Rep. Burgess Owens, who has filed for bankruptcy protection multiple times, said (student) "debt cannot be cancelled." Irony truly is dead.
March 24, 2023

I suppose it's fitting that a congressman who's declared bankruptcy five (5) times himself should disparage student loan forgiveness, as Trump has often done, seeing as Trump has declared bankruptcy six (6) times himself. Not exactly the party of personal responsibility, are they? They all talk a good game, but...

Anyway, this dummy will parade in front of tv cameras on Thursday to do just that, and hope we all just ignore the contradiction and the hypocrisy of his words.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

In a press release, Owens telegraphed how the hearing would play out, arguing that President Joe Biden has no authority to cancel student debt unilaterally.

“Debt cannot be canceled, only transferred from those who borrowed to those who did not,” Owens said. “Creating an offramp for responsibility, driving up college costs, disincentivizing real loan reform, and forcing hard-working American taxpayers to pay for someone else’s loans is nothing more than a backdoor attempt at free college with abysmal implications for students, taxpayers, and our economy.”

Now in his second term as a member of Congress, Owens has been one of the most vocal opponents of student loan forgiveness among Utah’s delegation in Washington. When President Joe Biden first announced the program last summer, Owens said it was unconstitutional and would “aggravate inflation and add $60 billion to our country’s deficit.” When a legal challenge to the policy was elevated to the Supreme Court, Owens signed on to an amicus brief urging the program be overturned.

During his first campaign in 2020, Owens was dogged by claims that he had filed for bankruptcy protection multiple times. Federal court records show Owens filed for bankruptcy five times. In 1991, Owens filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in New York. No court documents were available for this claim. In 2005, Owens again filed for Chapter 7 protection in Pennsylvania with creditors claiming $1.7 million in debts owed. The case was discharged in 2005 after over $200,000 was paid. The remaining three Chapter 13 filings by Owens were dismissed.

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