Morning Wire - Student Loan Forgiveness & Disney Protest | 4.9.22

Episode Date: April 9, 2022

President Biden extends the pause on student loan repayments, Oregon will permit assisted suicide for out of state residents, and our reporters visits Disney’s Orlando theme park. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Biden administration is extending the pause on federal student loan repayments through the end of August. There are Democrats who want him to cancel more debt. Some want him to cancel $50,000 of student loan debt per borrower. Others want him to cancel a student loan debt altogether. How popular is student loan forgiveness? And will Democrats continue to push for free college? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's April 9th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.

The state of Oregon will now provide assisted suicide services to non-residents. Will this change make Oregon a destination for death? And with all the controversy swirling around Disney over its opposition to a parental rights law, we take a firsthand look at what it's like on the ground at the theme parks. I've been with them for quite a long time, and it's gotten very political, and it's gotten very hard to be who you are. It's gotten very hard to be someone who has conservative values. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Good Ranchers. Meat and seafood prices are up 20% in the last year. You can combat this out-of-control inflation with a Good Rancher's subscription. When you subscribe, your price is locked in for the life of your subscription.

Grocery store prices will always be changing, but you can be secure in your food budget with Good Ranchers. Get American meat sourced from local farms delivered to your door at a consistent, affordable price. Visit good ranchers.com slash wire or use code wire at checkout to get $30 off and free shipping today. Lock in your price today with a Good Rancher subscription and say goodbye to food inflation. The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will extend the pause on federal student loan payments through the end of August. Proponents of the policy say the moratorium helps students by giving them a reprieve from crushing student debt.

But critics say the loan payment extension is an unfair burden on taxpayers. Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty, is here with the details for us. So, Marade, we're extending the moratorium on student debt again? Yep, and for the sixth time. How long has it been at this point? Well, federal student loan payments were initially paused by the Trump administration in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Trump extended once, and then Biden has extended four more times.

We just passed a two-year mark. The pause was set to expire on May 1st, but now it won't lapse until September 1st. President Biden gave a statement about it on Wednesday. His justification for the move is that the country is still recovering from the pandemic, and he said the goal of the extended moratorium is to give people with student debt greater financial security. He also said the Department of Education is working on improving student loan programs. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department wants to give borrowers a fresh start by eliminating the impact of delinquency and allowing them to restart payments in good standing. Now, how many students is a

going to affect? So this affects about 40 million people who owe about 1.6 trillion in federal student debt. That's about 90% of the total outstanding student debt. Students who owe debt to private lenders are not eligible for this pause. Overall, the pause on federal student loan payments has saved borrowers about $5 billion every month. Now, there's been some criticism of the policy. Can you tell us about that? Sure. Well, some are saying that these extensions are an unfair use of taxpayer dollars. Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican, argued that pausing student loans again is short-sighted, and that it's an unfair deal for the Americans who didn't take on debt, yet will ultimately be stuck with the bill. She said, instead, we should make sure students have a clear picture of the costs

before they take out a loan, so we won't end up in a situation where others are forced to bail them out. Other critics have pointed out that pausing loans gives colleges a reason to hike tuition, since they're not getting paid back right away, which only digs the whole deeper for future students. The biggest issue, though, is that it creates a situation where lower income taxpayers find themselves floating the costs incurred by higher income borrowers. That's because people who have large amounts of student debt generally earn more or will eventually earn more in comparison to people who didn't get any higher education. It's especially upsetting to people who have dutifully paid off their own debt or their kids' debt. Although there are some progressive

politicians who say it doesn't go far enough. They want to cancel student loans altogether. That's right. One of the most prominent progressives in Congress, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has advocated for that with President Biden. I believe in full student loan debt cancellation, but we have to push them to, at the bare minimum, a floor of $50,000. The escalating costs of higher education has been a big issue for a while, in part because the government has been willing to underwrite bigger and bigger loans, which for 18-year-old kids can feel like free money. Unfortunately, we've found ourselves in a situation where students feel crushed by their own debt and taxpayers don't want to be saddled with it either. The only winners appear to be the universities. Right, and as it stands, the current system just is not working. Marade, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia. That's Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty.

Coming up, Oregon opens up assisted suicide services to Taurus. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news, and you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows. Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you. The state of Oregon will now offer assisted suicide services to people from out of state. The move has led observers to suggest that Oregon may become the assisted suicide tourism capital of the U.S. Here to discuss the issue is Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.

So, Ash, Oregon will now offer assisted suicide to patients who are residents of other states. Yeah, Oregon is no longer enforcing a residency requirement to get a prescription for lethal drugs. Now, first off, what's the context for this change? The change comes as part of the settlement of a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Dr. Nicholas Gideons, a physician and professor based in Portland. Gideons argued that it was unjust that he wasn't able to write prescriptions for terminally ill, patients in neighboring Washington. He argued that the requirement was unconstitutional because states aren't allowed to favor their own residence over those of other states.

