A win for the working class

Under the Biden administration, working-class Americans have seen trillions of their hard-earned tax dollars go toward policies and programs that disproportionately benefit the wealthy and well connected. A perfect example of Washington Democrats preference for elites was President Joe Biden's student loan cancellation scheme, which would have transferred up to $20,000 in student loan debt per borrower onto all taxpayers and cost an estimated $400 billion. This policy would have forced the 87% of Americans who never took on student loans to subsidize the 13% of those who did. And between 57 and 65% of those who would have benefited from the president's plan fall in the top half of the income spectrum. That's absolutely wrong.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court just ruled that Biden's proposal to forgive the student loan debt of doctors and lawyers was unconstitutional. That's a major win for farmers, ranchers and workers -- under no circumstances should they foot the bill for this massive handout to the wealthy. In fact, Biden's student loan debt forgiveness plan was too radical for even members of his own party. In both the House and Senate, Democrats joined Republicans in voting for a measure that would block Biden's proposal.

This is an issue that's personal to me. As a teenager, I thought long and hard about whether pursuing a college degree was right for me. No one else in my family had gone to college; My mom was a factory worker and my dad was a preacher and a mechanic. They worked incredibly hard just to keep our trailer's lights on. So when I decided to attend the University of Missouri, I took out student loans and immediately began looking for job opportunities so I could start paying them off. Despite working a job after classes at night, I am still paying off my student loans to this day. And I will NEVER support a policy to force my neighbors to foot the bill for my college degrees.

While I'm glad Biden's plan will never see the light of day, it's yet another example that underscores how out of touch he and Washington Democrats are with the American people. From day one of this administration, the Left has showered the wealthy and well connected with taxpayer-funded benefits like subsidies for purchasing luxury electric vehicles, green handouts to wealthy corporations, or pausing student loan repayments -- a terrible policy that cost taxpayers $5 billion a month. They could care less that their reckless spending and radical policies are the reason why Americans have lost two months' worth of pay at this point in Biden's cost of living economic crisis.

Americans are rightly furious that at the same time they're struggling to make ends meet, Biden and Washington Democrats are spending trillions in taxpayer dollars to improve the lives of people who need help the least. It just goes to show how completely out of touch the Left is with the hardworking people who make America the greatest nation in the world. Ever since House Republicans retook the majority, we have been working around the clock to get America back on track. And we will never stop fighting to advance policies that put the American worker first.

Jason Smith (R-MO) represents the eighth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.