Joe Biden is sinking in the polls, even among Democrats. That singular fact has the president scrambling to stave off disaster.
In his case, “disaster” is a delegation of old, wise heads in the Democratic Party paying a visit to the White House asking Biden to step away from the 2024 election before his party gets steamrolled.
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At first, he probably won’t go. But sometime before the convention next August, he will face the prospect of a revolt by delegates and a humiliating defeat by his own party. At that point, he will have no choice but to go.
His only chance to avoid that is to turn his fortunes around with his own party. And where his support has slipped the most is in the 18-30 age group.
Related: Biden Can’t Do This One Thing to Guarantee His Re-Election
“Joe Biden is at a uniquely low point in his presidency, and a significant part of this, especially within the Biden coalition, is due to how Americans are viewing his foreign policy actions,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the NBC News poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
“This poll is a stunner, and it’s stunning because of the impact the Israel-Hamas war is having on Biden,” he said.
Biden is hoping that the Israel-Hamas war will fade in importance by next summer and that he can bring a lot of the younger Democratic voters back to supporting the president by reminding them of his bribe in forgiving student loan debt. True, he couldn’t convince the Supreme Court to forgive a trillion dollars of college loan debt. Instead, he’s taken the piecemeal approach using his powers as head of the executive branch to fiddle with the rules and forgive as much debt as he can.
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In this specific case, it was people “who weren’t accurately credited for student loan payments that should have given them forgiveness, or people placed into forbearance by loan servicers who violated Department of Education policies,” according to Axios.
“Congratulations — your student loan has been forgiven because of actions my administration took to make sure you receive the relief you earned and deserve,” the email reads. “For too long, the student loan program failed to live up to its commitments — and millions like you never got the relief you were owed because of errors and administrative failures.”
See? It’s not your fault you’re a deadbeat!!
“I hope this relief gives you a little more breathing room,” the message reads. “I’m proud that we were able to give borrowers like you the relief you earned,” the email reads.
To date, the Biden administration has canceled a total of $127 billion in student loan debt and launched a new income-based student loan repayment program in August.
“I’ve heard from countless people who have told me that relieving the burden of student loan debt will allow them to support themselves and their families, or move forward with life plans they’ve put on hold,” the email continues.
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There’s no attempt to hide the fact that this is a campaign-related ad. But nowhere in the email does it say that, and it’s unknown whether the campaign is being billed for the time and labor involved in writing and producing this political commercial.
Not that it matters. The people getting their debt canceled fail to realize that someone somewhere is going to have to pay that debt. If not the person who originally took out the loan, then it will be the rest of us who are having the “burden” of student loan debt transferred to the shoulders of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The difference is that they never asked for it.