White House tweets about Buchanan’s PPP loans after he criticized Biden student loan plan

Congressman Vern Buchanan recently became a target of the White House’s social media feed after he criticized President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.

Buchanan — a frontrunner to lead the House Ways & Means Committee if Republicans take the majority in November — criticized the Biden administration for forgiving up to $20,000 in federal student loans per borrower. In response, the White House Twitter account called attention to Buchanan’s own forgiven loans.

According to the Department of the Treasury, Buchanan applied for more than $2 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds as part of 2020’s $2.2 trillion CARES Act stimulus package. Buchanan is the fourth-wealthiest member of Congress, MoneyWise reports.

In a Twitter video of a recent Fox Business appearance, Buchanan railed against student loan debt cancellation. He said he has heard from several voters in his district — which includes all of Manatee County — who are opposed to the plan.

“They took care of their obligations with their children. They felt like they did the right thing. Many are working an extra job to be able to do that and now they just feel outraged about where this is going,” Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, told host Larry Kudlow.

The White House later took aim at Buchanan and a handful of his fellow Republicans in Congress who criticized the student loan forgiveness program.

“Congressman Vern Buchanan had over $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven,” the White House tweeted in response to Buchanan’s video clip.

As of Tuesday morning, the White House tweet had garnered more than 60,000 retweets and more than 260,000 likes on Twitter.

Reached for comment, Max Goodman, Buchanan’s campaign consultant, described the White House tweets as a distraction from Biden’s overall job performance.

“Somebody needs to inform President Biden that job-saving PPP loans were designed to be forgiven unlike student loans. This is another cynical effort to deflect attention away from Biden’s failed economic policies,” Goodman said in a statement provided to the Bradenton Herald.

The White House also brought attention to forgiven PPP loans following criticism from six other Republican lawmakers, including U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

PPP loans were a key part of the CARES Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were allowed to be completely forgiven as long as business owners used the money to keep their employees paid. In a statement provided to the Bradenton Herald at the time, Sarasota Ford, one of Buchanan’s businesses, said they used it for that purpose.

“Thanks to the PPP, we were able to pay workers who otherwise would have been laid off or furloughed,” said Toni Trip, the dealership’s CFO.

On Monday, Buchanan appeared to fire back at the White House, sharing another tweet that referred to an analysis estimating the cost of the forgiveness plan could range anywhere from $300 billion to $980 billion.

“According to an analysis from Penn-Wharton, President Biden’s reckless student loan bailout could cost over $1 TRILLION! That’s $6,000 per taxpayer!” Buchanan tweeted Monday morning. “It’s a slap in the face to the average American worker to force them to foot this bill.”

The upper limit of Penn Wharton’s analysis assumes the possibility of up to $50,000 in loan forgiveness per borrower, which has not been approved by the Biden administration.

Some Twitter users rushed to Buchanan’s defense while others argued that Buchanan had benefited from a government bailout.

“Do you remember why PPP loans were provided? To pay salaries and rent to keep businesses and people employed,” one person wrote. “They were designed to be forgiven, unlike student debt.”

“Vern doesn’t pay back his debts but he will make sure you get no relief,” another tweet said.

In addition to forgiving up to $20,000 in federal loans for student borrowers who make less than $125,000 a year, Biden also announced another extension of the pause on loan payments and a new formula to calculate how much borrowers will pay on income-based repayment plans.

Visit www.StudentAid.gov to learn more about the loan forgiveness program.