My last update that we will have time for today deals with yet another millionaire (a
multi-millionaire whose name perhaps is better known than Mr Schultz's):
Mitt Romney, who once ran for president. Didn't do it very well. For the Republicans, of course. He
is very proudly sitting at the top, [he is] one of the richest senators in the United States Senate,
which has an awful lot of rich people in it. But he became well known even more over recent weeks
when he filed a bill in the senate now (get this) to prevent the United States government
from relieving students of student debt. That's right. What an interesting contrast with
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the house, where she's a
representative, explaining to those who would pay attention what it means when a 17 year old person
eager to get into college agrees to signs up for a loan whose implications and consequences
they couldn't possibly understand, partly because no one has ever explained it to them.
But you know, rich people denying the power of the government
to relieve their debts that's kind of how the wealthy and the poor treat each other. That is,
the poor have few weapons so they can't treat the rich anywhere near as badly as the rich
treat them what were the arguments? Well, he's concerned about fairness to students.
I'm not going to laugh. I'm just going to remind you that there is very little in the history of
Mr Romney to indicate that care for poor students has ever been a major concern. And that's as far
as I'll take it. But let's see what unfairnesses he doesn't care about.
Back in 2017 we had one of the biggest tax cuts rammed through by the then Republican-controlled
white house and congress. The tax cuts were enormous and they went mostly to corporations
and the rich. Now Mr Romney would have known, for sure, being a person in the finance business,
that giving everybody a tax cut doesn't discriminate, here we go,
between the rich and the poor. Those who need a tax cut and those who don't. He never said a word
to that effect. He didn't care about the fairness, he just wanted the tax cut. The IRS allows,
if you can't pay your taxes, something called the Fresh Start program or the Offers in Compromise,
where they relieve some of your back taxes because you really can't pay for them.
If you listen to Mr Romney he doesn't want to relieve the debts of students
because that wouldn't be fair to the students who've already paid. Oh really? That's what
you're concerned about? The fairness. The IRS doesn't relieve the people who paid their taxes
because it helps out those who can't, does it? And you've never said a word about that.
If the Supreme Court decision about Roe versus Wade becomes law there
will be all kinds of poor people who can't afford to go to a state where it's legal,
compared to people who have money and will. You didn't worry about that fairness either, or at
least you kept mum. No, no, you don't care about fairness. You know what you care about? You're
worried that letting students off their debts will let everybody else begin to think about getting
off their debt, and then rich people will have to make up the difference of all that money that
goes back and isn't collected from the poor. And that's all you've ever been in favor of. That's
why you're a Republican, that's why you make these kinds of comments. You're worried. You want
to pitch some students against others, you want to weaken the movement to relieve the students,
so you come up with a "fairness" doctrine. Very convenient. Very selective. Shame on you.