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Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman had a live show yesterday, where they discussed student loan forgiveness, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the fecklessness of the Democratic Party, plus a lot of great questions from the Muckrake Patreon Community.
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Welcome, everybody, to the Weekender Edition of the McCraig Podcast.
I'm Jared H. Sykes, and I'm here with Nick Halseman.
Nick is struggling with the LaCroix.
We are doing a live show right now with our patrons and the community, which was much, much needed, particularly after the last couple of weeks.
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People are over here talking, getting along with each other, being nice to each other, being supportive.
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Join this community, especially as Twitter is...
Hanging on by a thread, but... Is he or isn't he?
That's the other question, right?
That's the question that everybody wants to know and is dreading to know the answer to right now.
In the meantime, we got some current politics, we've got some midterm jostling and wrestling and strategery that we need to talk about.
The rumor around Washington, D.C., around political circles, Is that the Democratic push leading up into the midterms could possibly involve President Joe Biden for giving upwards, last I've heard, $10,000 worth of student debt.
This is something that a lot of us have been pushing for for a long time, possibly more than that.
We need to break down what's happening here, whether or not this will be effective, how people are reacting, just absolutely coconut bananas response from some people that we got to talk about.
But Nick, you were commenting on some generational stuff before we began this taping.
What's your reaction to this?
Because I got some takes.
Hey man, I had to work for 10 years to top my debt and I will be over my dead body.
Was anybody else going to get their debt covered?
Can you imagine if somebody didn't have to suffer like you did, Nick?
Can you imagine?
Oh, and you know what?
It's right before the midterms, so they're trying to just get votes here.
Jared, that's all they're really trying to do, get those votes from those, you know, those so many people out there that have, you know, overwhelming debt.
Which, by the way, do you know what the numbers are?
It's millions, right?
I mean, it's millions, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that shifts like An election spread across all the way around the world.
Well, you know, if you are Willard Mitt Romney Pennybags the Third with an elevator for your car, I guess you would probably liken this to a bribe.
Well, you brought him up on purpose, right?
Yeah, I mean, he's come out already against this thing.
The Republicans are already trying to push legislation to make sure this doesn't happen.
Listen, I gotta lay out my take on this because it's both good and bad.
And is it an election ploy?
Absolutely it is.
But I will say, student debt in this country is not just a shame and an embarrassment, it's an indictment of our system.
I've said this many times, what happened starting in the 1990s with de-industrialization, basically that created a captive market in which anybody who wanted to participate in the modern economy had to go to college.
It became a completely corporate for-profit model where they could charge literally whatever they wanted because it was a captive market.
It was an absolute fraud perpetrated on God knows how many people at this point.
The entirety of it should be forgiven.
The entirety of it should just be wiped out.
It would be one of the greatest programs for our economy that we might ever see.
$10,000, I'm happy that'll get knocked off, but I have to tell you, Nick, it is nowhere near enough.
And I've got some deeper cuts than that, but I just, I have to tell you, it's not enough.
Well, that should be the subheading of the US government.
United States government.
It's just not enough.
Well, and on that note, I want to be very frank.
This is a quintessential Democratic thing.
A Democratic Party thing, right?
They're going to do this in order to appeal to younger voters.
They don't particularly want to.
Also, on top of that, they're going to do something that is necessary, but not enough of it, and also not really something that they're going to get total credit for.
Because wiping out $10,000 of student debt, I'm telling you, nobody is walking around America with $10,000 worth of student debt.
It's in the 80s.
It's in the 90s.
It's $100,000.
It's $100,000+.
This right here would actually be something that looks like it's progress, but it wouldn't necessarily make the dent that needs to be made.
So this is both something that should be applauded, but also scorned at the exact same time.
Well, it is fascinating that you're not going to find any Republicans who are going to say, yeah, this is popular.
It's a good idea.
Let's give them some money.
You know, like they're not, none of them are going to say that.
Um, I'm old enough to remember though, uh, a certain Republican presidential candidate basically saying, I will give you $200 to vote for me.
And just about worked.
And, and, you know, I mean, depending on how you view the results of the 2000 election, uh, that was powerful.
That, that works, right?
Yeah, and I mean, let's be frank, this is where our government is now.
We've talked a lot about the federal government being depowered.
