Officials in the Biden White House are being called out for a comparison they have deployed to defend the decision to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans.
The White House Twitter account shared a graphic on Sunday with the caption, “The numbers speak for themselves.”
“Nearly 90% of student loan debt relief will go to borrowers earning less than $75,000,” the graphic stated, adding, “85% of the congressional Republicans’ tax cut went to taxpayers earning more than $75,000.”
The numbers speak for themselves. pic.twitter.com/5D8Xx2N1oE
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 28, 2022
In an article published Tuesday, Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post’s fact-checker, noted that the White House has stated the bulk of the benefits of student debt relief will go to Americans who make less than $75,000 a year — even though the income cap for individuals to qualify is $125,000 or $250,000 for households.
“In this tweet, the White House contrasts its plan with the across-the-board tax cut passed by Republicans in 2017. The suggestion is that President Biden’s plan is targeted directly at the middle class, in contrast to a GOP tax plan that supposedly showered money on the wealthy,” Kessler writes.
“There’s a reason $75,000 is so attractive to the White House. The Census Bureau says median household income is close to $70,000. But these numbers are measuring different things, and so they are not directly comparable,” he continued.
Kessler pointed out that while the White House insists that a vast majority of the benefits of student loan debt will go to Americans earning less than $75,000 a year, an analysis by the Penn-Wharton Budget Model found that “about 1 percent of households with debts canceled would make between $212,209 and $321,699 in fiscal year 2022. About 5 percent would make between $141,096 and $212,209.”
Specifically, it found that “66.13 percent of households receiving loan forgiveness would have income below $75,000; for ages 25-35, 62.04 percent would have income below $75,000.”
“In other words, at least a third would make more than $75,000. That’s a different picture than what the White House presented,” Kessler explained.
He also noted that the White House’s claim about the $75,000 figure represents “individual income” and not family income.
Meanwhile, the claim that “85% of the congressional Republicans’ tax cut went to taxpayers earning more than $75,000” is “based on household income, not individual income.”
“It’s worth noting that the Tax Policy Center uses a concept called expanded cash income, which includes as part of income such items as employer contributions for retirement plans, health insurance, and payroll taxes, as well as government cash transfers such as food stamps. These items could push some households into higher income categories,” he added.
Additionally, Kessler explained that the analysis by the Tax Policy Center found that “taxes were cut at every income level in the 2017 bill.”
Finally, he wrote, “Someone in the White House thought it would be clever to have a snappy comparison between the student loan plan and the GOP tax cut. But it’s not kosher to compare individual numbers with household numbers. That’s apples and oranges.”
“Broadly speaking, the student loan forgiveness is more progressive than the tax cut. But notice what happens when the analysis is apples to apples — household income of about $150,000: The student loan plan ends up benefiting about 95 percent of those under that income level — but the tax cut benefited more than 35 percent,” Kessler added. “That contrast works in the White House’s favor — but it’s not nearly as stark as before.”
He gave the White House a rating of “two Pinocchios,” which, according to the Post, means that there were “significant omissions and/or exaggerations” in the claim.
