'Debt relief for me but not for thee': Why some critics of Biden’s student debt program are 'hypocrites'

Business owner Myra Brown is one of the plaintiffs in a right-wing lawsuit that is seeking to abolish President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness program. In her lawsuit, Brown claims that Biden’s program is unfair to her because she was ineligible for it.

But according to reporting from The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein, Brown herself has been a “beneficiary of debt cancellation in the form of a Paycheck Protection Program business loan worth over twice the maximum amount covered under Biden’s program.” Brown, Klippenstein notes, was, under the PPP, “granted a $48,000 loan, of which $47,996 was forgiven on April 27, 2022.”

In an article published by The Intercept on November 9, Klippenstein explains, “Brown’s case is one of a flurry of right-wing lawsuits aimed at ending Biden’s student debt forgiveness program. Though many have been dismissed due a lack of standing, this one has not. A Donald Trump-appointed judge, Mark T. Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, has indicated he wants to fast-track it. Student debt relief advocates say the lawsuits are astroturf efforts by right-wing political organizations.”

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One of those advocates is Braxton Brewington of The Debt Collective.

Brewington told The Intercept, “These sham lawsuits are blatantly manufactured by billionaire-funded right-wing organizations whose only purpose is to play dirty politics. These plaintiffs aren’t actually harmed by student debt cancellation; they’re simply willing to be political pawns for dark-money groups who will do anything to prevent working people from having financial breathing room.”

The right-wing group that is bankrolling the lawsuit, according to Klippenstein, is called the Job Creators Network.

Brewington views people who want debt relief for their companies but oppose student loan debt relief as hypocrites.

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“Like the Republican members of Congress who took out PPP loans while denouncing student borrowers seeking relief,” Brewington told The Intercept, “Myra Brown believes in ‘debt relief for me but not for thee.’ This hypocrisy only underscores the cynical motives of the plaintiffs and the baselessness of their case, which should be dismissed.”

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