For those of you who think the political left’s move to basically hand out free everything and forgive debts like it’s their job is crazy, I have news for you: You are exactly right.
But not strictly for the reason you probably think.
Yes, forgiving loans, debt, rent, and mortgages that people knowingly signed up for, only to have hard-working tax-payer dollars pay for those, is definitely messed up. And you might just think that those proposing such plans likely don’t really have any idea what they are talking about and the effects of such a debt-cancellation on the economy.
But that’s not exactly the case.
The craziest part of this whole idea is that, once again, liberals who have put themselves in the spotlight pushing for such anti-capitalist measures know precisely what they are doing and actually benefit from such plans.
Take Democratic Representative and Massachusetts-born “squad” member Ayanna Pressley, for example.
Like many of her colleagues, she has been spouting off the need for the government to basically bail everyone out since the pandemic hit our shores over a year ago. Instead of actually addressing job loss due to shutdowns or the fact that rental property owners have bills to pay, too, she demanded back in early December that rent should be canceled nationwide and for no short amount of time.
In addition, she suggested that tenants, now free of their rental agreements, be sent “recurring cash survival checks” as part of the second COVID-10 stimulus package.
She even claimed it was a “matter of life and death.”
But what most people don’t know is that Pressley is a property owner and a landlord herself.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Pressley bought a Boston rental property in 2019 for about $658,000 and listed it for $2,500 a month. The rental price later dropped to $2,300, and then in August, Pressley leased it out instead. According to the Beacon, Pressley made about $15,000 that year in rental income.
And in August of 2020, after the pandemic was in full swing, she and her husband chose to refinance the property, breaking it up into multifamily rental units.
Now, at first glance, it might seem counterproductive to push for the cancellation of part of your monthly income – and maybe even a bit heroic, if she were to cancel the debts of her tenants, knowing full well that her own debts were not forgiven.
However, as we all know, things aren’t exactly that simple.
Firstly, while pushing for rent cancellation elsewhere, Pressley never forgave her own tenants’ rent. They were still expected to pay on time and in the full amount each month or face eviction.
And secondly, even if she had, it’s not like Pressley would have ever really gone without.
You see, as with any government program, the cancellation of debt for Pressley’s tenants and millions of others doesn’t mean that Pressley wouldn’t be getting paid what she is owed. It just means that it wouldn’t be her tenants paying her.
According to the Rent and Mortgage Cancelation Act, which was proposed and co-sponsored by Pressley last May, “a fund” would be established and administered “to which residential landlords may apply to have the full cost of their tenants suspended rental payments covered by the federal government.”
But where do you think the money for that “fund” comes from? It’s not as though the government has billions just sitting around waiting to spend on the American people. I mean, the national debt clock says that our nation already owes some $28 trillion or so.
Instead, that money would come from people like you and me from things like raised taxes. We would literally be paying the government to pay Pressley and those like her for her “lost wages.”
Rent cancellation, just like free childcare, universal basic income, student loan debt cancellation, etc., isn’t actually free. Someone is still paying for it. And that someone is us.
And don’t think that Pressley and her cohorts don’t know that.
She just doesn’t care. If her plans go through, she’ll still get paid, on top of her $174,000 base governmental salary and her tenants get off scot-free. It’s a win-win for everyone but America.