Embattled Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) pushed back on Wednesday against President Joe Biden’s student loan debt transference to American taxpayers.
Cortez Masto suggested the government should subsidize student loans with taxpayer funds instead of outright transferring the debt to those who perhaps have not taken student debt or have already fulfilled their debt obligations.
“I don’t agree with today’s executive action because it doesn’t address the root problems that make college unaffordable,” Cortez Masto admitted in a statement. “We should be focusing on passing my legislation to expand Pell Grants for lower income students, target loan forgiveness to those in need, and actually make college more affordable for working families.”
Cortez Masto’s slightly different method of using the federal government to impact loans which citizens have voluntarily taken comes as she is running for reelection against Trump-endorsed challenger Adam Laxalt. The Republican candidate has opposed the Democrats’ “bailout” of student debt as “unconstitutional, immoral, and fundamentally bad policy.”
“It will line the pockets of the wealthiest Americans and fuel the flames of inflation, layering further pain on the back of Nevada families already struggling to get by,” he said in a statement.
Masto’s slight divergence from Biden is notable because she has refused to answer questions about whether she will campaign with the unpopular president during her reelection campaign. According to a poll over the weekend, Biden’s approval rating is underwater and has not recovered since it sank in the spring.
It should be noted Cortez Masto and the president have had a long history. Breitbart News first reported that Biden’s 2020 campaign paid a private security firm owned by Cortez Masto’s husband, Paul Masto, who was friends with Hunter Biden and solicited work from the Biden family while Joe Biden was vice president.
Emails from Hunter’s laptop from 2010 reveal he and Paul Masto have been friends and have even discussed Masto’s security company while Joe Biden was vice president. In Paul Masto’s email to Hunter, Paul Masto called Hunter his “buddy” and asked if Hunter knew anyone who needed his security services.
“We always knew my opponent @CortezMasto was close to the Biden family,” Laxalt tweeted the breaking news. “It’s no wonder why she has never called for an investigation into the shady business dealings of her husband’s “buddy,” Hunter Biden.”
We always knew my opponent @CortezMasto was close to the Biden family.
It’s no wonder why she has never called for an investigation into the shady business dealings of her husband’s “buddy,” Hunter Biden.https://t.co/JoF7V0PJW1
— Adam Paul Laxalt (@AdamLaxalt) August 4, 2022
According to recent polling, Laxalt has taken the lead over Cortez Masto by about two points (46.7 – 44.3 percent). Libertarian Neil Scott holds 2.3 percent, and other candidates combine for 1.2 percent. 5.5 percent of voters are undecided.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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