There's not a lot that it can do for regular people anymore.
That's by design.
That is exactly what neoliberalism has done.
It has taken over the federal government.
It's taken over government, more or less.
And by the way, corporations that have been bailed out, banks that have been bailed out, they could not be reached for comment on this situation.
Right?
Because basically the entire government has been turned into a piggy bank for some of... Oh, look!
One person has $10,000 in student debt left.
Yahtzee!
That's fantastic!
That would be... That's... Congratulations!
And everybody should applaud that.
People should be excited for people getting this, like, knocked off.
And who cares if it's somebody out there who says that they've paid it off?
Somebody who didn't have to take it out?
Listen, people have been defrauded.
And this money that would be... And by the way, it comes out to $321 billion.
That's how much would be wiped out.
That's a chunk.
It's not enough.
That's neither here nor there.
This is money that the government should have provided already for education, particularly as deindustrialization happened.
This is one of the few things the Biden administration can do with the stroke of a pen with an executive order because all other ways of representation legislation have basically been gotten rid of.
So, this is one of those situations.
Again, applaud it.
And look at the hypocrisy, Nick.
Because this is what the Republican Party runs on.
They're going to give things to other people, not to you.
And the Republicans have built their base on people who resent people who have gone to college and are part of the bonded economy.
That is one of the main appeals and one of the main power bases among the Republican Party now.
Yeah, I think one of the responses to Mitt Romney's ridiculous tweet about, uh, what's next if we pay off student debt?
What else are we going to do?
Like, you know, not have people pay taxes, whatever that tweet was.
Somebody responded, though, saying, you know, you went to college in 19 whatever that was, 70, 71 somewhere, somewhere like maybe it was even in Utah.
My mind is blank.
And by the way, Willard Mitt Romney did not have to take out loans to go to college.
He did not.
But that is not even the point.
Many people did not need to then because it cost about $800 or something like that to go to college for a year, which would be the equivalent of – they did the thing.
It's – oh, my goodness.
That's the equivalent of today's money to go to college now, and I gotta tell ya, that ain't- It ain't that.
No way you're going to college for $2,400 for the year.
Here's the funny thing is, you know what, I tell ya, I have to try and find some records.
When I went to Wisconsin in 1990, I don't think it cost more than like, maybe it was like six grand for the year, just for the tuition.
That's so gross, Nick.
That's so gross.
I'm still thinking like that, like that was a pretty good deal.
Well, and by the way, at that point you were like, you were listening to Nirvana and you were like, the party's never gonna end, guys!
It's gonna keep going and going and going.
We're never gonna have to worry about any of this stuff.
Keep the good times rolling.
He had some bangers.
I want to take a quick second.
Laura Ingram, who is one of the most disgusting individuals in American culture, found out today, I was doing some research on her, I found out that she dated Dinesh D'Souza, which I did not know.
Interesting right-wing power couple.
Jared, yeah, love works in mysterious ways.
So Laura Ingram, one of the most disgusting people in American culture, wanted to weigh in on this, which is wonderful.
I just want to go ahead and read this tweet because I think it is How do I put this?
It is the perfect encapsulation of these people.
Like, literally the perfect encapsulation of what is happening among the right wing.
And this, of course, is part of the endemic of student debt.
And this is what Laura Ingram said.
My mom worked as a waitress until she was 73 to help pay for our college, even helped with loan repayment.
Loan forgiveness, just another insult to those who play by the rules.
It's saying, and by the way, don't even try and wrap your head around the fact that Laura Ingraham has been a public figure making unbelievable amounts of money.
A television person, I believe, has written some really disgusting, obnoxious books.
Let her mom work until she was 73 as a waitress in order to pay off loans and help with loan repayment.
Also, look at that.
It's even saying, somebody helped pay off my stuff, nobody should help you pay off yours.
Like that's, really, if you wrap your head around that, like that is, that's unbelievable pretzel logic.
Well, I mean, listen, she doesn't think that the government should pay off your loan.
Somebody else can.
Your mom, you know.
How big could that loan have been if she was in the college in the 80s?
Right?
I have no idea.
Predatory back then, but... Can I advance a theory, Nick?
Yeah.
I think it might be bullshit.
That's some theory.
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