Amid crippling inflation and plummeting poll numbers, President Biden threw a Hail Mary this week — announcing a sweeping student loan forgiveness plan of up to $10,000 per borrower, or up to $20,000 for those with Pell Grants. Simply put, Biden’s grasping at more taxpayer dollars to influence the vote before the November midterms.

As a student loan borrower who stands to benefit, I view this policy as nothing more than a thinly-veiled redistribution of wealth and an egregious overreach of presidential authority. President Biden is using federal dollars as a personal campaign slush fund. He cannot buy my vote on the back of the taxpayers.

There is no real plan to eliminate student debt; their idea is to transfer that debt to the 87% of Americans that do not owe it. It is inequitable, unfair, and an insult to the millions of hardworking individuals who paid their own way through school.

It is wrong to force taxpayers, who did not take out loans, to pay for those who did.

The National Taxpayers Union estimates this program will cost more than $2,000 per taxpayer. Unsurprisingly, since this presidential fiat is not an Act of Congress, the Congressional Budget Office has yet to evaluate the financial implications of this policy.

Under this move, a married couple earning $250,000/year will receive at least $20,000 of taxpayer money to cover their loans. Why should a single mother struggling to feed her children have to pay the debt of an unemployed gender studies major living in San Fransisco? Why should a plumber, working hard to make ends meet, be forced to repay the loans of a physician assistant?

Working-class families are already struggling to pay their bills in Biden’s economy. They should not have to pay someone else’s.

Moreover, Biden’s student loan giveaway will do nothing to solve the underlying issues of college affordability — it will add to the monstrous federal deficit and result in higher tuition costs.

Instead, President Biden could have helped ease the cost of college tuition by decreasing interest rates on student loans and by deferring interest accrual for 4-years or until graduation, whichever comes first. Ironically, the federal government subsidy on higher education tuition has been the number one driving force behind rising tuition costs.

In short, Biden’s student loan giveaway is robbing Peter to pay Paul, shifting one kind of debt to another. In November, the American people will have an opportunity to decide whether or not this is the direction they desire for our nation. As for me, I will not let Biden or any other politician buy my vote with taxpayer funds.

David Capen is the owner of Capen Consulting, LLC, a Raleigh-based political and public affairs consulting firm. Capen previously served as director of policy at the North Carolina General Assembly, and in the U.S. Congress as an aide to the House Committee on Ways and Means, where he assisted in the development of historic tax and welfare reforms, including the widely supported Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by President Trump in 2017.