Republicans are facing criticism for complaining that President Joe Biden’s student debt cancellation program will hurt the Pentagon’s ability to recruit poor people into the military.
A group of 19 Republican Representatives sent a delegation last week. letter saying that Biden’s recent plan to cancel up to $10,000 for borrowers or $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients making under $75,000 a year is “removing any leverage the Department of Defense” to recruit people wishing to access higher education but who can’t afford it.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) tweeted a link to a news report on the letter, saying that he is “very concerned that the deeply flawed and unfair policy of blanket student loan forgiveness will also weaken our most powerful recruiting tool at the precise moment we are experiencing a crisis in military recruiting.”
Bacon faced ridiculeFor his tweetBy progressives like former Ohio state senator Nina TurnerThey claim that GOP lawmakers have openly admitted that they are interested in keeping higher education costly as a tool for military recruits.
“Read between the lines: these folks want poor people to be put in a corner so they will go fight endless wars that benefit the rich just to receive an education,” Turner wrote.
Republicans have been criticized for making similar statements. Last month, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Indiana) similarly complained that student debt forgiveness “undermines one of our military’s greatest recruitment tools.”
The Pentagon’s critics have long condemned the Pentagon’s actions. known as the “poverty draft.” The military’s offers of financial incentives like student loan repayment, free college, and other cash incentivesThey are attractive to young people who are in debt or living in poverty.
This knowledge allows us to make the best of our situation. military often activelyTravels to schools in poor and other-white areas to recruit; once they join, Black, Latinx and Indigenous are and low-income people are disproportionatelyPlaced in the most dangerous situations than other enlistees.
Critics find this predatory practice unethical for many reasons. of the practice argue. Active military service personnel are at high risk of mental health issues like suicide, and critics say that poor people shouldn’t have to put their bodies and lives on the line just in order to afford higher education.
With this in mind, critics posted on social media that it is alarming that Republicans would not only acknowledge this fact but also openly advocate for it, saying that Republicans were saying “the quiet part out loud.”
The Debt Collective, an activist group wrote that if student debt cancellation does reduce military recruitment, it would be a good thing.
“One of the best parts about canceling student debt is thinking of all the people who no longer feel compelled to enlist in the military to pay off their loans,” the group wroteFollow us on Twitter. “It is not a stretch to say that canceling student debt — and making college free — would hamper U.S. imperial/colonial efforts.”
