Democratic Staffer Cheers Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness, Despite Boss’s Opposition
A communications director for Representative Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio, announced on social media that his student loans had been forgiven by the Biden administration, thanking the elections and President Biden for the resolution. The staff member, Ben Kamens, received a letter confirming the forgiveness of $8,250 in student debt from 2010. However, it’s notable that Representative Kaptur had previously expressed opposition to the Biden administration’s plan to cancel student loan debt, questioning the fairness to those who had paid their loans or avoided debt altogether and criticizing the legal basis of the plan. Kaptur had concerns about the president overreaching his authority without proper consultation with Congress, and she anticipated that the issue would likely be addressed in the courts.
A staffer for a Democratic congresswoman crowed on social media on Thursday about getting his student loans forgiven by the Biden administration, saying “elections matter,” but it turns out his boss previously opposed cancelling student loans.
Representative Marcy Kaptur’s (D-OH) communications director Ben Kamens posted a photo of the letter informing him that his student debt had been forgiven.
“Just got a call to let me know my student debt has been canceled,” Kamens wrote.
“This is why elections matter. Thanks @JoeBiden,” he added.
The letter showed a total of $8,250 in student loans from 2010 were forgiven Kamens.
“Congratulations! The Biden-Harris Administration has forgiven your federal student loan(s),” read the letter from Nelnet, the country’s largest servicer of student loans.
Back in 2022, Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat, criticized the Biden administration’s plan to erase billions of dollars in student loan debt.
“What about the people who paid off their loans?” Kaptur said. “What about the people who didn’t rack up that level of debt? What about people who put college on hold? What about the systemic problems we have in the student loan program, where you walk into an admissions office at a college and they give you a credit card, and you get the money, and you can spend the money on a car or a vacation or whatever, and then the student doesn’t graduate. There’s a lot of issues.”
Kaptur also questioned whether the president has the legal authority to push forward with the massive loan forgiveness plan, saying President Biden likely “overreached his authority.”
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“There was no consultation with Congress,” she said. “The last time I checked the Constitution, you can’t impact the bottom line of the federal treasury without some bill moving through Congress. I think the president probably overreached his authority on this one. My expectation is it will go to the courts. I’m not sure how that will happen.”
However, Kaptur later voted twice against House measures criticizing the administration’s student loan cancellation.
Meanwhile, the criticism online was swift on Thursday.
One X user noted that Kamens makes over $90,000 a year, according to Legistorm, but still apparently expected taxpayers to pay his debt.
Others pointed out that Kamens had previously posted about holding Philadelphia Eagles season tickets and that the address on his loan forgiveness letter was for a house valued at over half a million dollars.
“You are jubilant at having foisted your student debt on other taxpayers. Meanwhile, a cursory spin through your profile in just recent times show multiple examples of extraneous expenditures that could have gone toward your years long debt. Nice,” one X user wrote.
Kamens switched his X account to private mode after his post garnered attention.
Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s $430 billion student debt relief policy that would have forgiven the student debt of about 40 million people. The high court ruled 6-3 that the HEROES Act of 2003 does not give Biden the authority to cancel billions in student loan debt.
Just weeks later, however, Biden announced the Education Department’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which is expected to cost taxpayers about $475 billion over the next decade.
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