The official White House Twitter account is @White Houseusually trafficked with sober infographics and excerpts from temperate government speeches, took a more aggressive turn on Thursday night.
In six tweets, the White House account cited Republican lawmakers’ criticism of President Biden’s student loan plans and replied with amounts members of Congress had accepted in waived loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. coronavirus pandemic.
it was a simple formulaand what was being used across social media at the time, the tone was unusually sharp given the source. that fan on Twitter: “Best White House trolling ever!” wrote one.
When asked about the tweet on Friday, White House spokeswoman Alexandra LaManna said, “We have never hesitated to call out hypocrisy. We are not going to stop now.”Student Loan Debt Relief ( Many of the same people who call it helping the middle class and working families by giving them a breather are relief for the wealthy and loan relief that benefits their companies. It’s important to clarify that there was nothing wrong with giving tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy.”
The White House is not the first to highlight government debt relief received by critics of student loan forgiveness. Shortly after the plan was announced Wednesday, individuals and activists found critics’ loan information in public databases and online. shared.
One graphic in particular It listed six Republicans identified by the White House and seven other congressmen who said they were exempt from PPP loans ranging from $38,000 to $4.3 million.
A comparison of the two loans is not exactly equivalent. PPP loans were effectively designed to be forgiven. The federal government has offered them without the traditional scrutiny criteria of business loans to quickly distribute funds to businesses struggling in the first few years of the coronavirus pandemic. nearly all businesses were eligible for low-interest loans.
U.S. Small Business Administration spokesman Matt Coleman said the agency could not comment on the White House tweet. policy,” he said.
Also, the amount of money the representative companies received through this program was much higher than what they could get from the Student Loan Forgiveness Program, which cancels up to $20,000 in loan obligations for people below certain income limits.
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Independent analysis shows that those eligible for college loan forgiveness are disproportionately young and black. The Department of Education estimates that about 90% of affected borrowers have an annual income of $75,000 or less.
Some in the social media and political world have speculated that the cheeky new tone of the @WhiteHouse account was the work of a strategist. megan coinUntil recently, he ran a very cheeky Twitter account for the New Jersey government under Democratic Gov. Philip D. Murphy. Coyne announced on August 1 that he will join the Biden administration’s Office of Digital Strategy as deputy director of platforms.
However, the White House did not disclose the extent to which Coyne was involved in the message. Tweet a smiley emoji The screenshot above shows that reaction to critics is the top trend on Twitter.
The approach itself was clearly fully endorsed by the Biden administration. Biden’s National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti, when asked about Friday’s tweet, told reporters at a White House briefing that he “absolutely thinks it’s a fair comparison” between PPPs and student loans. rice field.
“Our view is, why is there a double standard here?” Mr Ramamurti said. “Why, from a Republican perspective, it’s great to waive up to $10 million in loans to business owners, but to teachers, bus drivers, nurses, he doesn’t have $10,000 or $20,000 in loans.” If you want to offer exemption, all of a sudden socialism?”
These nuances aside, the Biden White House’s use of the meme rocked the somewhat sleepy account to the center of social media discussions about student loan plans.
one of those tweetsOklahoma Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin said he was forgiven of more than $1.4 million in PPP loans, shared more than 44,000 times.white house tweet from the previous dayIt has been shared just over 1,000 times, including a video clip of Mr. Biden announcing his student loan plans.
“Another ignorant attack from a career politician who has never created jobs” Marine representative I answered. “74 days before the midterm elections, Joe Biden targets business owners to protect workers from government lockdowns. President Trump will always stand by American workers and job creators.” I’ve been.”
The change in tone coincided with Biden’s more aggressive language in Thursday night’s campaign speech, which denounced “extreme MAGA Republicans.”
By Friday morning, however, the White House account had returned to its usual businesslike tone, posting: Infographic With student loan data. As of Friday afternoon, it had just over 2,100 shares.
Stacey Cowley When Jim Tankersley contributed to the report.