June 30, 2025 • 21 mins
This episode we're diving into the specifics of the spending bill being voted on in the Senate right now and how much harm it will do. For more content be sure to follow @TheLawAccordingtoAmber on Facebook and Instagram
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram. Same
name the Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all. Welcome
(00:30):
to another episode of the Law according to Amber, And
this episode is going to be all about the Big
Beautiful Bill Act. So, for folks who don't know, the
Big Beautiful Bill is a tax bill that's in the
Budget Office where basically Congress is responsible for writing, you know,
this budget bill that either creates new tax cuts, changes
(00:54):
other tax cuts, changes what things are being funded by
the government. Particularly what's gonna be most effected is Medicaid
and Social Security. And so in twenty seventeen, they also
passed the tax bill. It's like a normal process for
you know, the federal government. And that tax bill also
included a lot of cuts for billionaires that gave them
(01:14):
more funding, more money in their pockets. So, folks who
are in the top one percent, we're making all this
money from these tax cuts that actually do not even
go into effect until Trump was actually out of office.
Because of the way the bill is written, it gives
you a certain amount of time until the bill takes effect,
mainly so that people who are most affected can try
to really figure out ways to you know, cover their bases,
(01:37):
especially if it's like a state government, like how do
they figure out ways to kind of cover the funding
they're going to lose. And this bill, the newest one,
is tracked straight horrible. It's, you know, really going to
take a huge hit on folks who are your regular
working class Americans, Folks who are on Social Security, disability,
(01:58):
getting Medicaid, like all of that stuff is really gonna
be drastically affected by this because we got a trash
as president who don't give a fuck about people. So
I want to talk about some of the most important
parts that I feel like haven't been discussed as much.
So I did see a little while ago where Marjorie
Taylor Green talked on Twitter about how she didn't see
(02:19):
that there was an AI regulation in the bill and
if she knew about that, she wouldn't have voted for
it because she's a dummy and she didn't read it.
So I want to talk about that a little bit.
So there was an AI exemption in the bill that
said that state legislation could not be written to regulate
AI for a ten year period, and then Marshall Blackburn,
(02:40):
who was a Senator in Tennessee, did a deal with
Ted Cruz to change that period to five years, but
has exemptions new exemptions for state laws that are working
to regulate unfair or deceptive practices, children's safety online, and
then also child sexual abuse material and publicity right and
(03:00):
publicity rights is like around like creators and stuff like that.
And I mean, it's cute that she did that, but
we didn't want that. We wanted no period, Like, we
don't want that to be any AI regulation in the
bill at all because it's harmful like states. If we're saying,
you know, as governments, these Republicans, the main thing they say,
(03:20):
you know, in government is that they want small government.
They don't want the federal government involved in what they
can do in that you know, states' rights is what
they're always talking about. But then you let people in
the federal government regulate things we can do. If we
as a state have ridden laws around AI regulation, then
we should be able to continue to write those laws
(03:43):
without someone saying that we have to wait a five
year period. No, like, that's just not that doesn't work
for me. And so I'm definitely disappointed, but not surprised.
Blackburn is a trash ass senator. She sucks, She don't
care about you for real, and she really only worked
on this to kind of get this little middle ground
because our stay elected to just pass some bills last
(04:04):
year and this year around regulation for AI, and so
she doesn't want to look like the bad guy, even
though she very much is the bad guy. So let's
also get into some of the student loan changes. There
were major student loan changes on the House side that
would you know, completely change certain types of repayment plans
(04:24):
and then also completely abolish certain types of student loans,
which is insane. So under the House version of this bill,
because there are two different versions right now, the Senate
has made a lot of different changes. So under the
House version of the bill, there will only be two
options for paying your loans off, either through a standard
repayment plan which is just paying the exact same thing
(04:47):
every month, or a new plan that will let you
establish a payment plan based off your annual income. But
none of that is really going to work for a
lot of people. You know, consider people who are going
to college and intend on doing like the public service
loan forgiveness, that wouldn't exist anymore if you look at
(05:08):
the different types of pell grants people are able to get.
