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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   26529 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 3, 2024

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The government gave out 167 billion dollars in free money entirely based on executive fiat.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was authorized by congress in 2007.

It seems that this is a small sliver of the forgiven loans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Service_Loan_Forgiveness

OP's press release announced $7.7 billion of new forgiveness, $5.2 billion of which was PLSF.

I doubt PLSF represents 67% of the cumulative amount of forgiveness, but it doesn't seem to me like a "small sliver" based on the only evidence cited here.

OP says $167 billion have been cumulatively forgiven. My 2nd google result suggests that $53 billion had been forgiven based on the PLSF program by January 2024. So at worst 30% of the forgiveness, which is not a "small sliver".

https://americorps.gov/blogs/2024-01-12/five-things-know-about-public-service-loan-forgiveness

So only 120 billion of unconstitutional spending?

But I said I wasn't going to get into the weeds on this and I regret doing so. The fact remains that nearly $167 billion of government money was spent over the counterfactual of a Donald Trump presidency. In my opinion, this money was wasted in the worst way, giving large sums to people who are often quite privileged, rewarding them for their bad decisions. It was also a naked political attempt to win votes.

Future vote-buying attempts should focus on people who need it more and contribute more to society. Fortunately, we have lots of these people. Let's start with the working poor. Especially working poor people with children.

Perhaps 120, but maybe less. Those other programs might be constitutional as well. You assumed the full 167 wasn't, and look where that got you. Maybe we should look at the specific programs and the justifications behind their implementation by the executive rather than just assume whatever provides us with righteous anger.

I guess that would take too much time.

Edit: I think the original loan forgiveness program was a stupid, regressive waste. But your effort to draft is quite offputting. Doesn't feel like an honest sales pitch.

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