Joe Biden is making a move consistent with time-honored Democrat party electoral politics.  When they can't win the contest of ideas — like socialism vs. capitalism, or tyranny vs. freedom — just buy the votes.  Preferably, do it with other people's money — they wouldn't want to drain their campaign coffers, you know.

President Asterisk has decided to provide $10K of student loan relief to all of the welchers who took out a loan for their liberal arts college diploma and don't want to pay it back.  In the process, he's decided it's okay to tick off everyone who

• paid off his own student loan,
• worked his way through college (while the welchers were partying),
• put his children through college, or
• decided that learning a trade was better than getting a degree in intersectional victimhood.

In other words, old Joe is giving the middle finger to all of the hardworking, responsible Americans who are the backbone of our economy.  What could go wrong?  Surely, asking a trucker or plumber to pay for the gender studies Ph.D. of the barista serving them their morning coffee won't have any unintended consequences.  Will it?

The Dems are calling it a $330-billion investment.  To them, any money given away is an investment in making everyone wards of the state.  Besides, what's the big deal?  It's only $330B.  That's chump change by this Congress's standards.

But the narrative is running into a bit of a snag. According to the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Budget Model, the Democrat party estimate of the cost is way off.  The model predicts that the actual cost will be at least $600B and may be as high as $1 trillion.  That's a trillion bucks, of our money, spent in one year, with no political debate — just one demented fool deciding to make it so.  And yet the propagandists will declare that this vote-buying scheme is democracy at work and somehow good for the economy.

So exactly how much is $1 trillion (besides a 1 with twelve zeros behind it)?  If we were to line up 100-dollar bills, end to end, $1T would reach to the moon — four times!  Put another way, it's $12,000 of debt that each family of four will need to service through their taxes.  The amount that each family's taxes would need to go up is enough to make payments on a decent used car.  That's some chump change.  But not to worry.  Joe and his army of new IRS agents aren't going to actually bill anyone to pay off this debt transfer.  They're just going borrow it and let it drive up inflation — so everyone can keep paying it, over and over, forever.

But the Dems don't care.  It's not their money.  It's ours.  They're just choosing to spend it for us, to buy votes for them.  And they're okay with using the power of government to make us go along with it.  But of course, Trump and his followers are the actual semi-fascists.  See how that works?

When the government gives out free stuff, it's never actually free.  It always comes with strings.  Sometimes those strings cost us our freedom; other times, they cost us our money.

But this time, the joke's on the welchers.  It's going to cost them their money.

The American Rescue Plan Act (otherwise known as COVID relief) made student loan forgiveness non-taxable by the federal government, for the next few years — because everybody knows the only effective way to prevent the spread of a virus is with changes to tax law.  However, the act did not provide relief from state taxes, many of which states still consider loan relief taxable income.

The welchers are going to have to pay state income tax on the $10K of debt forgiveness that they receive.  Now, keep in mind that old Joe and his pals aren't going to actually send the freeloaders a check for $10K.  He's just going to magically transfer their debt to somebody else.  But the barista at Starbucks is still going to owe taxes on that $10K as if he did get a check.

So now a welcher, who had $10K of debt, that he wasn't making payments on anyway, is going to owe taxes on $10K that he didn't receive.  And Joe expects them to be so happy that they will show up in November and push the button for a Democrat straight-ticket vote.  Genius.

In the end, Mr. "Almond Milk Latte No Whip," who wasn't making any loan payments anyway, will need to work overtime pouring coffee for the angry people stuck with his debt, dip into his savings (such as it is), or take out another loan to pay his taxes.  And this is going to buy the Dems votes?

And don't think that Mr. Barista is going to get away with not declaring this income (which is income only on paper).  Everybody is going to know who the freeloaders are, and nobody is going to be in a mood to let them off the hook for their taxes, too.

Here's where the wicket gets a bit sticky: there isn't any actual legislation that gives the president the authority to do any of this.  While that's never stopped a Democrat from trying to break the law, there will be legal challenges.  I'm sure Herr Garland can shop around and find an Obama judge (yes, Chief Justice Roberts, Obama judges really do exist) who will decide that stealing money from taxpayers is a Democrat presidential prerogative.  But the legal challenges will take time — as in months — as in after the midterms the Dems are trying to buy votes for.  The welchers will get their loan relief, and their tax bill, just in time for the 2024 election.

Just as we go into the 2024 election season, hardworking Americans who were stuck with the bill will be ticked off.  The welchers who got an unexpected tax bill will be ticked off, too.  Inflation will be further exacerbated — irritating anyone who has to buy groceries.  And a dangerous precedent will be set — just before Donald Trump runs for re-election.  Never underestimate the unintended consequences of any Joe Biden initiative.  President Gremlin strikes again.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho.  He has written for American Thinker, American Free News Network, and The Blue State Conservative.  He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.