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marie gluesenkamp perez
Golden Blasted for 'Tantrum' Attacking Student Borrowers After Taking Sallie Mae Donation
"This should be read as a declaration from Jared Golden," said one critic, "that he has no interest in representing the Democratic party in any future statewide race."
Aug 19, 2023
The United States' first debtors' union and a former staffer of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden were among those who rebuked the corporate Democrat on Friday after he said in a statement that he opposes student debt relief because it would benefit "privileged" Americans—and refused to answer questions about donations he's taken from student loan company Sallie Mae.
When asked by the Maine Beacon whether his vote to block student debt relief this past spring was related to a $5,000 donation from Sallie Mae to Golden's conservative Blue Dog Coalition, the congressman dismissed the suggestion by saying "radical leftist elites" were trying to "silence and destroy" him and other student debt cancellation opponents.
"I stand by my vote and my opposition to forking out $10,000 to people who freely chose to attend college," Golden (D-Maine) said. "They were privileged to have the opportunity, and many left college well-situated to make six-figure salaries for life."
He added that people who "want free money for college" should join the military or "join a union and enter an apprenticeship" to gain "a career and hard skills without college debt."
The Beacon approached Golden a week after public disclosures showed that the Blue Dog Political Action Committee, which benefits the coalition Golden co-chairs, accepted donations from Sallie Mae—officially known as the Student Loan Marketing Association—and the Career Education Colleges and Universities PAC less than a month after he voted to block President Joe Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for many borrowers.
Golden's co-chair, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), was the only other Democrat to vote in favor of blocking the plan.
Sallie Mae's contribution to the PAC was the maximum possible contribution for the company.
After Golden's defensive comments to the Beacon on Friday, the Debt Collective, which represents some of the 45 million Americans who owe a collective $1.8 trillion in student loan debt, asked on social media whether Sallie Mae wrote the lawmaker's statement.
"Jared Golden is an elitist taking handouts from Sallie Mae to kill student debt cancellation for the working class," saidthe group.
James Myall, a policy analyst for the Maine Center for Economic Policy, pointed out that Golden's claim about "six-figure salaries" is hardly relatable for the people he represents in Congress, as the average student debt for graduates of University of Maine is $35,000, while the median income for those graduates who stay in Maine is just $70,000 10 years after finishing school.
Communications professional Morgan Urquhart said that as a former employee of Golden's in Maine's 2nd Congressional District, his comments about student loan borrowers—including 92,000 of his constituents who would have been eligible for Biden's cancellation proposal—were "truly embarrassing."
"As your former employee, I have to say this divisive language and clear derision for people like me, first-generation college graduates from working class Maine families, goes way beyond disappointing," said Urquhart, replying to Golden on Twitter. "Shame on you."
The grassroots movement People for Bernie Sanders rebuked Golden for using the nation's labor unions to make his case against student debt relief, considering unions including the AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have all thrown their weight behind the push for debt cancellation.
Progressive campaigner Robert Cruickshank said "someone should let [Golden] know" that student debt relief is broadly popular across the political spectrum, despite the lawmaker's claim that advocates are so-called "radical leftist elites."
Polling last year showed that 63% of Americans supported student debt cancellation, including 59% of Independents, 83% of Democrats, and 41% of Republicans.
Dan Aibel, the operator of the long-running Twitter account Collins Watch, which reports on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Maine politics, said Golden's remarks amounted to an "unfortunate attempt to pit working class Mainers against each other rather than advocating for their interests and working to build solidarity among them."
"This should be read as a declaration from Jared Golden," said Aibel, "that he has no interest in representing the Democratic party in any future statewide race."
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Four House Dems Join GOP to Pass $886 Billion Military Bill Packed With Right-Wing Amendments
"It includes provisions to restrict access to abortion and transgender care for military members," said one advocacy group. "What an absolute disgrace."
Jul 14, 2023
Four House Democrats crossed the aisle on Friday and voted for an $886 billion military policy bill containing Republican amendments aimed at rolling back abortion access and gender-affirming care for service members, as well as a measure that would bar the Pentagon—a major emitter—from carrying out President Joe Biden's climate-related executive orders.
