Comment from Gloria ....

Excellent

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was signed into law by former president Donald Trump in March, 2020. Those loans could be partially or fully forgiven if the business maintained employee counts and wages. Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene received $183,504 in PPP loan forgiveness for her private business.

Apparently the federal government has forgiven approximately $394.6 billion in more than 4 million loans through the Paycheck Protection Program and the student loan forgiveness under Biden is estimated to be $519 billion for more than 27 million borrowers.

Is there a fundamental difference between the US Executive Branch of government and hard working taxpayers in cancelling debt in either of these cases?

Thought provoking post and I wish you great luck with the voters.

Gloria

 Comment Written 03-Mar-2024

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reply by the author on 03-Mar-2024

You raise an excellent point. The manipulation and theft that happened out of the PPP was massive and apparently a lot of that money went straight to China. I know of self employed people who totally played that game too, and Greene of all folks ought to face conflict of interest penalties. She is a sideshow though, with little actual power, and about as much credibility as George Santos even if she has fans.

Here's why I think college loan forgiveness is a bigger problem:

I work in a restaurant full of blue collar workers for extra cash a couple times a week and am particularly aware of the underclasses (typically along racial lines) serving those with free college degrees, or perhaps in some cases, free "business" loans. It's a direct transfer of wealth from blue collar workers and those who worked their butts off through school to those who partied through college, and inflates the cost of college for future students. My larger annoyance with this process though is that Biden circumvented the proper legislative and judicial processes, and reportedly had letters sent to recipients that explicitly stated that HE had cancelled their debt. Processes matter as much as outcomes, and this is as direct an action to buy votes on a massive scale as has ever existed. The PPP, for its myriad faults, was very much bipartisan legislation intended to prevent layoffs during COVID and it would be hard to argue that it was vote buying.

President Biden will never face any sort of accounting for buying votes, while Trump meanwhile faces myriad lawsuits, which while largely deserved, fuel allegations of election interference. The greatest danger to the Republic right now is a contested election, and the only outcome that avoids that is if Biden wins fair and square in a landslide without vote buying, without drop boxes, without mail fraud, and he can prove it without talking to the electorate like we are eight years old. Anything lending credence to Trump's allegations that the elections are rigged must be prevented at all costs. Literally everyone I know, across states and demographics, who didn't vote for Biden in the last election (so 70%+ of people) believe the last election either was or could have been rigged, and this upcoming one is looking far more dangerous as nothing has been done to safeguard the process, since each party uses the stupidity of the other to amplify their own stupid arguments. Neither side is interested in an actual fair, open and accountable election with ballots that are fully tracked yet blind, unique documents with signature verification, although when I describe such a system, everyone across party lines agrees with me that we need it. 24 years after hanging chads, our currency is still more secure than our ballots. We are headed for a disaster!

Comment from Dolly'sPoems

Excellent

You guys do not have much choice when it comes to choosing politicians over there, I wish you luck with the forthcoming election, it is going to be a battle to the end, a poignant post, love Dolly x

 Comment Written 03-Mar-2024

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reply by the author on 03-Mar-2024

To the end and beyond unfortunately. Hopefully we manage to avoid a second civil war in 2025; that is the great danger when votes are up for sale! Thanks Dolly!