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Morning Shots

Forgiving Student Loans: Bad Politics, Bad Policy

Plus: Trump’s Senate idiocracy.

Charlie Sykes's avatar
Charlie Sykes
August 23, 2022∙ Paid
Upgrade to listen14 minutes
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(Composite / Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)

“They continue to try to fool you that they are helping you out. But they’re not. Because a lot of money, it’s going to trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?”

— GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker, August 2022

As Matt Lewis observes in his latest column, “Donald Trump has left his mark on the American body politic in myriad ways. But one of the lesser-discussed aspects of the way the 45th president forever changed this country is how he’s endowed unqualified idiots with the grandiose confidence to believe they, too, should run for high political office.”

Congratulations all around, including to you, Mitch McConnell.

Happy Tuesday.

Before we serve this morning’s spinach, you you probably want to check out a few of these items:

  • “Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers,” via the Wapo

  • “NBC News poll: 57% of voters say investigations into Trump should continue.”

  • “Trump Had More Than 300 Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago,” via the NYT

  • “Liz Cheney Says New Political Group Will Target Trump Allies,” via the WSJ

  • “After attacks and primary challenge, Wisconsin GOP leader still stands by Trump,” via the Wapo. I’m quoted here:

    “One of the things we’re seeing is that Trump is demanding a specific kind of loyalty. It’s not just that you are loyal to Trump, but you are loyal to Trump’s most extreme versions of the lie,” said Charlie Sykes, a Trump critic who for years was an influential conservative radio host in Milwaukee.

    “This is a significant misstep,” Sykes said of how Vos has handled himself. “But it feels like the kind of misstep that establishment Republicans have been making over the last six years, which is, ‘OK, people aren’t really going to buy the crazy. I can manage the crazy.’ Only to find out that the crazy is unmanageable.”


Forgive me

As early as tomorrow, the Biden administration could announce its policy for student loans; a plan that may include the forgiveness of the first $10,000 of loans for borrowers who make under $125,000.

The administration has already forgiven tens of billions of the sketchiest loans, but progressives have been agitating for a much broader and deeper loan jubilee that would wipe out student loan debt up to $50,000.

Forgive me for raining on this parade of free money, but student debt “forgiveness” is both bad politics and bad policy.

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