This will actually make people have to take out more
private loans because it's gonna limit, like severely limit the
use of pel grants. One of the provisions that was
proposed by the Senate is that if you have a
full ride so that you have your tuition covered and
housing covered by scholarship or something like that at a university,
then you do not qualify for a pelgrim because technically
(05:31):
your full need is covered, which is actually just not true,
Like people still have lots of other needs, like how
are they gonna get to the school and what are
they gonna eat every day? Buying books, buying supplies, like
being able to have access to a pel grant is
really important for low income students, over sixty percent of
which are black people who are getting that. So you
(05:53):
I think that what I am mostly seeing in this
bill is how they are trying to mask their racism
by saying that this is just us trying to cut
taxes and also give billionaires so much more money, Like
none of this has anything to do with billionaires, Like, yeah,
they want to get the more money, but they also
really want to hinder what working class black people are
able to do. One of the other key provisions in
(06:16):
the bill is that if you are receiving a pail grant,
you have to be taking fifteen credit hours to receive
the pail grant, which is going to impact so many
people at community colleges, which I also think that some
folks just don't really think about. There are more than
ten million people enrolled in community colleges across the United States,
and so most of them. A lot of folks go
(06:37):
to community college you get an a sociate degree to
get better paying jobs. But a lot of them also
do pipeline programs where they do a community college program
and then go into a full four year university. But
for most people, they're going to community colleges because they
don't have a lot of other options. They need to
be able to work, and so they're going to community
college and taking classes at night, and they're qualified for
(07:00):
peil grants because they are lower income, they are disenfranchised,
and so a student in community college can receive between
seven hundred and forty dollars and seven thousand, three hundred
and ninety five dollars a year from the pelgrant program.
According to the American Association of Community Colleges, it costs
about four thousand and fifty dollars a year on average
(07:21):
to attend the community college, while the average four year
degree is like eleven twelve thousand a year. So being
able to attend community college also creates a more economically
sound situation for folks who just aren't able to just
quit their jobs and be full time students. They have
to do both, right, but if this bill passes, they
won't qualify for PEIL grants, and so they'll have to
(07:41):
either take out loans or just not go to school
at all. And that's a huge impact on folks who
are trying to better their lives and get an education,
and these particular House Republicans and Center Republicans just don't
give it them. And some other major changes are that
this bill would actually get rid of subsidized federal loans,
(08:02):
so subsidized federal loans actually had a lower interest rate
than the unsubsidized student loans. And so that was usually
people's first choice is to take the subsidized loans if
they do have to get loans from school, because they
won't have to be taken on so much debt. And
in the Senate and House version of these bills, they
want to get rid of subsidized loans, which we know
(08:22):
has a lower interest rate and which we know is
easier for bars to pay back. And so this forces
people to make a choice like are you going to
be able to continue school? Are you going to get
a private loan? What are you going to do? But
either way, it's going to require for people who are
trying to go to college, community college, or universities whatever
to accumulate more debt, and that's not okay. Some other
(08:45):
key provisions that I thought were really important around student
loans is that the Senate version was very different, and
so because of that, Senators were proposing different amendments to
push back on some of the things that the House
passed because they were just way too strict and would
have just caused way too much harm and financial stress
on folks, like forcing borers who are already paying off
(09:07):
their loans to switch to new repayment plans. Like that
was insane. How you gonna tell me that I have
this payment plan set up and you're gonna switch me
to a different one because you want me to pay
more money and I've already agreed to pay this other amount.
Hell no, that's just not gonna happen. One of the
other major student loan changes was about the caps on
student loans and the type of loans you could get,
(09:28):
like the parent plus loans or grab plus. So in
the House version of the bill, there were caps on
how much someone could borrow and in total undergraduate loans,
they said that folks can only borrow fifty thousand dollars
and one hundred thousand or one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars for graduate and professional programs, and that's just not
(09:48):
realistic at all. And parents would also be limited to
only taking out fifty thousand total and federal loans to
pay for their children's education, which also applies even if
the parents are taking out loans for multiple children, which
is just not realistic. As someone who has a twin sister,
my mom was taking out loans and supporting both of
us for the first few years of college, and she
would have hit this cap extremely quick, and their parents
(10:11):
will also not be allowed to borrow more than two
hundred thousand in total, including both undergraduate and graduate loans.
