I Might Be a Chump

We (Mrs. Tabby and I) paid cash for most of our daughter’s college degree (2007). [My Creator blessed me with skills that have allowed me to earn a relatively high income. We have tried to steward that money for His good, and so have always had a lot of financial cushion.] We did have her take out a small loan (less than $10,000 total over four years) so she would have “skin in the game.” A couple of years after graduation she got tired of the hassle of making the monthly payments, and paid off the loan. Her husband (our son-in-law) hustled for scholarships and work-study programs in his field of study so that he avoided debt through his Ph.D.

Our son signed up for United States Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) in part to get the “full ride” scholarship being offered to him. That scholarship committed him to four years of active-duty service after he completed his degree (so he had literal "skin in the game"). He ended up staying in the Air Force longer than four years. He has now left the service, though I think he might still be subject to recall if the world goes really bad. His wife (our daughter-in-law) got a full-ride scholarship at a prestigious college of aeronautical engineering because the college was trying to encourage more women to enter the field of aerospace engineering.

So in our family we have had very little college debt, and none for the last almost ten years. Although we have all earned (and the kids continue to earn) significant salaries, we have not spent to our earnings level. We have exercised financial responsibility.

So now I find out that after we have all been so careful with the financial resources we control, portions of the substantial federal income taxes Mrs. Tabby and I (and our children) pay are going to pay off the loans of other people. To spare those other people the need to pay off the obligations they took on. Obligations we pointedly did not take on.

President Biden is sure making us look like chumps for exercising financial responsibility. He’s telling us we were foolish for avoiding or paying off fully debt for college. I’m still glad for non-financial reasons we handled college expenses the way we did. But, President Biden is making it hard for people to understand the reasons a person should exercise financial responsibility.

President Biden is also blatantly using this expenditure of taxpayer money as a reelection campaign event. So we are unwillingly funding the Biden reelection effort. And he’s spending taxpayer money despite having been told by the United States Supreme Court that doing so violates the Constitution. And he’s said he intends to do more of it. [Remind me – which presidential candidate is the “existential threat” to the republic and to the rule of law?]