shames Republican critics of debt forgiveness policy
Some loved it, some hated it, but there is no doubt that the social media campaign caught the publics attention with its targeted campaign.
‘Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.’
That was the simple reply on Twitter that was posted to a user who had shared a video clip of the Republican lawmaker speaking to NewsMax about her opposition to President Joe Biden’s new policy to write of certain debts to help the American people.
Nothing particularly unusual about that, you may say, but this response came from the official Twitter account of the US White House, in what appears to be an attempt to highlight the person’s hypocrisy over government debt intervention. And this was not an isolated one, as you can see from following the thread of the original tweet.
Which GOP lawmakers were targeted by the White House?
In total, 13 Republicans who were being publicly critical of the debt forgiveness policy were targeted by the Biden administration’s social media team, at least that was the count at the time of writing this. Here are those individuals:
- Matt Gaetz (R-FL): $476,000
- Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA): $180,000
- Greg Pence (R-IN): $79,441
- Vern Buchanan (R-FL): $2.8M
- Kevin Hern (R-OK): $1,070,000
- Roger Williams (R-TX): $1,430,000
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY): $4.3M
- Ralph Norman (R-SC): $306,520
- Ralph Abraham (R-LA): $38,000
- Mike Kelly (R-PA): $974,100
- Vicki Hartzler (R-MO): $451,200
- Markwayne Mullin (R-OK): $988,700
- Carol Miller (R-WV): $3.1M
What is the US student loan forgiveness policy?
The US plan announced earlier in the week to forgive $10,000 in student loans for millions of debt-saddled former college students will cost roughly $24 billion a year assuming that three quarters of those eligible take up the offer, the White House said.
The move, announced by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, kept a pledge he made in the 2020 campaign for the White House and could boost support for his fellow Democrats in the November congressional elections. Some economists said it may fuel inflation and Republicans mostly oppose student loan forgiveness, calling it unfair because it will disproportionately help people earning higher incomes.
On Wednesday, the White House said it had yet to determine the price tag for the package but on Thursday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told CNN:
“Assuming that 75% of folks take us on on the President’s student loan cancellation plan, and you look at the average cash flow on that, it’s going to be about $24 billion per year.”
American university tuition fees are substantially higher than in most other rich countries, and US consumers carry $1.75 trillion in student loan debt, most of it held by the federal government.