So if your parent is trying to build pary and
plus loan for undergrad and also tries to do one
for a graduate, they will be at a two hundred
thousand dollar cap under the House version of the bill,
but the Senate changed a lot of that. The Senate
version gets rid of the fifty thousand dollars cap for
undergraduate students, but it does limit parents to borrowing twenty
(10:34):
thousand per year for each child, with a sixty five
thousand dollars total cap per student, which is a little
better with a per student cap, but still we don't
want to cap at all. And it also limits graduate
students to twenty thousand, five hundred per year in loans
and one hundred thousand in total. Also not very realistic
if you're going for like a professional degree like medical
(10:55):
school or law school, and it's just not realistic. The
lowest amount I hear people having to take out for
completing law schools one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand,
like they're going to hit that cap very quickly, and
it's really going to affect those folks who are doing
those professional degrees. And there's also a cap for two
hundred thousand in total, so completely. The Senate also slightly
(11:17):
raised the overall lifetime cap on student loans from the
House version by capping federal student loans their barbers received,
excluding the parent plus loans, at two hundred fifty seven thousand,
five hundred dollars. While that is higher, it's still to
me limits folks who want to get a higher education
(11:38):
and would have to take our loans to get them.
And this isn't like people who are taking out pilgrims,
like they're not getting money, they don't have to pay back.
These are loans. They have to pay them back. So
I don't think anybody will take out all these loans
and then be like, yeah, I'm never going to pay
this unless they're doing like a public service, you know program.
It's just not realistic. The House version of the bill,
like I said before, want to get rid of subsidized
(11:59):
long but the Senate version puts those back in, so
you have subsidized and unsubsidized loans. But they do get
rid of the graduate plus loan program, which is a
really big issue for folks who are trying to build
to grad school. I went to grad school and I
had to take out a graduate plus loan as well,
because that was one of the only options that I
qualified for. There aren't a lot of scholarships and other
(12:22):
type of programs for graduate school, and so I had
to take out that you know, higher loan, and just
getting rid of that really restricts, you know, the type
of education folks can get. And it really reminds me
of when Reagan was in California before he ran for office,
I think he was governor then before he ran for president,
(12:42):
he pushed for them to get rid of free college
because black radical students on different campuses were protesting for
black history courses. They wanted African and Studies departments, they
wanted African and Studies classes, and they were pushing for that,
and Reagan pushed this narrative day, you know, these kids
are just on these campus is protesting, making noise, not
going to class. They shouldn't be allowed to go here
(13:04):
for free. And that started the actual federal loan program.
The federal loan program has not been in place since
the start of America this is not a program that
you know, the founders thought of the federal student loan
program ain't that old, actually, And the reason why free
school was taken away was because they said, too many
black niggas's out here getting educated, and we refuse to
(13:26):
let that happen. They out here making noise. They want
Black history course, they want afric kand of studies classes.
We don't want to do none of that shit. So
let's make it harder for them to go. And it
did make it harder for folks, but it didn't mean
that they weren't going at all. And now these changes
just made me think of that as well, because you
see how the Free Palestine movement has really activated students.
You see how black folks have been pushing for, you know,
(13:48):
justice for black folks, justice for black lives, making sure
that people aren'tdying for police brutality, and how they've activated
on college campuses, how they've gotten students galvanized. A student movement,
I would say, is just it's a strong as it
was in the seventies. The pseudo movement is very active,
and to me, this is just their way, the Republican's
way of trying to make sure that them radical niggas
(14:08):
don't keep going to these schools. They said, y'all got
to get the fuck up out of here, and we're
gonna make that happen by making it harder for you
to go by deleting these loans, taking away all these
options for you. And you know, of course they gonna
hide all the good information in books, And where do
once people get access to books and academic texts college?
