Forgiving student loans would be of great benefit to many struggling Americans, especially people of color, but most of a Fox panel fretted that relieving that financial burden is a “moral hazard.”
Host Neil Cavuto griped in his introduction to the discussion, “forget about whether we can afford this, right now we’re running massive debts, that’s a side issue.”
I don’t recall Cavuto saying that about the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which led to a pre-COVID trillion dollar deficit.
Cavuto’s bigger concern seemed to be that it would “set in motion expectations of still other types of loan forgiveness.”
Guest Danielle Booth agreed. She said Cavuto was “describing moral hazard.” She claimed the Biden administration is made up of “pent-up progressive policy makers” who “really want to push through an agenda that doesn’t really address the direct effects of the coronavirus.”
She called student loan forgiveness “a very bad precedent” and called on Biden to “hold the line on saying you know what, we’re going to put $10,000 out there and directly relieve what’s happening right now in these younger workers.”
The other guest, Luke Lloyd didn’t want to help relieve the financial burdens either. “On the ethical side, what about all the people that made it a priority to pay off their loans?” he asked. “What about the parents that sacrificed their retirement? What about the people that were financially smart about picking a college? If I would’ve known my student loans were going to be forgiven, I would’ve gone to Harvard or Yale and picked the most expensive place I could. I shopped around for 15 different colleges to find the most affordable and best value for me.”
Lloyd went on to complain that those who would likely benefit the most from student loan forgiveness, i.e. women and minorities, don’t deserve it. “So, you’re telling me those that are irresponsible are going to be rewarded? What do you think happens when that kind of behavior is rewarded? People become even more irresponsible because they know that they can get away with it,” he said.
Then he argued that “middle class America” would wind up holding the bag. “The people who always end up paying for these kind things is middle class America through taxes. So when those $50,000 in student loans forgiven could ultimately pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional taxes over their life, that doesn’t sound like a good tradeoff to me.”
However, Lloyd did argue that the real problem is the “cost of college,” not the loans.
Panelist Adam Lashinsky was the lone dissenter and he pretty much called it like it is: “There’s no doubt that forgiving loans is gonna rub somebody else the wrong way,” he said. But, he added, it should not be overlooked that “the disproportionate number of students who have these loans are students of color, that’s a reality. But we can be outraged about the forgiveness of loans or we can say this is a real problem in our society, we need to address it.”
You can watch it below, from the February 6, 2021 Cavuto Live.