With a stroke of a pen President-elect Biden can fulfill a campaign promise made by himself, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and “the squad.” Some members of “the squad” chose to put themselves in debt as did so many of us as college students in order to finance college educations and post- graduate educations as well.

Most of these loan commitments carry low interest rates which made them more attractive and long term payment plans which allowed them to pay after they became employed and were earning wages commensurate with the field they chose to be their career.

College loans are not new. Some of us borrowed in the same fashion over 40 years ago, and not only were we expected to pay off those loans, we did pay them. That doesn’t stop the telemarketers from calling still telling us time is running out to escape this debt so we better trust them now to solve our student debt problem today. They are second only to the guys calling about expiring warranties on cars we owned 20 years ago.

We are going to assume that President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris, Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren have all paid off any student loans they may have had. We really have no idea if records exist from that far back. Since President Trump’s father was wealthy, we will assume he didn’t have any student loans, but he also doesn’t have a great track record for paying his bills though either.

But some of the “squad” does have existing student debt and would stand to benefit personally if any of these bills become law or if they successfully lobby President-elect Biden to use executive order action to enact the concept.

The estimated student debt in the United States is $1.7 trillion. The vast majority of these loans are guaranteed by the government. The current default rate is 52%. That isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue; that is a bad policy issue period. But here is our biggest issue with this forgiveness idea.

One of the biggest problems in our country today is our failure to teach our own kids right from wrong.

It is wrong to lie and cheat. It is wrong to abuse law enforcement authority. It is wrong to damage and loot other people’s property for any reason. And it is wrong not to fulfill our obligations including paying our debts. That means mortgage payments, car payments, and yes student loans.

What lesson would we be teaching the students that signed for these loans and for that matter how is this fair to the many students (and parents) who did the honorable thing and paid the debt they borrowed from the other taxpayers?

The people pushing this agenda also propose that we should have tuition free college education. Wouldn’t that be nice? Shouldn’t all housing be free? Shouldn’t we give everyone a new car for free? And let’s stop charging for groceries while we are at it.

We don’t need to put labels on any of this crazy talk such as conservative, liberal, libertarian, progressive or socialist.

We see some great initiatives taking place in our country concerning social injustice, racism, and better control of law enforcement. There are some good moral and ethics lessons and practices in those ideological efforts.

Teaching future generations to be dishonest and not pay their debts doesn’t work with those plans.

Understand, we place no limit on who should pay all debts they owe. If campaign stories about anyone including the president are true about him having huge debt, then he should pay it. If any of the campaigns at local, state or federal levels incurred debt, the debts should be satisfied immediately and certainly before they take office.

Selective forgiveness of debt such as student debt goes way beyond unfair; it is a bad practice that kids should start learning to avoid as toddlers. We admire what the “squad” members have accomplished at very young ages, but even Congress fails at times and this idea is a major failure.

— RV