Because I couldn't access Jstore when I wasn't in college,
(14:29):
I couldn't access certain like academic novels and scholarly articles
when I wasn't in college, I didn't have the access
to do so, like, let's just be real here. There
were a few changes that the House also made on
repayment plans. Both the Senate version and the House version
wants to change the repayment plans to only having two plans,
but the Senate version changed some of the House versions
(14:53):
stipulations which put a took away a cap on monthly payments,
and the Senate version keeps the cap on monthly payments
under the income based repayment plan, and it allows for
folks to consider their spouse's income like take their spouse's
income into account when setting up their repayment plans. Also
in the House version of the bill, they actually wanted
to create a pel grant program for short workforce training
(15:16):
programs that were they had to be at least fifteen
weeks long or longer, and the Senate parliamentarian struck that
down because he stated that you are not allowed to
create a peil grant program for short term courses, and
so that's no longer in there. But they also the
Senate also changed some of the House regulations around paeil grants.
(15:36):
They took away the credit hour requirement, but they did
keep the restrictions based on a borrow student a index,
which is what I was talking about earlier with if
you have a full ride or if you're technically your
full student aid is meant, then you are not allowed
to receive pail grants, which, like I said before, it's
not realistic because for low income students who are going
(15:56):
to school, like there's more than just your tuition that
needs to be support, Like some of them don't have transportations,
some of them have to buy books, a meal plan, like,
there's so many other things that aren't being considered here.
And I just think that further, you know, it's going
to further diferent franchise people. And I'm sure most of
y'all have heard about the Medicaid cuts, but I do
want to touch on it just a little bit. The
custom Medicaid are going to be astronomical. There's already I've
(16:20):
already seen lists of different hospitals that will close due
to these Medicaid cuts if they passed, and the Senate
build their proposal added a lot more restrictions actually, and
they didn't ease up on what the House passed. Their
version would tighten the eligibility requirements so that adults with
children age fifteen and over would need to work or
volunteer at least eighty hours a month. And there's also
(16:43):
a proposal to lower provider taxes, which is what states
use to help fund their share the Medicaid costs from
six percent to three point five percent by twenty thirty one.
And that's going to really impact how much Medicaid funds
we have because the states are literally using that tax
to help pay for those funds, Like the Medicaid fund
in Tennessee is paid for partially by those taxes and
(17:08):
there's a provision being added to require Medicaire re enrollment
to shift from once a year to every six months,
and the people who are enrolled, we have to provide
additional income and residency verifications, just making it even harder
to get support. Mind you, these medicaid cuts are to
support tax cuts for billionaires. They are to support other
(17:29):
investment in other social programs. They're to support getting tax
cuts over all because they want to give more cuts
to billionaires to benefit the one percent. None of this
is helping your everyday person. And just want to remind
y'all this will y'all voted for it because the majority
of the country voting for this white man who don't
give a fuck about you. The majority of Tennessee is
(17:51):
poor white Tennesseeans, and they voted for him enthusiastically, and
now they're about to be fucked. And I mean, what
am I supposed to say to that? Because we tried
to warn y'all and you didn't listen, and now look
at where we are. The last part I want to
talk about is the snap benefits, because this bill would
also require states to contribute more to the program, and
(18:12):
it is partially funded by the federal government, but the
states also contribute to it. And it also adds a
work requirement for able body snapping rollies who do not
have dependents, which I think is very interesting because I
don't know many able bodies snapping rollies who don't have
a job or who aren't trying to get a job.
So it just further feeds into this idea that you know,
(18:33):
all these people don't want to work, and they want
to give free stuff and give free instances from the
government and never want to do anything to better their lives.
It just feeds into that narrative, which is just not true.
I have friends right now who've been trying to get
jobs for over six months. I have friends who've been
trying to get jobs for over a year since some
of their campaign gigs ended. Like, it's not that people
(18:53):
don't want to work, it's that y'all aren't hiring folks
and the government isn't doing anything to help because all
they worried about is billionaires much text because they're gonna
get and these senators are just not doing shit. Like
other than three or four right now who are on
the fence or who have alread said they're going to
vote no. They don't care about us, like they're enthusiastically
(19:14):
voting for this. And the vote was so freaking close,
like it was like fifty one to forty nine, And
so there is still room to get this bill to fail.
There's definitely room there. And I know that at least
two senators already said they're voting no, including Ram Paul,
which was interesting for folks who don't know. He's like
a staunch Republican, but he been turned the tide a
(19:34):
little bit. He been, you know, speaking out a little
bit more. And Tom Tillis, I know he's voting no.
