• mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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    3 months ago

    I love how he throws that out like some kind of gotcha 😃

    I mean, I think what he’s trying to say is a little more coherent argument: That Biden’s doing it wrong, and should be reforming the student loan services instead of doing programs to explicitly forgive portions of debt for specific borrowers. In which case my question would be this: The scorecard for this week is:

    • Biden: Gave $6 billion loan relief
    • FuglyDuck: Gave $0 loan relief

    So it seems weird if FuglyDuck is giving Biden feedback on what is the right way to give student loan relief, like Biden’s just fucking it up when it’s so obvious that if FuglyDuck could get in there he could set everything right with a different approach. As we all know, getting big new things done in government is actually super simple.

    • Tinidril
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      3 months ago

      Now I think it’s you being a bit ridiculous. By that logic, no American can ever legitimately criticize a Presidency.

      There are reasons why Biden didn’t take other approaches available to him, and they aren’t laudable ones. His donors don’t want a precedent set that would make it easy for a future president to relieve even more debt.

      Biden gets credit for what he has done, but ultimately the limit comes from what the establishment negotiates with the banks. It’s way past time for leadership that will remind the banks that they weren’t the ones elected.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        3 months ago

        Now I think it’s you being a bit ridiculous. By that logic, no American can ever legitimately criticize a Presidency.

        That’s fair. I wasn’t trying to say “you can’t criticize the president because you’re not in that position,” but that is sorta what I said, and that’s a little ridiculous, you’re right.

        What I was meaning to say has one important caveat though, see: So on overall greenhouse gas emissions, and on overall amount of money forgiven on student loans, Biden has a great record. The total number of tons and total number of dollars is moving more significantly in the right direction than anyone else who’s ever been president. And, he objectively tried to do a lot more than he did, but had to pare it back because other powerful people in government told him no. All of that is a little hard for FuglyDuck to directly argue against, because it’s… well, it’s true. So he’s doing a little rhetorical dodge where he picks some element that’s one small-minority piece of the whole issue, and says if Biden really cared about student loans or climate or whatever, he’d have done this piece in a different fashion. So clearly he’s doing damage on purpose and we need to not vote for him.

        It’s honestly a pretty solid strategy for FuglyDuck to focus in on single issues like that, because I don’t really know the issues well enough to say he’s wrong. So what I’m saying instead is, look, Biden achieved objectively a good overall record on this issue. To pick out some piece of his overall big picture and say, sure he’s winning the game, but he obviously doesn’t really care, or else this minority piece would be different, to me isn’t reasonable.

        It’d be different if FuglyDuck was saying “Sure, Biden achieved a significant success with the climate bill, but I still think he fucked up on decision X.” That shows he’s in it for some honest purpose even if he and I disagree on some details. The fact that he ignores me repeatedly when I’m referring to the bigger picture, and keeps insisting the individual issues are the only things that matter (and only the ones that happen to line up with his overall narrative), makes me a lot less trusting of the overall “Biden hates the climate” picture he seems to be trying to paint.

        • Tinidril
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          3 months ago

          I think we are in agreement. I don’t believe FuglyDuck is commenting on good faith.

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Now I think it’s you being a bit ridiculous. By that logic, no American can ever legitimately criticize a Presidency.

        By all means criticize but don’t make it sound like he’s completely ineffective or gutless because he couldn’t squeeze out more given the extreme levels of obstruction from Congress and the clear conservative bias in the SCOTUS.

        • Tinidril
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          3 months ago

          It wasn’t me doing that.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Oh yes. so because I’m not obscenely rich, I don’t get to have a say in how my tax dollars are spent, or the effort elected officials put into solving problems?

      Ultimately he hasn’t forgiven any student loans that weren’t already supposed to be forgiven. the loan servicers used loopholes and gotchas to keep people indebted outside the spirit of the rules. many of those loans should have been forgiven back when Obama was in office. So you don’t get to make that argument either.

      This has been a known problem for two or three decades. He’s only taking small steps to resolve it because the people it affected are very close to getting their pitchforks and torches for it. (proverbally speaking.) he’s taken almost zero action to actually resolve the problem- which is that tuition is ridiculously expensive. that’s the problem he should be fixing. (while yes, also honoring contract obligations. and throwing the book at people who failed to do just that.)

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        This has been a known problem for two or three decades

        And Biden wasn’t President for two or three decades.

        he’s taken almost zero action to actually resolve the problem

        Funny how you people started pitching a fit whenever anyone suggested reforming tuition rather than one-time handouts. But now that Biden has actually started doing the handouts, now you’re pitching a fit that he isn’t reforming tuition.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Funny how you people started pitching a fit whenever anyone suggested reforming tuition rather than one-time handouts.

          I did what now?

          And Biden wasn’t President for two or three decades.

          He was VP for 8 years. Senator for 36 years prior to that. He has been part of federal politics and a leader in the DNC longer than I’ve been alive.

          He’s absolutely part of how we got here.