Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts thinks that “student debt is policy violence” and that President Joe Biden should cancel people’s student debt.
“Let’s make it plain: student debt is policy violence. We’ll keep fighting to relieve families across the country, to make sure our policies & budgets reflect their lived experiences & that we build this grassroots movement to #CancelStudentDebt together,” Pressley tweeted.
In another tweet, she said that “the student debt crisis is multiracial & multigenerational” and “a racial, gender & economic justice issue.” She declared that the president “can & must #CancelStudentDebt.”
Many on Twitter pushed back against the congresswoman’s use of the word “violence” and noted that people who voluntarily assume massive sums of have a bear responsibility to pay it back.
“Let’s make it plain: Step 1: borrow money if you choose; Step 2: Pay it back,” GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas tweeted.
“Not everything is “violence.” Pay the bills you agreed to pay. If you’re mad at the cost of college, have a word with your Democrat colleagues who voted to nationalize loans which drove up cost,” conservative radio host Dana Loesch tweeted.
“This is why words have lost all meaning,” Virginia Kruta tweeted.
“Some people really need to learn the definition of the word “violence.” Holding people responsible for their own debts is not violence,” Daily Wire senior editor Ashe Short tweeted.
National Review Online senior writer Dan McLaughlin responded to the congresswoman’s comment by tweeting:
Things that are violence:
-Allowing people to borrow money to go to college.
Things that are not violence:
-Dismembering children in the womb
-Riots
-Abandoning poor people to the mercy of street criminals
-Surrendering Afghanistan to the Taliban
In a tweet earlier this year Pressley claimed that evictions represent “policy violence.”
“Evictions are policy violence. Housing is a human right,” she declared.