But we have to get at least two or I
would say three to be safe, more nos like, because
this bill cannot pass and if they fail it in
the Senate, then we good. And they got to come
back to the table and figure something else out. And
I also think if it fails, it sends a clear
(19:55):
message that we really is not playing with them. I
don't know if y'all have been watching the news, but
there have been protests everywhere about this, people going up
to the Capitol building, Folks on medicaid and wheelchairs were
arrested last week. Like they definitely not playing with them,
but also the stendant in the house definitely playing in
our fucking faces, Like let's just be real. So yeah,
(20:15):
I just want to give you all this breakdown on
this bill so you know what's happening. If you want
to get more information, I would go to Booker squared
on Instagram. My friend Elizabeth has been posting about each
of the different hearings as they've been, you know, going along.
Right now, they're in the voter rama where they're gonna
have time to put unlimited amendments on the bill. And
so if you have the seat Span app or if
(20:36):
you have a TV, you can watch seat Span and
they're showing the live Senate hearing so you can see
what's being said and what's being talked about. But I
just think it's really important that we are calling our senators,
emailing them, tagging them on social media, like get on
the ass, because Marsha Blackburn, stupid ass, should not be
supporting this instead of working for a compromise. You should
(20:57):
have been voting no because your state is gonna suffer
and she knows that and she don't care. It's like
she don't care about their ready ass. Here on top
of her head. But I hope that this has really
gave y'all some insight on this legislation that is really
going to affect us federally. It's going to trickle down
to the state and cause a huge impact, and we
just don't need that, especially while we were literally in
(21:19):
a fucking recession, bro, So thank you for tuning in.
Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram the
same name The Low according to Amber, and I'll see
y'all soon for another episode. For more content, feel free
to also check out Ads for Afro my main page.
I post different political content on there as well and
(21:39):
break down and explain the videos every Wednesday and Friday.
As part of my creator and residence program with MLK fifty,
he's
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram. Same
name the Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all. Welcome
(00:30):
to another episode of the Law according to Amber, And
this episode is going to be all about the Big
Beautiful Bill Act. So, for folks who don't know, the
Big Beautiful Bill is a tax bill that's in the
Budget Office where basically Congress is responsible for writing, you know,
this budget bill that either creates new tax cuts, changes
(00:54):
other tax cuts, changes what things are being funded by
the government. Particularly what's gonna be most effected is Medicaid
and Social Security. And so in twenty seventeen, they also
passed the tax bill. It's like a normal process for
you know, the federal government. And that tax bill also
included a lot of cuts for billionaires that gave them
(01:14):
more funding, more money in their pockets. So, folks who
are in the top one percent, we're making all this
money from these tax cuts that actually do not even
go into effect until Trump was actually out of office.
Because of the way the bill is written, it gives
you a certain amount of time until the bill takes effect,
mainly so that people who are most affected can try
to really figure out ways to you know, cover their bases,
(01:37):
especially if it's like a state government, like how do
they figure out ways to kind of cover the funding
they're going to lose. And this bill, the newest one,
is tracked straight horrible. It's, you know, really going to
take a huge hit on folks who are your regular
working class Americans, Folks who are on Social Security, disability,
(01:58):
getting Medicaid, like all of that stuff is really gonna
be drastically affected by this because we got a trash
as president who don't give a fuck about people. So
I want to talk about some of the most important
parts that I feel like haven't been discussed as much.
So I did see a little while ago where Marjorie
Taylor Green talked on Twitter about how she didn't see
(02:19):
that there was an AI regulation in the bill and
if she knew about that, she wouldn't have voted for
it because she's a dummy and she didn't read it.
So I want to talk about that a little bit.
So there was an AI exemption in the bill that
said that state legislation could not be written to regulate
AI for a ten year period, and then Marshall Blackburn,
(02:40):
who was a Senator in Tennessee, did a deal with
Ted Cruz to change that period to five years, but
has exemptions new exemptions for state laws that are working
to regulate unfair or deceptive practices, children's safety online, and
then also child sexual abuse material and publicity right and
(03:00):
publicity rights is like around like creators and stuff like that.
And I mean, it's cute that she did that, but
we didn't want that. We wanted no period, Like, we
don't want that to be any AI regulation in the
bill at all because it's harmful like states. If we're saying,
you know, as governments, these Republicans, the main thing they say,
(03:20):
you know, in government is that they want small government.
