Rick Scott continues pushback against ‘foolish’ and ‘unfair’ student loan forgiveness
Rick Scott. Image via AP.

Rick Scott
The Senator hailed support of his legislation from a taxpayer watchdog group Monday.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott hasn’t given up on his opposition to an expected proposal from the White House to allow some student loan forgiveness as payments resume later this year.

In a tweet Monday, the Senator spotlighted the National Taxpayers Union’s backing of his Debt Cancellation Affordability Act.

That bill, per the Senator’s office, would require the Department of Education to get “an express appropriation from Congress to pay for any federal student loan debts the Department proposes to waive, discharge, or otherwise reduce whenever granted to two or more borrowers in an amount greater than $1,000,000, rather than on a case-by-case basis.”

“NTU welcomes and supports initiatives such as those by Senator Scott which curb the executive branch’s ability to forgive student loans without Congressional approval,” the praise reads in part.

Scott lauded the support in a tweet Monday, contending President Joe Biden’s “foolish plan for mass student loan forgiveness is unfair to millions of hardworking taxpayers & does NOTHING to fix the problem of skyrocketing tuition costs.”

While this legislation may face obstacles in a Congress still controlled by Democrats, Scott’s opposition to the expected and oft-delayed Biden proposal for debt forgiveness is documented. As far back as April, well before the bill was filed, the Senator made the rounds of friendly media outlets to malign “unfair” debt forgiveness.

In an appearance on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,” Scott said that writing off federal loan debt would be unfair to those who “paid their way through school.”

Scott, the richest member of the U.S. Senate, was adamant.

“If they’re going to run up debt, they need to have a plan to pay it back,” he said.

“I know I got the help of the GI Bill because I was in the U.S. Navy,” Scott added. “But they went and worked full time. Or their parents worked full time, or their grandparents worked full time to pay their way through school so they had no debt.”

Scott continued to press against forgiveness proposals during an interview on Newsmax with Sean Spicer.

“With regard to saying for this small group of people that they get their debt forgiven when other people did what I did,” Scott said, talking again about the GI Bill.

“There’s people like us who did that around the country,” Scott advised. “They shouldn’t be treated worse than the people who went out and got these debts.”

Currently, payment deadlines for federal student loans are paused, with a moratorium in effect through August 2022. But pressure has mounted from Democrats for Biden to move forward with a plan for debt cancellation.

More than $1.6 trillion is owed by 43 million people. As the Associated Press reported earlier this year, 7 million Americans are in default.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


12 comments

  • Don’t Look Up

    July 11, 2022 at 4:48 pm

    America is:
    23 in education.
    37 in healthcare.
    34 in raising family index.

    We have no high-speed trains!
    Highest number of homeless people in the Western world.
    Highest number of incarcerated people.
    78% of people live paycheck to paycheck.
    Weekly mass gun shootings.
    Congress refuses to implement strict border control measures.

    Stock market is not the economy of Americans! Where 90% of money belongs to top 10% of the population, the stock market is a wallet for the rich.

    …….AND REPUBLICANS LIKE RICK SCOTT ARE WORRIED ABOUT A SENSIBLE COLLEGE LOAN PAYBACK PLAN.

  • Joe Corsin

    July 11, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    Rick Scott is the most evil man on earth…and all the neo nazis love the SOB.

  • just sayin

    July 12, 2022 at 8:28 am

    He’s right about this. Forgiveness without some sort of structural change to college funding is just kicking the can down the road.

    And why is paying off a doctor’s student loans more equitable than paying off a janitor’s past due rent?

    • marylou

      July 12, 2022 at 9:29 pm

      “…why is paying off a doctor’s student loans more equitable than paying off a janitor’s past due rent?

      It’s not. Rick and his rich 10% are dividing the other 90% of people, so that they are too busy taking things away from each other, to notice that everything is being shoveled to the rich.

      Every time something for the people is proposed, leeches like Rick immediately start trying to convince people that it’s not fair for someone else to get something that they themselves won’t get–even if they don’t need or want whatever it is. The doctor might be caught up on her rent, and the janitor’s loan may have already been paid, but crooks like Rick will try to convince both that it’s not fair that the other is getting something.

      They have most of the population denying each other student loan forgiveness, tuition- free public college, universal childcare and Pre-K, healthcare, etc. Rick’s method is being used to deny whatever the people need. The 90% get nothing, and the looting rich get Robbin’ Rick’s tax cuts.

      • Matthew Lusk

        July 16, 2022 at 11:44 am

        Good point, most of the big thefts are by roll playing oligarchs with no party loyalty. Bankers skim ten trillion dollars a year in newly created private federal reserve credit dollars. (The driver of inflation) It’s a highly organized crime cartel for the .001 percent. Congress starts the ball rolling with a trillion dollar deficit spending program denominated in unconstitutional money – private federal reserve credit on the ledger dollars) and the banking cartel is allowed to multiply that amount by 10 times.

  • arlo

    July 12, 2022 at 10:53 am

    Many colleges are providing degrees that are worthless in the job market. They’re just raking in our money for a useless product. That has to stop.
    Sunshine is the obvious answer, get the facts out, Senator Scott!

  • martin

    July 14, 2022 at 10:24 am

    How about giving all of us who earned actual worthwhile degrees, graduated and worked hard to pay off all of our loans, tax credits going forward?
    Nahhh, never going to happen. But for those who earned degrees in worthless fields, ie., women”s studies, gender studies, various ethnic studies, etc, etc, why should we shed a tear?

  • Just a comment

    July 14, 2022 at 2:28 pm

    Times are changing new population wants what they want

  • For you

    July 16, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    All this free collage and still at the food Banks.

  • For you

    July 17, 2022 at 2:32 pm

    I think when the sign at the door says pay as you go it means check your pocket status

  • Al

    July 23, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    I am amazed 2000 can not be forgiven you get a lifetime of bad homeless credit. But 100,000 you get a house and privilege

  • Bend

    July 23, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    P.s watch that 52 percent interest rate

Comments are closed.


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