Biden Bites Back

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump, who played golf somewhere north of three hundred times during his one four-year term as President - or roughly a quarter of his time in office - also managed to occasionally work - but only if you count sitting up all night rage-tweeting, and spending large parts of the "work" day watching cable news along with more rage-tweeting as "work."    And, of course, he also had to have an inordinate amount of time for personal grooming:  make-up, haircare, and diaper-changing.

It was a busy and demanding schedule, and through it all Trump managed to keep his base fired up to near incendiary levels.

Joe Biden, on the other hand is a bit more reserved.  He has played golf a couple of times since becoming President, ridden his bicycle on a few occasions,  and spent a half-dozen or so family weekends at the beach in Delaware and Thanksgiving in Nantucket - all of which have driven Trump supporters beyond their normal level of crazy - and Biden spends his "work" day in the White House actually working for the people who hired him and pay his salary.   He dresses appropriately, acts appropriately, and manages to craft legislation that actually benefits real people - and get it passed.  And Joe has never been known to throw plates of food at the walls of the White House dining room.

If Joe Biden has a major failing it may be that he tends to ignore the Trump noise machine that is always nipping at his heels.

But now that may be changing.

This week President Biden announced a cancellation of some student debt (up to $20,000 per individual borrower), a move that will benefit hundreds of thousands people who have spent years paying off student loans, many of which were predatory in nature, and put more money into the economy.  Conservatives, who by-and-large supported the massive GOP tax cut passed during the Trump administration, a move that put more money in the pockets of millionaires and billionaires, and who by-and-large benefitted from the recent government Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) stimulus loans to American employers, almost all of which have already been "forgiven," were outraged that the United States government would dare to negate a portion of the student loan debt.    

Outraged GOP office holders and party bosses were fine with assisting themselves and their friends with government handouts, but using the national treasury to benefit ordinary people was a bridge too far.

And the wail went up!

The GOP immediately began grinding out talking points claiming that the government was bankrolling scammers with the hard-earned money of taxpayers.  But this time as sanctimonious Republicans began venting their outrage, the Biden White House decided not to ignore it.  

Megan Coyne was recently hired by the White House to be its deputy director of platforms in the Office of Digital Strategy, a position which apparently has the responsibility for writing "tweets" for the White House Twitter site.  Coyne, who had performed the same function for the state of New Jersey, is quick and sharp and not afraid to call out hypocrites.

This week the White House Twitter account went after several members of Congress who had complained indignantly about the unfairness of student debt cancellation -- and she responded to their complaints on Twitter by pointing out the amount that each of them had received in PPP loans - loans that have been "forgiven."  She even had the audacity to cite the exact amounts of government cash that each of the members of Congress had been gifted by our government.

The recipients of these White House truth bombs were not happy about having their blatant hypocrisy exposed.  After the White House Twitter account exposed a six-figure PPP loan that a particularly odious congresswoman from Georgia had received - and after Biden had publicly referred to her as "what's her name," the congresswoman roared back with a tweet that ended with "Go to hell, Joe."

I'm sure that one made him smile!