The four Democrats who joined 215 Republicans in voting yes on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) were Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine.), Donald Davis (D-N.C.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), and Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.).
Four Republicans—Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—voted against the legislation.
The bill's passage came after a heated amendment process during which Republicans advanced a slew of proposals designed to prevent the renaming of military facilities named after Confederate soldiers, eliminate Pentagon diversity programs, end the Defense Department's reimbursement of service members who travel to obtain abortion care, and stop the agency from covering gender-affirming care for trans service members.
The latter three amendments were included in the final legislation.
The final House bill also includes Republican amendments that would penalize defense contractors for taking part in boycotts against Israel and prohibit any Department of Defense Education Activity funds from purchasing school library books that espouse "radical gender ideology," which the amendment does not define.
Meanwhile, the GOP blocked consideration of amendments that would have banned the sale or transfer of cluster bombs worldwide, cut the Pentagon budget by $100 billion, reined in price gouging by military contractors, repealed the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq, and blocked funding for the B83-1 nuclear bomb.
"The bill MAGA House Republicans passed today allocates the single largest funding total the Pentagon has ever received from Congress and actively blocks the Biden administration from retiring obsolete, costly, and unnecessary weapons systems," Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said in a statement. "It follows the end of a 20-year war, and the fifth time the Defense Department has failed an audit."
"The funding level is far from the only problem with this NDAA," Jayapal and Lee continued. "MAGA Republicans conducted an unprecedented and unrecognizable process, refusing to even allow debate on amendments that have been made in order for years. They even robbed a Progressive Caucus member of her amendment to ban the transfer of cluster munitions and handed it to one of the most extreme MAGA members, who weakened its provisions."
"The result is a bill that goes out of its way to attack abortion, immigrants, and LBGTQ rights and efforts to make the military more inclusive and reflective of America; reverses progress on climate action; and hobbles our ability to combat extremism in the military," they added. "Thanks to MAGA House Republicans, this bill excludes progressives' provisions to protect the human rights of civilians abroad, reassert congressional war powers, or strengthen labor and civil rights for service members."
"Progressives will have to keep up this fight until this fringe movement is defeated."
It's not clear how many of the Republican amendments will survive the coming legislative process.
The narrowly Democratic Senate still needs to pass its own version of the NDAA, and the two chambers must then reconcile the differences between the two bills.
Eric Eikenberry, government relations director at Win Without War, implored the Senate to strip out the "hateful measures" attached by the House GOP once the conference process begins.
"If the Freedom Caucus were really interested in shaking things up, its members could have used their decisive influence over Speaker McCarthy to repeal outdated and dangerous AUMFs, cut the Pentagon budget, and end unfunded priority lists that plus-up the Pentagon topline," said Eikenberry. "Instead, as the world hits record temperatures and people across the country fight to maintain their rights, they chose to use military personnel policy to renew attacks on women, people of color, and LGBTQI+ people, in the hopes that they can impose on the broader public tomorrow what they can force on servicemembers today."
"Progressives will have to keep up this fight until this fringe movement is defeated," Eikenberry added.
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'Shame': Two House Democrats Face Backlash for Voting to Repeal Student Debt Relief
"Two Democrats voted with Republicans to say that not only should student debt relief be repealed, not only should the pause on payments end, but that you should make retroactive payments from previous months."
May 25, 2023
Two House Democrats—Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington—faced backlash on Wednesday after voting for a GOP resolution that would repeal President Joe Biden's student debt relief program, which is currently on hold as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a pair of deeply flawed legal challenges.
The resolution, led by Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), aims to make use of a law called the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows members of Congress to overturn rules issued by federal agencies. The GOP's student debt measure passed the House by a vote of 218 to 203.
Debt relief campaigners warned that the resolution's impact would be disastrous.
