Kamala Harris' Student Debt Forgiveness Plan

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Kamala Harris' Student Debt Forgiveness Plan refers to a proposal for forgiving student loan debt from Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in which a person could eliminate the debt for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in a disadvantaged community. After she tweeted the proposal, Twitter users mocked the plan for being overly complicated and extremely niche, posting parodies of the plan that featured absurd qualifications.

Origin

On July 27th, 2019, Kamala Harris tweeted "Yesterday I announced that, as president, I’ll establish a student loan debt forgiveness program for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities." The tweet gained over 2,400 retweets and 11,000 likes^[1] (shown below).

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Twitter users were quick to mock the specificity of the plan. Twitter user @InternetHippo^[2] tweeted "The Democratic Party’s logo should be an asterisk," gaining over 1,600 retweets and 13,000 likes (shown below, left). User @TheJohnnyFirecloud^[3] joked that "The 22 people this will benefit are gonna be So excited," gaining over 1,200 retweets and 7,000 likes (shown below, right).

Other Twitter users tweeted parodies of Harris' plan by adding absurd qualifications. User @leyawn^[4] tweeted a parody which featured qualifications like "Completed Halo 3 on legendary without dying," gaining over 400 retweets and 2,700 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @ughitsaaron^[5] joked the plan sounded like a parody of a hyper-specific shirt (shown below, right).

Harris later attempted to clarify her position, stating "Student loan relief for Pell Grant recipients is just one component of our plan to reduce the opportunity gap for Black entrepreneurs--along with $12 billion in direct capital. We can ensure Black entrepreneurs have a real shot at starting small businesses."^[6] Jokes and criticisms were compiled by Business Insider^[7] and The Mary Sue.^[8]