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After months of hand-wringing, means-testing, and deliberation, (you know I’m gonna say it) we did it, Joe.
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President Biden announced a long-awaited spate of student loan debt relief measures for tens of millions of Americans. The Biden administration will cancel $10,000 in student-loan debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year, and $20,000 in debt for those who received Pell grants for their education as low-income students. In addition, the ongoing pause on student loan payments will be extended one final time through December 31 of this year, and for outstanding debt, undergraduate loan payments can be capped at 5 percent of monthly income.
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Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), had advocated for a much larger, $50,000 loan forgiveness. But all of them have praised the decision as an important step forward. It’s important to always look towards the work ahead, but also to celebrate the wins when we get them, and this is a big one. Over one-third of the 43 million Americans with federal student loans will have their student debt wiped entirely via this executive action, and borrowers on standard 10-year plans with a remaining balance will see their monthly payments decrease by an average of $250, or $3,000 per year. The numbers can get a bit thorny, but the excitement was immediate and palpable, to the point where the largest federal student-loan server, Nelnet, crashed shortly after Biden’s announcement.
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Naturally, Republicans immediately lost their fucking minds over the decision. A lot of them took to social media to claim this relatively modest, means-tested debt forgiveness would make inflation worse, which, unless you’re using bad math, doesn’t hold water. They also called it “a gift to the wealthy,” which is the opposite of the truth. Consider the income cap on forgiveness and the fact that, if it were a gift to the wealthy, Republicans would support it in a heartbeat. Like they did for Trump’s $1.7 trillion tax cuts, or the Bush tax cuts, or the Reagan tax cuts, all of which disproportionately benefited the nation’s highest earners and enjoyed full-throated support from Republicans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, not entitlement or government spending programs, are usually the leading cause of budget deficits. But that wouldn’t be an example of Republicans bribing their voters would it, Sen. Romney (R-UT)?
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Between this sweeping executive action and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the political landscape could shift as midterms approach, but there’s still work to be done.
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Considering the predicted midterm-elections slaughter Democrats were facing just a few weeks ago, conditions seem to be brightening, thanks largely to the Biden administration and the congressional Democratic majorities finally getting serious about delivering for the American people. The Inflation Reduction Act, while deeply imperfect, is the biggest piece of climate legislation ever passed. And according to numerous national polls, 60 percent of voters (including almost half of Republicans) support canceling some or all student loan debt for every borrower. It took him a while to get here, but president Biden is delivering on his promises, which is something voters desperately need to see.
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Democrats are often depicted as spineless pushovers, wholly unwilling to fight for their constituents, and sometimes they earn it! But in the past few years, it seems that even more centrist Dems have had an epiphany that voters will not be taken for granted, and that it is incumbent on lawmakers to deliver on their promises, or to at the very least go down visibly swinging. Republicans have doggedly controlled popular rhetoric on a host of issues for decades, but Democrats are finally starting to hit back. Today, when a reporter parroted a popular right-wing talking point, asking if this debt cancellation is “unfair” to people who paid off their loans or never took out loans in the first place, president Biden shot back with, “Is it fair to people who, in fact, do not own multi-billion-dollar businesses if they see one of these guys getting all the tax breaks? Is that fair? What do you think?” Atta boy, Brandon!
Although there is much work still ahead, like solving the root unaffordability of higher education in America, Democrats have the wind at their backs, and, hopefully, the political will to begin getting it done.
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We’ve just added a ton of new Lovett or Leave It - Live! shows this fall! Come join Lovett and friends at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles or at one of our East Coast shows this October.
Find your city and date today! Get your tickets at crooked.com/events.
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Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, like many of his former Trump Administration colleagues, currently finds himself in hot water. Zinke is favored to win a new House seat representing Montana this fall, but a new government watchdog report shows that he lied to investigators multiple times about conversations he had with federal officials, lawmakers, and lobbyists about two Native American tribes’ petition to operate a New England casino. A report from Inspector General Mark Greenblatt’s office concluded that when questioned about his talks with Interior attorneys and other external officials, Zinke and his then-chief of staff failed to comply with their “duty of candor” (aka they fully lied). The report stated that Zinke made statements to the Office of the Inspector General investigators with the “overall intent to mislead them.” In 2017 when the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes filed a joint petition with Interior requesting to open a casino in East Windsor, CT, this sparked an immediate lobbying campaign to deny the request from resort giant MGM Resorts International, which operates a competing casino a short distance away. Evidence in the form of emails and text messages shows that Zinke spent a great deal of time providing a sympathetic ear to MGM lobbyists, but he repeatedly denied meeting with them, and did not disclose the nature of these meetings to attorneys at Interior. Today’s OIG report comes six months after Greenblatt’s office accused Zinke of also lying about his role in negotiating a land deal in his hometown of Whitefish, MT. No rest for the terminally corrupt!