In addition to blocking the potential cancellation of up to $20,000 in student debt per eligible borrower, the measure would roll back "at least four months of paused payments and $5 billion per month in waived interest charges, requiring the U.S. Department of Education to send surprise loan bills to tens of millions of borrowers, even potentially impacting the 8th (and current) payment pause," the Student Borrower Protection Center warned.
A report published earlier this week by the American Federation of Teachers and the Student Borrower Protection Center says the Republican measure would "reinstate the debt of more than 260,000 public service workers who have achieved [Public Service Loan Forgiveness] since September 2022, restoring a debt burden that amounts to more than $19 billion overall and more than $72,000 per person."
The Debt Collective, the United States' first debtors' union, decried the Republican resolution and its two Democratic supporters, both of whom represent tens of thousands of people who would benefit from student debt cancellation.
"Jared Golden represents Maine-02. We know there are at least 100,975 student debtors in his district that he voted against today," the Debt Collective tweeted following Wednesday's vote. "Marie Gluesenkamp Perez represents Washington-03. There are at least 93,749 student debtors in her district that she voted against today. Shame."
"Today," the group wrote, "two Democrats voted with Republicans to say that not only should student debt relief be repealed, not only should the pause on payments end, but that you should make retroactive payments from previous months."
As of this writing, Golden and Perez—co-chairs of the right-wing Blue Dog Coalition—have not issued statements explaining their votes.
Golden publicly criticized the Biden administration's student debt relief plan last year, calling it "out of touch" even though polling has shown the program is popular.
\u201cToday, two Democrats voted with Republicans to say that not only should student debt relief be repealed, not only should the pause on payments end, but that you should make *retroactive* payments from previous months.\n\nIntroducing Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp P\u00e9rez:\u201d— The Debt Collective \ud83d\udfe5 (@The Debt Collective \ud83d\udfe5) 1684984087
Republican backers of the resolution dismissed advocates' claims that repealing the Education Department's student debt relief program would hit borrowers with surprise bills, brushing aside such concerns as "not based in reality."
But critics of the resolution stress that it would both block Biden's student debt relief plan and nullify the most recent federal student loan payment pause.
According to the Congressional Research Service, any rule revoked by a CRA resolution of disapproval "would be deemed not to have had any effect at any time, and even provisions that had become effective would be retroactively negated."
Thus the warnings of retroactive interest payments and other consequences for those who have benefited from programs that are "intertwined with the payment pause," such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
"Right-wing proponents have gone to great lengths to mislead their own colleagues and deny the truth—this effort would push hundreds of thousands of public service workers back into debt and require the government to charge tens of millions borrowers for interest that has already been canceled," Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement Wednesday.
"Should this become law, it will cause irreparable damage to the student loan system and undermine Americans' trust in their government," said Pierce. "This is exactly what extreme conservative lawmakers want, they are just afraid to say it."
The resolution now heads to the U.S. Senate, where—under the CRA—Republicans can force a vote despite being in the minority.
The measure would require just a simple majority to pass the narrowly Democratic upper chamber, though President Joe Biden has threatened to veto the resolution if it reaches his desk.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is leading the Senate resolution, which currently has 47 Republican co-sponsors.
The Washington Postreported Wednesday that "although Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) have criticized the debt relief plan, it's unclear whether they will join the Republican effort to dismantle the program."
"Tester's office said he is taking a look at the resolution, while Manchin's office declined to comment," the Post added.
In a floor speech ahead of Wednesday's vote, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said it is "unconscionable but unsurprising" that Republicans are attempting to overturn the Biden administration's student debt relief program.
"Rather than work to alleviate the burden of the student debt crisis," Pressley said, "Republicans are advancing a cruel proposal that would harm 43 million people, hit tens of millions of borrowers with surprise loan bills, and reinstate the debt of over 260,000 public service workers—including our nurses, educators, firefighters, and servicemembers."
"The Senate must vote down this measure," Pressley continued. "The president has made clear he would veto this harmful resolution and stands by his decisive action on student debt relief. Millions of people, from all walks of life, stand to benefit from the president's plan, and we won't stop fighting to deliver the relief the people demand and deserve."
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