We’re not sure why Politifact decided to fact-check an Instagram post when the official “punchy and feisty” White House Twitter feed posted the names of Republicans who’d taken out PPP loans, to show their hypocrisy in criticizing his student loan cancellation order. That was the memo that went out to the Left: out any Republican who’d had a PPP loan forgiven. The Center for American Progress got the memo and posted to Instagram (and Twitter) a similar list to the White House’s:
What's that about paying loans back? https://t.co/pPkV2YzNFZ pic.twitter.com/ML4MMdRujm
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) August 24, 2022
An Instagram post listed 13 Republican politicians who criticized President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student debt, but took out Paycheck Protection Program loans that the government forgave.
We rated the post True. https://t.co/Lqz9covXcx
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) August 30, 2022
Why did Politifact choose to “fact-check” this piece of propaganda? Even its write-up admits PPP loans and student loans are nothing alike:
bad tweet and "rating" according to your own article pic.twitter.com/GYK7iBzlZI
— ramen 🇨🇱🇺🇲 (@mmmRamen) August 30, 2022
Oh.
— Anthony Bialy (@AnthonyBialy) August 30, 2022
This is not a "Fact Check" this is advocacy of the current administration's preferred "spin" to support their debt forgiveness action
— Mike Moss (@_MikeMoss) August 30, 2022
Where’s the Missing Context Rating? The PPP loans were borrowed on the promise they would be forgiven under most circumstances. Student loans were never borrowed or given out with such a promise.
— ChuckSRQ (@ChuckSRQ) August 30, 2022
If the parties were reversed, this rating would’ve been “mostly false, missing context.” PPP loans were always forgivable, unlike student loans, which intentionally were made difficult to discharge in bankruptcy.
Joe Biden personally pushed for the BK limit to protect big banks.
— JimBobLAX (@JimBobLAX) August 30, 2022
Perfect example of why Politifact, Snopes, etc. are useless partisan hacks pushing a political agenda. In this case, PolitiFact is serving as a direct mouthpiece for the @DNC parroting out the same false narrative as @POTUS.
BTW, PPP was actually passed by Congress…
— Dave Kovatch (@davekovatch) August 30, 2022
And it's not an apples to oranges comparison?
Because you would point that out and lower the Truth-O-Meter rating if it was, right?
Right? pic.twitter.com/5IkbfzOtwZ
— Bryan W. White (@ZebraFactCheck) August 30, 2022
Yet…misleading and meaningless.
— The Overlord Gazette (@BetaSigmaSilent) August 30, 2022
Not loans, grants. They were only loans if you failed to meet the terms and conditions of the grants.
— Chef Zhorge – CPA (rtd), Political Centrist. (@MosesZD) August 30, 2022
True but irrelevant. They also had orange juice with breakfast.
— Appalachian American ➡️ (@LeftToHoaxville) August 30, 2022
Democrats got money too. Pelosi got millions.
— Tired of Virus (@nightwing003) August 31, 2022
Conflating a bill with a loan is weak. The PPP bill was passed by house/senate/president, the PPP loans were designed to be forgiven, written in the bill, if used to pay employees. The student loan program, taken over by the federal government, never had forgiveness included.
— Mike Rhyner (@mike_rhyner) August 30, 2022
As a fact, when anyone took out a PPP loan there was a promise of partial or full forgiveness if specific conditions were met. There was never that agreement with student loans. Fact check that.
— D Mac 75 (@The_Irishman_30) August 31, 2022
Exactly. If Politifact wanted to be useful, it would have “fact-checked” the comparison of PPP loans to student loans and rated it false.
Related:
‘Mean tweets are good now’! WaPo spotlights newly punchy & feisty White House Twitter account https://t.co/RmYzdjI9Qa
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 27, 2022
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