Republicans who have spent the past 24 hours freaking out over President Joe Biden's announcement of a limited college debt jubilee for some Americans are now being met with receipts of their own hypocrisy. The official White House Twitter account is calling out specific Republican congressmen who saw Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the height of the COVID pandemic completely forgiven.
On Wednesday, the president outlined an executive action that forgives up to $20,000 in student loan debt to people who make under $125,000 a year, and other reforms meant to lower the debt burden for millions of people. The announcement was immediately met with criticism from Republicans who complained the move would have a negative inflationary impact and claimed it was unfair to other taxpayers.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, took to Twitter to complain.
What about Americans who already paid off their student loans?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 24, 2022
As did the Republican minority on his committee, which set-off a series of mocking reactions that utilized the "this you" meme.
https://twitter.com/CAPAction/status/1562509000494968832
PPP loans were given out during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, with the intent of preventing businesses from shedding employees or going under, and were explicitly designed to be forgiven.
The average amount of debt forgiveness to businesses receiving PPP loans: $95,700. If we could afford to cancel hundreds of billions in PPP loans to business owners in their time of need, please do not tell me we can't afford to cancel all student debt for 45 million Americans.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 23, 2022
Martha MacCallum: "It's a different America than my parents and probably your parents grew up in where we're gonna try to cover the costs"
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 25, 2022
Laura Fink: "What about the PPP loans they forgave for Matt Gaetz?"
Martha: "That was a unique circumstance in the middle of the pandemic" pic.twitter.com/zBmlgGWang
https://twitter.com/theserfstv/status/1562163966570205184
The White House then joined the fray on Thursday, calling out specific Republicans like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.https://t.co/4FoCymt8TB
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 25, 2022
Greene, the White House noted, had over $180,000 in PPP loans forgiven for her family's construction business. Still, the far-right congresswoman went to right-wing media to complain about the $10,000 standard forgiveness for undergraduate students.
"For for our government just to say, you know, 'okay, well your debt is completely forgiven.' Obviously they have an agenda for that they need votes in November," Greene told Newsmax. "So the timing is a pure coincidence there as well, but it's completely unfair and taxpayers all over the country, taxpayers that never took out a student loan, taxpayers that pay their bills and and you know, maybe even never went to college or just hard-working people. They shouldn't have to pay off the great big student loan debt for some college student that piled up massive debt going to some Ivy League school. That's not fair."
Congressman Matt Gaetz had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven.https://t.co/XPgC0pETkp
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 25, 2022
Earlier this month, President Biden signed a pair of bills that gives the Justice Department more time to investigate and prosecute people accused of fraudulently collecting PPP loans.