So the residency requirement is now totally gone at this point? Not exactly. The settlement technically called on the Oregon medical authorities to request that the state legislature pass a law to remove the residency requirement. It basically means that the various boards that oversee assisted suicide will no longer enforce the existing residency requirements. So that means people from out of state can now travel to Oregon to get the service. But Dr. Gideon said that even without a bill in the legislature, he feels safe continuing as if the requirement has been removed. Important note, though, the law limits the

service to people with terminal illnesses. Healthy people can't just request to die. Now, is Oregon the only state to allow assisted suicide? There are actually eight other states with laws permitting physician-assisted desk, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, and Washington. But all of them have similar residency requirements as the one Oregon just throughout. So in some ways, that opens up the option of assisted suicide to residents in all states if they can make the trip. Now, will the legal precedent in Oregon affect those other states? Possibly, it could pave the way for the other states to remove their residency requirements or stop enforcing it themselves like Oregon is.

Now, just curious, if Washington allows assisted suicide, why were patients in the Gideon's case attempting to obtain those services in Oregon? Well, Gideon says his clinic is licensed to treat patients from nearby Washington for other health care needs, so he says existing patients shouldn't be forced to find other doctors for specific services. He claimed that would compound their suffering. Now, keep in mind, it can be difficult for patients to find doctors willing to offer assisted suicide, even in the states that offer it. Now, assisted suicide is pretty controversial. Is there concern about Oregon becoming a destination for assisted suicide? Yes, that concern was actually voiced by Laura Echavaria. She's the

spokeswoman for National Right to Life. Echavaria said that the settlement could make Oregon America's quote, assisted suicide tourism capital, which raises a lot of moral questions. But Kevin Diaz, an attorney with the advocacy group that sued on Gideon's behalf, said that was unlikely due to safeguards in the law. Now, how does the U.S. compare globally on this? Are we more restrictive than other Western countries or less? There's a lot of variability. It's not a clear left-right issue the way abortion is, but the general trend is toward legalization. Austria, Luxembourg, New Zealand, and parts of the U.S. and Australia allow it, but only for patients who meets very strict criteria. For example, patients must have a terminal illness,

have a record of repeatedly requesting to die, and they must prove soundness of mind. On the permissive end of the spectrum in Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, these countries allow patients to access euthanasia without proving that they have a terminal illness. A 17-year-old girl famously was permitted to die in the Netherlands in 2019 after experiencing mental illness related to sexual molestation. And a variety of other countries allow for passive measures, such as removing life support technology. A really difficult issue.

Ash, thanks for keeping us informed. You're welcome. That's Daily Wire Senior Editor, Ash Short. On Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators protested outside Disney's Southern California headquarters. Their demands that the company stops sexualizing children. The media giant, has been embroiled in controversy over its response to a new parental rights law in Florida, as well as some other polarizing issues.

Columnist David Marcus spent a few days down at Disney World over the weekend to speak with visitors to see if the controversy is impacting the parks. He joins us to tell us what he saw. David, thanks for joining us. Glad to be here. So, David, there have been some protests at the Disney headquarters in California, but you just spent a few days at the Orlando Park. Did you notice if anyone was talking about the gender issue? You'd think with all the controversy there would be, but no, not really. People are on vacation after all. I did speak to some parents who opposed Disney's position, but ultimately what they really seemed to want was a Disney without politics. And actually, at the resort,

that was pretty much what I saw. So at the park itself, you didn't see much evidence of the progressive themes that the executives at Disney talked about in that leaked Zoom meeting. Not at all. The little girls are still princesses, the boys are still superheroes, or Star Wars characters. Even the adults very often had the kind of gendered Disney gear that is very much on offer in the gift shops. It did seem like at Disney World, the virtue signaling hit this wall of reality, which is a balance, I suspect, the company will be walking for some time. So you're anticipating more public statements that support these progressive stances, but business as usual in person at the parks. Right. Were you able to speak to any patrons to get their opinions. Obviously, they're still choosing to spend their money at

Disney. Not really, but the disconnect between the progressive agenda of the company and what you see on the ground suggests that the financial risk for Disney has less to do with boycotts and more to do with the potential that their products and content may become too extreme for consumers. My sense was that Disney is actively resisting that, not exactly practicing what they preach. So Disney enjoys a lot of perks in Florida, but the state is now threatening to take away some of those special privileges. Is that a real threat? And what would that mean for Disney? I think it is. It's a very strange situation where Disney is basically its own city and in many ways regulates itself. You feel that at the resort. Everything is Disney. There's no independent industry or business. So yeah,

I think that's something Florida Republicans will at least hold over the company's head. What do you think the future is for Disney in terms of content and direction? Do you think they're going to double down on the social justice themes or adapt to the pressure from the state? Well, one would think the company would try to back off a bit. We saw this with the NFL and the NBA after the George Floyd protest. Both leagues went all in on Black Lives Matters messaging, and it hurt their bottom line, so they stopped leaning into that messaging as much. Disney would be prudent to make that choice. But as we've seen, there's a lot of internal pressure, so we'll see if they're even able to back away from the divisive politics.

in the end. All right. Well, David, thanks so much for talking to us. Thanks for having me. That was columnist David Marcus. Other stories we're tracking this week? The U.S. said this week that it will impose sanctions on Putin's daughters. A senior administration official said, quote, we believe that many of Putin's assets are hidden with family members, and that's why we're targeting them. And Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Bashir vetoed a transgender sports bill on Wednesday that would have prevented biological men from playing in girls' sports in middle school through college. The act overwhelmingly passed the state's House of Representatives and Senate. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national

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