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A new climate report finds that due to changes in global air conditions, forest fires now burn twice as many trees as they did two decades ago.
First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for Covid again in a rare rebound case, and will resume isolation procedures.
A research collaboration between Google, Cambridge University, and the University of Bristol found that teaching users about the tactics behind misinformation made people more skeptical of falsehoods afterwards.
A draft resolution from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in which the United States will immediately recognize the election outcome that international monitors deem free and fair to help quell a potential coup from right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in the likely event of his defeat is gaining support among his Senate colleagues.
The January 6 Committee has been reportedly holding closed-door interviews with former senior Trump Administration officials in an effort to uncover more about the days between January 6, 2021, and President Biden’s inauguration on January 20th, as well as conversations about invoking the 25th amendment.
Today, a jury ordered Los Angeles County to pay Vanessa Bryant and another man $31 million in damages for the violation of privacy and infliction of emotional distress caused by graphic photos sheriff’s deputies and firefighters took of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband Lakers star Kobe Bryant, their daughter, and seven others.
A new congressional investigation shows that officials in the Trump Administration tried to pressure U.S. health experts into overriding the FDA’s decision and reauthorize hydroxychloroquine, a discredited Covid-19 treatment, back in 2020.
In the most rigorous study of its kind to date, psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound found in several species of mushrooms, was shown to help heavy drinkers drastically cut back or entirely quit alcohol consumption.
A forthcoming book alleges that Rudy Giuliani secretly stayed at President Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club after he lost the 2008 Republican presidential primary, reportedly traveling back and forth via an underground tunnel beneath the Palm Beach estate to remain unseen. Picturing Giuliani as a dejected, menacing gopher honestly checks out.
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Primary elections in Florida and New York confirm a growing trend. Though midterm elections are usually a disaster for the ruling party, Republicans seem to have squandered a huge advantage and are performing, to use official politics terminology, “blah.” Most tellingly: Democrat Pat Ryan won a swing-district special election in Hudson Valley, NY—a race that Republicans should won easily, and probably would have pre-Dobbs. Separately, two New York incumbent Democrats were booted from the House after redistricting shuffled the state’s congressional districts. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) ousted 15-term-incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), besting her by a punishing 30-point margin. In many other New York primary races, the progressive wing of the Democratic party failed to organize around single candidates and saw moderates cruise to victory in an empty lane. Elsewhere, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), a man terrible enough to be considered former president Trump’s top rival for 2024, will face re-election against Rep Charlie Crist (D-FL) this fall. Crist, a moderate who formerly resided in Florida’s governor’s mansion as a Republican(!), was seen as the “safest choice,” even though he has lost two previous statewide elections. The Democratic Party loves running weak-kneed moderates against a belligerent Republican culture warriors and it—seems to go poorly much of the time! At least far-right gun nut Laura Loomer didn’t win her central Florida primary, but that’s the only meager good news out of a state where almost all of the school-board candidates DeSantis endorsed won, virtually ensuring that the state will continue harassing LGBT students and educators, and falsifying U.S. History.
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Every gallon of oil extracted from our coastal floor is possible because of a lease sale. Our climate and communities cannot afford more oil and gas drilling on our public waters.
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Data proves that new federal leasing won’t lower gas prices now or for decades – but it would irreversibly harm our communities and our environment.
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Drilling in our public waters leads to oil spills and contributes to extreme weather, rising sea levels due to climate change, and harms coastal communities – all the while the oil and gas industry continues to profit at the expense of our health and climate.
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The Biden administration has a unique opportunity in 2022 to determine the future of offshore leasing in federal waters for the next five years through the Five-Year National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. This plan determines how – or, crucially, if – the United States uses its assets in federal waters, namely underwater oil and gas. Part of this process requires the public – like you – to provide input on the future of offshore oil and gas leasing.
That is why we are asking you to join Earthjustice to tell the Biden administration to end new offshore oil and gas leases.
President Biden just signed the biggest climate investment in history into law. But the fight is not over. The legislation contains dangerous giveaways to the fossil fuel industry that could lock in deadly pollution. Now, more than ever, we need the Biden administration to use all the tools in the toolbox to end new offshore oil and gas leases.
Take a moment today to weigh in on the future of our planet and our health and urge the Biden administration to not offer any new offshore leases to fossil fuel companies.
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