Kamala Harris is apparently the Veruca Salt of student debt forgiveness – she doesn’t care how it gets done, she just wants it NOW. And don’t ask her questions about how it’s going to be paid for, either.

The vice president was at the Artemis 1 launch that ended up being scrubbed this morning, which meant that instead of getting to talk about an event that she was able to witness, Kamala Harris was forced to produce another quality word salad. She is simply incapable of putting together a polished spontaneous answer.

KAMALA HARRIS: "We have people who have been working for decades to do the work that has been about America's leadership in terms of space exploration, and today is very much on that path about showing the great work that happens…how exciting is that?" pic.twitter.com/JSVFV6Rxzp

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 29, 2022

But even her rambling about the scrubbed launch doesn’t hold a candle to what happened when she was actually asked about the administration’s student loan debt bailout. Apparently, some Democrats with a modicum of sense are coming to realize that this is a very bad idea – and that includes people within the administration itself.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was skeptical of a large-scale student-loan forgiveness plan as President Joe Biden was mulling over the specifics to address student debt, with first lady Jill Biden also expressing reservations of such a plan, while Vice President Kamala Harris was one of the administration’s staunchest backers of debt cancellation, according to The New York Times.”

While Yellen — a longtime economist who served as the chair of the Federal Reserve Board from 2014 to 2018 — told lawmakers in May that broad student-loan relief “could be good for the economy,” she clearly had her reservations. She felt that a large cancellation of debt could have an enormous impact on the economy during a time when inflation in recent months has hit highs not seen since the early 1980s, per the report.”

First lady Jill Biden also had reservations about such a plan, according to individuals close to the longtime educator who spoke with The Times.”

Jill Biden — a community college professor who has continued to teach while living at the White House — had for years lobbied for tuition-free community college, which was poised to be included in the bill formerly known as the Build Back Better Act. (The tuition plan was axed as a way to shrink the cost of the bill, but it still fell apart after intraparty infighting.)”

So both Janet Yellen and Jill Biden didn’t like this plan because of the potential fallout, but Kamala Harris? She was ALL in on this giveaway to current and future Democrat voters.

And Vice President Kamala Harris — whom Biden pledged would be a full governing partner during the 2020 presidential campaign — was at the forefront of the Democratic push to cancel student loan debt. In February, Harris instructed her staff to write up a memorandum detailing Biden’s concerns about loan cancellation, with added notes to address the president’s points, per an administration official who spoke with The Times.”

Biden had some reservations about the plan being seen as one benefiting “private elite schools,” and Harris’ team sought to counter the hesitancy by noting that “only 0.3 percent of federal loan borrowers attended Ivy League schools,” per the report.”

To rebut criticism that student loan debt should be addressed by Congress — a point that other Democratic lawmakers have raised — the Harris memo stated that an executive order was already being employed that paused most federal student loan payments.”

There’s a HUGE difference between pausing payments and canceling debt outright, but Kamala Harris doesn’t care. She wanted this, so she had her staff write up every argument for it, and because Biden is a senile old man who thinks money grows on trees (maybe that’s where Hunter told him the “ten percent for the Big Guy” was coming from), he went along with it. Even Paul Begala is stunned that this is the Democrat strategy.

Former top Clinton advisor Paul Begala blasts Biden's student loan debt bailout:

"What is my party doing with this? I think they're not helping the people that we're here to help, which is poor people and underprivileged communities." pic.twitter.com/s86uHqNpye

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 28, 2022

But if Kamala Harris was the main driver of this student debt cancellation, she should have a vigorous defense ready to go when she’s questioned about it, right? RIGHT? Well, no. It seems we are back to the old problem with the vice president – she has other people do her homework, and then never bothers to read the answers for herself.

Confronted by a Fox News producer with the fact that the government has yet to provide concrete information regarding where the money will come from, Harris did not even attempt to provide an answer to the question.”

“Well, let’s start with this. First of all, a lot of the same people who are criticizing what we rightly did in following through on a commitment that we made to forgive student loan debt, are the same people who voted for a tax cut for the richest Americans,” Harris said.”

“So when we look at who is benefiting from this, 90% of the people who are going to benefit from student loan forgiveness make under $75,000 a year,” the vice president continued. “And that debt has been the reason that they’re unable to start a family, buy a home and pursue their piece of the American dream.”

Administration officials have yet to clarify how the proposal will be paid for in the long term, although Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council, has claimed that the plan is “fully paid for” by the amount of deficit reduction the administration is projecting for the year. Since the current plan calls for the government to forgive the debt, that means taxpayers are likely on the hook for much of the principal and interest is dumped on top of the nearly $31 trillion in existing U.S. debt.”

Kamala Harris has no good way to explain why taxpayers should foot the bill to pay off other people’s student loan debt, except, like Veruca Salt, she JUST WANTS IT. Like others within the administration, they have no good answers on WHY those who were fiscally responsible should pay off the debts of others, and would rather point fingers back at those who took PPP loans, as if that is some kind of shield against criticism.

And we still don’t have a final pricetag for this bailout! An updated model from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business says that this student loan debt “forgiveness” could run up to $1 trillion. That breaks down to $6000 per each taxpayer, which is a whole hell of a lot more than even the $2000 that was initially estimated! If people don’t have an extra two grand lying around, why should we expect them to have six grand to spend on relieving someone else’s debt?

Kamala Harris doesn’t care about that. She wanted a bailout, and she got it. Don’t ask her to explain it; that would require thinking. And we all know Kamala Harris has people to do that for her.

Welcome Instapundit Readers!

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click