 So Bill Maher at this point, he still maintains that he hasn't changed at all. He's the same. So to prove that he's going to talk about student loans. And can you guess what side Bill Maher is gonna land on? He's going to attack student debt cancellation. So let's watch. President Biden is under enormous pressure speaking of college get to come up with a plan now to relieve college debt. And I'm wondering especially what you think about this because you are a strategist and have been one of the most successful ones for the Democratic Party. Just to give you guys a little bit of information about this individual, this is Paul Begala, one of the dumbest people in Washington, DC. For anyone who takes him seriously, you should feel bad about that. But the problem is that like I'm in the minority opinion, right? Everyone in DC actually looks to him as if he's a God, one of the dumbest people imaginable. He's one of these folks who'd say that Democrats are losing because they give in to the woke left or the far left. Like I'm kind of like paraphrasing his overall ethos, but the whole consultant class, they say the same thing and he's no different. You know, you have to shift to the middle. Try to pretend to be Republicans. Larp his Republicans and then you'll win them over. It's never worked. So the fact that like Bill Maher is trying to get his wisdom, like the infinite wisdom of fucking Paul Begala is peak liberalism. Like this is peak liberalism. Even if Bill Maher is a conservative now essentially for all intents and purposes, he still has so many liberal tendencies that he can't shake, but I'll shut up and we'll listen. A lot of people are saying this is a loser issue. I'll give you some brief numbers here. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Who's saying that? The people saying that student debt cancellation is a loser issue are Republicans. And the reason why they're saying this, even though that's wrong, is because if Biden were to cancel student debt, let's just pretend for a second in a hypothetical world that wasn't as bad, that Biden chose to cancel $50,000 worth of student debt. How on earth would Republicans who have no policy vision compete with that? They just say that's bad and you should be against it, but the millions of students who Biden just alleviated the suffering of can respond by saying, but I feel the difference on my wallet. My life has changed as a result of that. I can start my life. I can put down a down payment on a home by a car. So there's no way to argue against something that is objectively good, objectively good. So that's why in that 24-hour period where we thought that Biden might consider canceling a substantial amount of student debt, Republicans were in unison screeching because they know if Democrats start actually delivering for the people, it's game over for Republicans because then what are you gonna do to win over voters? If Democrats are actually having a concrete material impact on people's lives, then these culture war issues aren't going to resonate as much, right? They still will, right? But like Tucker Carlson freaking out about the M&M's not being sexy and then in turn talk about how Disney is grooming our kids, that's not going to land because people will opt for Democrats if they actually feel as if they're going to deliver. So this is absolutely not a losing issue and anyone who thinks that is out of touch. Why that is, 13% of Americans have college debt, federal college debt. That's more than one in 10 Americans, that's a ton of people. So you're going to just let 13% of people suffer? Is that honestly your strategy, do nothing? It's insane that this is a talking point that I've seen pop up lately. Oh, only 13% of Americans have student debt. That's a substantial number. That is millions and millions of people, more than a trillion dollars in debt. That's a giant bubble that's going to burst at some point as more and more people default because they can't make these payments. And he's saying, oh, it's only 13%, just ignore it. Yeah, how's that going to work out, Bill? So that's not a lot of people you're working to. 65% don't go to college at all. So 50% of the shouldn't we be encouraging people to go to college? Like education shouldn't just be instrumentally valuable. But I think that it's intrinsically valuable. Going to college to better yourself to become more informed is good. Like what is this anti intellectualism? Bill Maher used to rail against the anti intellectuals, right? Because they were the Bible thumpers saying that you don't want to go to college because then your kid will come out a liberal atheist. But now he's aligned with them. He's in lockstep with everything that they say. It's ridiculous. College debt goes to people going to grad school, which come on. A lot of that is just bullshitting around. A lot of that is bullshitting around like to be a doctor. You have to go to grad school. And even if you want to pursue the arts, there's nothing bad about going to grad school. I went to grad school. I loved political science and I wanted to teach political science. So if I wanted to teach at a community college, at least I had to get a master's degree like it improves your job prospects. So I mean, I was trying to set myself up for a job and he's saying, oh, that's that's stupid. You were just doing nothing. Really? Because I worked my fucking ass off. It's just he's so out of touch. You can keep going to school for free. So it's just free. Who's going to school for free at the graduate level? Like you're no longer getting Pell Grants. Like my family was poor enough to where my community college was paid for with Pell Grants. But once I transferred to a four year institution to get my bachelor's, I mean, I had to take out student loans in order to pay for not just tuition, but books as well. And with grad school, like you have to take out loans unless you're wealthy enough. My family has no wealth. So if I was going to continue my education, then I had to take out student loans. I had no choice. And I was the first person in my entire family to go to college and graduate. So like before, Bill Ma would say, well, that's a really great achievement that you accomplished. But now he's saying, well, you're just a fucking idiot. You dilly-dallyed for like five years. And now you have a bunch of debt that you're complaining about. Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, no flag. Like what a piece of shit. Loser issue for the party that is trying to win back the working class that we're going to. The working class has student debt. Democrats, they turn out people when they get young people excited. Do you know of any other issue that would excite young people aside from like climate change and Medicare for all, canceling student debt would absolutely make me get off my ass and go to the polls. And, you know, my situation is a little bit different because, you know, I'm in Oregon, so we just get our ballast mail to us. So I have no reason to wait. But in one of these states with voter suppression, if you're a person of color in one of those precincts where you have like one polling station and you have to drive an hour away and stand in line for like an hour or two, you know, it's a little bit more of a cost. But if Biden said he's going to cancel your student debt, wouldn't that motivate you to put in the effort to vote? I mean, to say this is a losing issue, it's not just wrong. It's actually stupid to say. Subsidize. We who didn't go to college and didn't benefit from that are going to subsidize you. I mean, you're not OK with subsidizing student loans. Do you complain about our bloated defense budget? Do you complain about us subsidizing the wages of workers because their employers pay them so little that they have to be on food stamps? When I worked at Walmart, I actually was qualified for food stamps because I was paid so little. And that was the case with almost all of my coworkers. You just don't get enough to survive. That is a corporate subsidy because the government is subsidizing that. But, you know, Bill Maher doesn't care. It's just if you're helping people, I don't want to subsidize that. And this is like the argument against, you know, public education. Well, yeah, I get that, you know, education is a public good. But I don't think I should be paying property taxes to benefit these schools. I don't have any kids. But don't you want a more educated populace? I mean, for me, I'm perfectly fine. I'm paying for things that help other people because I'm not a selfish piece of shit unlike Bill Maher. Like this dude is rich as fuck and he's complaining about subsidizing education. Like go fuck yourself, Bill. To get your degree in gender studies. Because that's so bad. And sports marketing and all the other. This is all just like GOP talking points. Oh, they're just these liberal snowflakes. They're just studying gender studies and women's studies. That's good. These are actual legitimate fields of study. That's a good thing. That's not bad. You're literally shitting on people right now for getting an education bill. Do you understand what you're doing? Like, and he says that he hasn't changed. Everyone else has changed. Bullshit that they take and I think it's a loser issue for a while. What do you think? Yeah, well, and this is revealing a big secret. So I'm telling anybody that we Democrats have a lab, two labs, actually secret labs, one in Berkeley and one in Brooklyn, where we come up with ideas to completely piss off the working class. And it's working with Wonderflame. Yes, and they all have PhDs in pissing off the working class. Somehow in my lifetime, the Democrats have gone from being the party of the factory floor to being the party of faculty lounge. I went last week. I spent Wednesday last week in Chicago with the Machinist Union, hung out with the machinists all day. Great guys, not a one of them came up to me and said, Gee, I really hope you take my tax dollars to pay off the debt of somebody who went to Stanford. Right. OK. OK, first of all, did you ask them? Second of all, OK, you talking about these Ivy League schools, that's not a representative sample. This whole idea that, oh, well, this is a giveaway to rich people and rich kids to cancel student debt. It's factually incorrect. Do you know who student debt cancellation disproportionately benefits? People of color. They've been fucked over by the system the most. And this one thing that can actually help young people of color, Democrats are saying, actually, no, this is not only bad, but it's going to piss off the working class because, like, one of these dipshit conservatives on Twitter said that they're they'd be angry because they paid off their student loans. Like, what kind of logic is that I paid off my student loan so nobody else should have student debt forgiveness. OK, well, I mean like we had a global pandemic last year, year before, and how many people died in 2020 that didn't have the vaccine? Should we not have given people the vaccine in 2021 because it would be unfair to all of the people who died in 2020? I mean, this is an argument like against ever doing anything because people who don't benefit from that would view it as unfair. It's just it's ridiculous, but I have. So Biden's under enormous pressure. He's he's not for it. He didn't campaign for it. He says it will leave maybe $10,000, which I suppose is good. But what I'd much rather see Democrats do is go back to their roots, which is earn it. We're the party that created the GI Bill. Nobody called that free college because it wasn't. The guys that got the GI Bill earned it. Why don't we. So if you want student debt cancellation, sign up for the military and go kill people. That's literally what he's saying. Risk your life, die, potentially get injured and go kill people who pose no threat to your country. Like, what kind of a solution is this? System or you say you want to get out of your college deck? Serve your country, Marine Corps, Peace Corps. Suck my dick. No. We served this fucking country by paying our taxes. Now use that to benefit us rather than blowing people up. You absolute piece of shit. AmeriCorps, not everybody can carry a rifle, but you can you can mentor a kid and use, give two years of service. Then you will have earned that and expanded. So we have community college job training. We need more mechanics, not MBAs. Yes. And that's where we're going to focus on me. I mean, this is just elitist garbage. And it's also wrong. So one of the responses to that was from the debt collective, which says, nope, polling says otherwise. Student debt cancellation is broadly popular among college grads, non-college grads, debtors and non-debtors, independents, Democrats and a plurality of Republicans. Step outside and talk to real people challenge. And that's exactly it. We see these people pontificate on national television. And they pretend as if they know what they're talking about. Paul Begala is like, oh, well, I went to a factory and I like talk to people and he didn't bring up student debt. So therefore I know more than everyone else. They never leave their bubble. And these rich people surround themselves with other rich people who all enjoy the smell of their own farts and they don't know what real people want. So let's look at this poll here. Canceling student debt is morally right. It's also good politics for Democrats. This is from Truthout. American in-debtness has never been higher than it is today and now functioning as the nation's largest consumer bank. The Department of Education is the clearest culprit of creditors, uniquely situated as the lender, regulator and debt collector. The federal government has 1.6 trillion federal debt loan portfolio needlessly extracting wealth from 47 million people. This cloud of debt is systematically preventing communities from the opportunity to buy a home, start a family or say for retirement. But with a simple executive order, Biden can switch the reality of predatory loans that burden families into liberating financial grants that aid them. And let me just pause here for a moment. If Biden does actually cancel $10,000 worth of student debt, he's essentially inadvertently admitting that I have the authority as president to cancel student debt, but I'm not going to cancel all of it. I'm going to willfully choose to keep you in debt because fuck you. That's why that's that's the logic. Doing so could create millions of jobs, boost average GDP by as much as 108 billion per year for the next 10 years and narrow the racial wealth gap by 40%. So when they say I don't like it, it doesn't benefit me. It does benefit you. It boosts the overall economy and it narrows the racial wealth gap, which is good because we can't have a racial wealth gap at all if we want to be a healthy functioning society. Full student debt cancellation would be the largest bottom up economic stimulant in recent US history, eliminating the country's largest household debt type outside of mortgages will begin to make real promise of the education as a right, not a privilege. But perhaps President Biden should administer full student debt cancellation for a reason, even more obvious and straightforward. Politics, the biggest reason why it's a winner is not just because it's morally good, but because it's a damn good politics. A recent morning consult poll found Biden's extended pause on federal student loan interest and payments is popular. But that the president could reap rewards by going even further, according to another poll, nearly half of voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would be either somewhat more likely or much more likely to vote in November if President Biden canceled 10,000 in student loan debt. That likelihood of voting increases by 11 points when asked if all student loan debt should be canceled. 11 points. That is a massive, massive swing. And yet Biden won't do it. He'll cancel 10,000, which is still good. But imagine if he canceled 50,000. Imagine if he canceled all of it. There are people that used to make this argument that if you cancel student loan debt, it would be catastrophic for the economy. They have no argument now because nobody has made payments on their student loans for the last two years because of the pandemic. So they can't make that argument. So that argument's gone. The argument that Biden doesn't have the authority to cancel student loan debt is gone. There is literally no reason to not cancel student loan debt. The only reason why it's not being done is because of a lack of political will. So people like Bill Maher, who are rich beyond his wallet of streams. I mean, Bill Maher, I don't know how rich he is. He probably has hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more. He'll never know what it's like to struggle, at least for the rest of his life. But yet he's sitting here shitting on one of the most basic, easiest things that you can do. And he's disingenuously framing this as like a political loser for Democrats. What a piece of shit. But yet he hasn't changed.