DIRTY JOBS Star Mike Rowe on Biden’s Plan to Pay Off Student Debt: ‘Biggest Slap in The Face’
By Movieguide® Staff
Mike Rowe, who rose to fame through the hit series DIRTY JOBS and started a foundation to encourage young people to pursue blue-collar jobs, recently responded to President Joe Biden’s recent decision to pay for American’s student loans.
President Biden announced that any American with college debt and a yearly income below $125,000 (or an annual family income below $250,000) is eligible for $20,000 from the U.S. Treasury.
While this may make the 37% of four-year university graduates happy, Rowe said that it is a “slap in the face” to everyone else whose tax dollars make Biden’s plan possible.
“I work hard on this page, (not as hard as I could, perhaps, but pretty hard), to avoid the politics of the moment, and comment only on topics that impact the foundation I’m proud to run – a foundation that awards work-ethic scholarships to individuals who choose to forego an expensive, four-year education in favor of a skilled trade,” Rowe wrote in a recent Facebook post. “When I do weigh in, I try to acknowledge both sides of the argument, and make my points with as much respect as I can muster. Today, however, I can see only one side. Today, I can find nothing to respect in the President’s decision to transfer billions of dollars in outstanding student loans onto the backs of those people my foundation tries to assist – the same people I’ve spent the last twenty years profiling on Dirty Jobs.”
Rowe attached an article by Charlie Cooke and published in the National Review, titled: “Biden’s Student-Debt Bonfire Is a Classist Message to the Uncredentialed: Screw’ Em.”
“With that in mind, I’m not going to write the piece I just sat down to write,” he said. “Instead, I’m going to share the attached article from Charlie Cooke, who writes better than I do, and shares my disdain for what just happened. If you share our disdain, then please, share this post as well. This decision is without question, the biggest pre-Labor Day slap in the face to working people I’ve ever seen.”
Before President Biden was elected, Rowe said that he would encourage any future president to give new attention to skilled trade and try to reduce college loans.
Movieguide® reported:
Mike Rowe, the host of DIRTY JOBS and SOMEBODY’S GOTTA DO IT, is vocal about his advocacy for blue-collar workers and children’s education.
In the wake of the presidential election, Rowe said that he would happily share his passion for workers across America to the president-elect, should he ask.
“If he did, I’d give him the best answer I could, but I wouldn’t presume to tell Joe Biden or Donald Trump or any elected official anything that they didn’t want to hear,” Rowe told Fox News.
“Now, if he invited me and said, ‘What do you think we can do for our country to make a huge and affirmative difference to a large number of people?'” Rowe continued. “I would say, ‘We need to treat vocational skills differently. We need to treat vocational education differently.'”
According to Fox News, in September alone, nearly half of the 22 million jobs lost due to the coronavirus pandemic remain unreplaced. Before the pandemic, employment numbers were soaring.
Rowe believes the answer to the uncertain future is to place value on developing vocational skills and trade jobs instead of falling into student debt during an economic crisis.
“[I would tell the President Elect] we need to treat vocational education differently,” Rowe explained. “I might say, ‘Hey, we have $1.6 trillion in student loans on the books, and we’re still encouraging more people to go get a four-year degree, but require training.’
“I might say that we should stop lending money,” Rowe added. “We don’t have to lend money to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that don’t exist anymore. I might have that kind of conversation with him, assuming he wanted to have it.”
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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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