While President Biden announced a three-part student debt relief plan, a Paraqeet search showed it was the loan forgiveness aspect of his strategy that sparked a deafening discourse on Twitter.
The announcement stoked the flames of two camps that will never agree: the federally loan burdened vs. those who do not directly benefit from the plan, whether they’ve never borrowed for higher education, already refinanced their federal loans with private lenders, or already paid off their debt.
A Paraqeet search showed respondents airing strong, often conflicted opinions even within the same YouGov poll.
Or, maybe not so fast:
The ‘No Way’ Camp
Arguments against the plan often followed party lines with prominent Republicans complaining that it is unfair, is designed to influence the midterm elections, and that borrowers knowingly accrued the debt.
Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, sounded what would become one familiar refrain.
Twitter user @tipjoO6 suggested the trend shouldn’t be limited to covering a part of the cost of education, and others who did not attend college should benefit in some form as well.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, the No. 5 influencer under a Paraqeet search of “loan” and “forgiveness,” found the timing of the plan convenient for Democrats, as did others.
Another common complaint across Paraqeet was that student borrowers knew what they were getting themselves into. Gary HokieHawk, a self-described Reagan conservative in Colorado, responded resentfully to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her support of Biden’s plan.
The “It’s About Time” Camp
Paraqeet showed supporters of the plan were just as fervent in their opinions. Twitter users noted that the cost of college has ballooned and older generations who paid off their loans don’t grasp how the landscape has changed over the last several decades.
A common response among supporters to the argument that student loan forgiveness doesn’t benefit everyone was that taxpayers support myriad programs that don’t directly benefit everyone.
Along those same lines, but with a more partisan take, were tweets calling out congressional Republicans who benefited from pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness.
Aside from the arguments and potential political ramifications, Paraqeet also showed a bevy of tweets that expressed concern with the high cost of college and the growing numbers of students who either never graduate or take longer than usual to do so.
Simply put, Paraqeet showed that amid all the bickering, student loan forgiveness is not the be-all end-all solution to the larger issue at hand and will continue to be a resource in distilling sentiment in the argument-laden weeks ahead.