Critics Of Student Debt Forgiveness 'Exposed' And 'Ratioed' By ProPublica PPP Loan Tool As Viral Debate Continues Heating Up

August 25th, 2022 - 1:34 PM EDT by Aidan Walker

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Dark Brandon meme and a Pro Publica logo.

President Joe Biden's decision to forgive at least $10,000 of student loan debt for all borrowers has generated significant backlash from critics on the right and left.

Thanks to savvy use of a ProPublica online public records access tool, however, other users have found that many critics of the student loan forgiveness move have themselves benefited from loan forgiveness on COVID pandemic-era PPP loans.


During the pandemic, the federal government gave out $793 billion in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to keep businesses afloat. The vast majority of these loans (at least $742 billion of them) were forgiven by the government if businesses met certain requirements, such as not firing employees.

By comparison, the amount of student loan debt the Biden administration just forgave is around $300 billion, although estimates vary widely.


Supporters of Biden’s decision have argued the debt cancelation will not impact inflation very much because, compared to actions the government has taken in the past few years (such as the PPP loans, or a decade-plus of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve), the amount of debt forgiven is pretty small.

Some have also argued that like the stimulus checks given to citizens during the pandemic, the student loan debt forgiveness relieves enough suffering and hardship that it is worth the cost.


Some Republican members of Congress, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, were criticized for railing against government handouts on Fox News and other media outlets while accepting forgiveness for loans taken out during the pandemic.

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Other notable individuals such as megachurch pastor and televangelist Joel Osteen were roasted by posters amid the pushback. Osteen has been criticized in the past for running a highly lucrative business that, because it is technically a church, does not have to pay taxes.

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Others clapped back at specific critics on Twitter with screenshots of ProPublica loan search results, often with the commonly used refrain “This you?”


A number of memes also praised Dark Brandon for the decision he made.


But according to recent polling, many voters are still unsure what they think of Dark Brandon, perhaps because they don't look at memes and don't know who he is.




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