Fox News host Laura Ingraham sparked an avalanche of negative comments on Thursday after she railed against student loan debt forgiveness with a tweet about her mother working into her 70s to pay for her tuition debt.
“My mom worked as a waitress until she was 73 to help pay for our college, even helped with loan repayment,” Ingraham wrote on Twitter. “Loan forgiveness just another insult to those who play by the rules,” the 59-year-old pundit added.
Her comments came after President Joe Biden suggested this week that he may again extend the pause on federal student loan payments. The Biden White House has also indicated an upcoming executive order to cancel some amount of individual debt.
As expected, critics were quick to respond, with some pointing out the obvious flaw in her thinking: that her mother had to work far beyond retirement age indicated the student loan system was “shitty,” “broken” and in need of reform.
Check her tweet and some of the responses below:
My mom worked as a waitress until she was 73 to help pay for our college, even helped with loan repayment. Loan forgiveness just another insult to those who play by the rules.
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) April 28, 2022
“The rules” shouldn’t include working into your 70’s to pay for a child’s tuition. That’s dumb, and broken, and not at all normal.
Maybe we should stop shaming people who are buried under debt from a corrupt system, and instead reform the system that buried them. https://t.co/Gb7dPx7fGu
— Aaron Mahnke (@amahnke) April 28, 2022
So you want more mothers to work until they're 73 to pay off loans?
— Val Santos (@ValSantosOnAir) April 28, 2022
Seems like a shitty system that desperately needs to be changed? https://t.co/Ecx2EmS8BI
— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) April 28, 2022
You graduated Dartmouth in 1985. Your mother died in 1999. From 1985 to 1999 you worked as a presidential speechwriter, an editor, and, after law school in 1991, clerked for US circuit judge and was an associate for one of the largest law firms in the country. 1/2
— DaLip (@DLipartito) April 28, 2022
Not only that, but I did the math: https://t.co/9uneQW9iq2
— Dr. Ohm 🇺🇲🌊🇺🇦 (@HereToRebuild) April 29, 2022
You're 59. Tuition and room & board at Dartmouth your freshman year was 14 grand. Average median salary that year was 23 grand.
Today, Dartmouth is 70 grand for a year and the median salary is 35 grand.
Shall we discuss predatory lending next?
— Stahl, Dineen & Young (@TieuliAlan) April 28, 2022
If you are telling the truth, then you should be ecstatic that no more students will fall prey to predatory lenders anymore. But then again, you are you.
— 🌊🇺🇦#BBBCrew Kelvin Resists🇺🇦🌊 (@KJ2013JK) April 28, 2022
1) You let your mom work until she was 73 to pay your debts?
2) What a great argument for student loan forgiveness. https://t.co/O2MsNAQtjE
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) April 28, 2022
Do you hate your own mother so much, you want others to suffer as she suffered? That tracks.
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) April 28, 2022
Countries that have FREE college:
Germany
Norway
Sweden
Finland
France
Denmark
Austria
Greece
Czech Republic
Brazil
Spain
Slovenia
Iceland
Luxembourg
Turkey
Poland
Argentina
Malaysia
Egypt
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Panama
Kenya
UruguayWhy isn't isn't US on this list?
— 𝙱𝚊𝚛𝚋𝚊𝚛𝚊 (@HoosierRebel44) April 28, 2022
You graduated from Dartmouth in 1985 when tuition was $10,000/year. Now it's $61,000/year.
The insult is changing the rules to bail out billionaires to the tune of $10T, but stiffing working people with predatory tuition & interest. Socialism for the rich, bootstraps for us.
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) April 28, 2022
Your mom should not have had to go through this. No one should have to. Why wish this kind of struggle on anyone else? Why should your mother’s struggle be the “rule”? Your mother is an example of exactly why we need loan forgiveness. What’s at stake here. https://t.co/whzy4v6qAs
— Scott Hechinger (@ScottHech) April 28, 2022
And that's the difference. We want 73-year-old moms to work less and rest. We want others to have a better life. We don't need people to suffer to "feel great again." Why be so cruel when you can choose to be generous and kind and help fellow Americans? https://t.co/C7XL6TtmEA
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) April 28, 2022
I bet Laura's mom would want government to liberate her from waitressesing until she was 73. I bet Laura's mom would want other moms to be liberated from that. Especially seeing as her hard work led to Laura using her as a political prop in selfish tweets like this one. https://t.co/OScjsF99hG
— Touré (@Toure) April 28, 2022
“The rules” shouldn’t include working into your 70’s to pay for a child’s tuition. That’s dumb, and broken, and not at all normal.
Maybe we should stop shaming people who are buried under debt from a corrupt system, and instead reform the system that buried them. https://t.co/Gb7dPx7fGu
— Aaron Mahnke (@amahnke) April 28, 2022
