It’s hard to have honest political conversations when the Left and Right increasingly use different vocabulary. We’ve already seen progressives try to redefine words such as “recession” to shield President Joe Biden, and now, some left-wing commentators are trying to transmogrify the word “tax” to give it a new, never-before-seen definition.
This comes as Biden unveils an arguably illegal and economically backward plan to “cancel” (i.e. transfer) student debt. This will cost at least $500 billion, experts estimate, which averages out to roughly $3,500 per federal taxpayer.
Millions are understandably upset at the idea of paying more in taxes so other people can have their loans forgiven. Rather than defend this reality on its merits, some progressives are trying to recast student debt itself as some form of “tax.”
These include progressive activist Nina Turner, who tweeted, “REMINDER—student debt is a tax on the poor and working poor who dared go to college to break the cycle of poverty!”
“Student debt is a tax on the poor and working poor who decide to go to college,” activist Joe Sanberg similarly argued.
When I recently appeared on the TV program Rising, co-host Briahna Joy Gray and my debate opponent Astra Taylor both made this same claim.
Political organizer @astradisastra and co-founder of BASED Politics, @brad_polumbo, debate the pros and cons of President Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan. pic.twitter.com/7OB6HAPgYt
— Rising (@HillTVLive) August 25, 2022
Frankly, it’s an absurd argument. You can’t just change a word’s definition in the moment to help your political narrative. And student debt is objectively not a “tax.”
According to Britannica, a “tax” is “an amount of money that a government requires people to pay according to their income, the value of their property, etc., and that is used to pay for the things done by the government.” (Italics are my own.)
According to Merriam-Webster, a tax is “a charge usually of money imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”
There are secondary and tertiary definitions that are broader, e.g., “My headaches are a real tax on my mental health,” but these very clearly do not apply when we are literally talking about government taxation and federal policies. In this context, a “tax” obviously refers to the above definitions, not others.
There are two definitional aspects of a “tax” that are important here.
The first and biggest one is that taxes are mandatory. (Hence “required” and “imposed.”) They’re not a choice. (I wish!)
Student debt, in contrast, isn’t something anyone is forced to take on. You’re not forced to go to college at all, in fact. While it may seem like everyone goes to college these days, the reality is that 1 in 3 American adults over 25 has a bachelor’s degree. So nobody forced you to go to college or to take loans you can’t pay back.
One also always had the option of community college, which is extremely cheap or even “free” (fully subsidized) for many people. So your student debt, no matter how much it sucks, is, by definition, not a tax.
A tax is also supposed to fund government spending “for public purposes,” such as funding the military or building highways. One could maybe argue that student debt funds education and education is some sort of “public good.” But I don’t agree. A college degree increases your individual lifetime earnings by $1 million on average over a lifetime, so its main function is a personal investment in your own career — not a public purpose.
On both counts, but especially the first one, student debt is objectively and by definition not a “tax.” So, don’t fall for progressive attempts to mutilate the dictionary and distract you from the realities of the student loan debate.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a co-founder of Based-Politics.com, a co-host of the BasedPolitics podcast, and a Washington Examiner contributor.
