Critics of student loan handout dismissed by Time article because they paid cheaper tuition, Twitter responds

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Time magazine claimed Republican lawmakers who have criticized President Biden’s student loan handout can’t talk because college was cheaper back in their day. 

Though while liberals on Twitter, including Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s husband Chasten Buttigieg, and feminist author Molly Jong-Fast loved the argument, conservatives on the platform slammed the claim.

They argued it doesn’t negate the fact that current taxpayers are still being forced to subsidize the controversial policy that could potentially cost $900 billion, even if college was less expensive in the past. 

Time’s Thursday piece – written senior correspondent Charlotte Alter – went after the "critics" of the massive government handout, noting they are "often older people who had gone to college before the 1980s."

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Time magazine claimed that critics of Biden's student loan handout have no room to talk because college was much cheaper for them.  (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million)

It added, "Many of the older conservatives who are angry at the idea that taxpayers might pay for student loan forgiveness went to school at a time when the government was heavily subsidizing higher education, and therefore tuition was far less expensive."

In other words, they have no room to talk. "For them, working their way through school without debt was feasible; for modern millennials and Gen Z, it’s often financially impossible," Alter added.

The piece named several of these critics and listed how much they paid for college compared to how much a student at their same alma mater must pay today.

Starting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who called Biden’s "loan forgiveness plan" a "slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college," the piece claimed, "But when McConnell graduated from the University of Louisville in 1964, annual tuition cost $330 (or roughly $2,500 when adjusted for inflation); today, it costs more than $12,000, a 380% increase."

Alter then went after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who called Biden’s plan a "debt transfer scam." She grilled him, claiming that at the school he graduated from, "California State University, Bakersfield in 1989, tuition was less than $800; today, it’s more than $7,500, a 400% increase when adjusted for inflation."

The piece hit Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for the same reason as well.

Multiple liberals loved this argument. Chasten Buttigieg tweeted that the piece contained, "excellent research." Molly Jong-Fast agreed with Buttigieg, sharing his tweet and commenting, "This is so important."

Time magazine's Charlotte Alter defended the federal student loan handout on Thursday, and dismissed critics of the plan, saying they paid much less for college.  (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Though former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, R-Md., couldn’t resist slamming Buttigieg’s endorsement of the piece. She tweeted, "Sheer idiocy. The explosion in college tuition and debt is due ENTIRELY to Government interference in them--most recently as of the passage of Obamacare in 2010, when usurious interest rates were imposed to fund it. YOUR Party did this, Mr. Buttigieg. And it's all LOUSY."

Conservative author Jim Treacher left a sarcastic comment on Buttigieg’s post, tweeting, "Therefore, taxpayers should foot the bill. Impeccably reasoned."

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Other conservatives tore into Time directly.

Real Clear Investigation senior writer Mark Hemingway wrote, "This isn't journalism from Time mag -- it's putting out WH talking points that are irrelevant to the substance of the policy. I would be embarrassed if I wrote this."

The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller slammed the argument as well. He commented on Hemingway’s tweet, writing, "It goes after Republicans who went to college when it was cheap and doesn't once raise the question of how colleges started gouging students with things like six figure administrator salaries."

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Time argued students who went to college decades ago shouldn't critique Biden's student loan handout because they didn't pay nearly as much as students do today.   (AP)