Trumpers now trying to gut Public Service Loan Forgiveness program

I’m not sure why I’m actually surprised to read that the Trump/Musk folks are now planning to limit eligibility for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

It’s less surprising when you see what the limits are: the public service can’t involve, in any way, support for immigrants, Palestinians, “the chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children,” “engaging in a pattern of aiding and abetting illegal discrimination” – i.e. DEI – and violating “laws against trespassing, disorderly conduct, public nuisance, vandalism, and obstruction of highways,” so, presumably, protesting.

FFS.

“Our dedicated public service workers have faced immense uncertainty and anxiety due to President Trump’s Executive Order #14235, which directed the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Treasury to redefine ’public service’ to align with the administration’s political agenda. This move contradicts the core tenets of public service and the original intent and purpose of the PSLF program,” a group of Democrats led by U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

The Trump executive order, shocker, doesn’t spell out what now passes muster as public service.

Meaning, we can presume you get extra credit for golf-clapping when the POTUS putts out for a sextuple-bogey nine on a 110-yard par-three.

Making the “Quarter Ton of Fun” feel good about his golf game should qualify as something.

Maybe not public service, but still.

The senators, in their letter, called on McMahon, the former WWE CEO and two-time failed U.S. Senate candidate, who bought herself the Cabinet post, as is the custom, to ensure all eligibility criteria for the program are strictly followed under the law passed by Congress and adhere to congressional intent.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007 to encourage more people to enter public service by providing loan forgiveness after 10 years of working full-time for a federal, state, local or Tribal government organization or certain nonprofit organizations.

Since the program was created, it has provided teachers, nurses, veterans, first responders and other public servants with needed student loan relief.

Public service is for suckers, though, amirite?

“This order’s vague and arbitrary restrictions on which organizations qualify for PSLF are deeply troubling,” the senators wrote. “Under the guise of national security, it unfairly targets organizations that serve marginalized communities, such as those advocating for immigrants or protecting vulnerable children, with no evidence of illegal activity. Furthermore, the broad language of the order could lead to political repression and the chilling of free speech, where organizations or individuals deemed ’non-conforming’ to the administration’s views could be stripped of the very support they rely on to carry out their public service missions.”

That, of course, is the very idea here.