President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

This was not an act of principle. The reason this one was fulfilled now (and they pushed the forebearance again until January) was that a midterm election is coming up and his party isn't looking too good in the polls. He's making a desperate play to try to buy the votes of people who are among the most likely to actually come out and vote. I'm the worst person to handicap how much it helps or hurts his party, because I often get that kind of calculus wrong. But given that there are way more potential voters who aren't going to benefit and may feel resentment, I am wondering if it is going to backfire on him.

 

I'm not sure how you value money. But for most people who earn $125K a year or less, $10K back into their pockets is not insignificant. Even if it doesn't payoff the entirety of a massive loan they are paying back. I am not sure why you are making this a binary thing, like it's an all or nothing discussion.

Just mailing free $1,000 checks a couple of times to a broad swath of people during the pandemic juiced aggregate demand so much, that it was a major contributor to the run away inflation we are now dealing with. Look at what just a few thousand dollars in the hands of a lot of people did for the earnings of Home Depot and Lowe's during the pandemic, or how much some meme stocks got bid up because of people suddenly finding some found money in their pockets.

The tiny bit of relief you are talking about isn't paying off the entirety of some people's loans, but $10K is not insignificant to most people.

 

During his campaign he was in full Santa Claus mode. Many of his promises haven't been fulfilled, whether it was going to be free college or free child care or universal preschool or paid family and medical leave for 12 weeks.

Those things haven't gotten done because he can't just sign a piece of paper and try to credibly do it via executive decree. But none of the bullshit he was saying to pander for votes during his campaign suddenly became raw political necessity today. People are inured to politicians like Joe Biden promising free everything to them.

The raw political necessity was that the midterm election is coming up and his party isn't looking good at the moment.

And he thought he could credibly bypass the legislative process on this one and give a financial benefit to about 40 or 50 million potential voters who are among the most likely to actually show up to vote in a midterm election.