They don't want the federal government involved in what they
can do in that you know, states' rights is what
they're always talking about. But then you let people in
the federal government regulate things we can do. If we
as a state have ridden laws around AI regulation, then
we should be able to continue to write those laws
(03:43):
without someone saying that we have to wait a five
year period. No, like, that's just not that doesn't work
for me. And so I'm definitely disappointed, but not surprised.
Blackburn is a trash ass senator. She sucks, She don't
care about you for real, and she really only worked
on this to kind of get this little middle ground
because our stay elected to just pass some bills last
(04:04):
year and this year around regulation for AI, and so
she doesn't want to look like the bad guy, even
though she very much is the bad guy. So let's
also get into some of the student loan changes. There
were major student loan changes on the House side that
would you know, completely change certain types of repayment plans
(04:24):
and then also completely abolish certain types of student loans,
which is insane. So under the House version of this bill,
because there are two different versions right now, the Senate
has made a lot of different changes. So under the
House version of the bill, there will only be two
options for paying your loans off, either through a standard
repayment plan which is just paying the exact same thing
(04:47):
every month, or a new plan that will let you
establish a payment plan based off your annual income. But
none of that is really going to work for a
lot of people. You know, consider people who are going
to college and intend on doing like the public service
loan forgiveness, that wouldn't exist anymore if you look at
(05:08):
the different types of pell grants people are able to get.
This will actually make people have to take out more
private loans because it's gonna limit, like severely limit the
use of pel grants. One of the provisions that was
proposed by the Senate is that if you have a
full ride so that you have your tuition covered and
housing covered by scholarship or something like that at a university,
then you do not qualify for a pelgrim because technically
(05:31):
your full need is covered, which is actually just not true,
Like people still have lots of other needs, like how
are they gonna get to the school and what are
they gonna eat every day? Buying books, buying supplies, like
being able to have access to a pel grant is
really important for low income students, over sixty percent of
which are black people who are getting that. So you
(05:53):
I think that what I am mostly seeing in this
bill is how they are trying to mask their racism
by saying that this is just us trying to cut
taxes and also give billionaires so much more money, Like
none of this has anything to do with billionaires, Like, yeah,
they want to get the more money, but they also
really want to hinder what working class black people are
able to do. One of the other key provisions in
(06:16):
the bill is that if you are receiving a pail grant,
you have to be taking fifteen credit hours to receive
the pail grant, which is going to impact so many
people at community colleges, which I also think that some
folks just don't really think about. There are more than
ten million people enrolled in community colleges across the United States,
and so most of them. A lot of folks go
(06:37):
to community college you get an a sociate degree to
get better paying jobs. But a lot of them also
do pipeline programs where they do a community college program
and then go into a full four year university. But
for most people, they're going to community colleges because they
don't have a lot of other options. They need to
be able to work, and so they're going to community
college and taking classes at night, and they're qualified for
(07:00):
peil grants because they are lower income, they are disenfranchised,
and so a student in community college can receive between
seven hundred and forty dollars and seven thousand, three hundred
and ninety five dollars a year from the pelgrant program.
According to the American Association of Community Colleges, it costs
about four thousand and fifty dollars a year on average
(07:21):
to attend the community college, while the average four year
degree is like eleven twelve thousand a year. So being
able to attend community college also creates a more economically
sound situation for folks who just aren't able to just
quit their jobs and be full time students. They have
to do both, right, but if this bill passes, they
won't qualify for PEIL grants, and so they'll have to
(07:41):
either take out loans or just not go to school
at all. And that's a huge impact on folks who
are trying to better their lives and get an education,
and these particular House Republicans and Center Republicans just don't
give it them. And some other major changes are that
this bill would actually get rid of subsidized federal loans,
(08:02):
so subsidized federal loans actually had a lower interest rate
than the unsubsidized student loans. And so that was usually
people's first choice is to take the subsidized loans if
they do have to get loans from school, because they
won't have to be taken on so much debt. And
in the Senate and House version of these bills, they
want to get rid of subsidized loans, which we know
(08:22):
has a lower interest rate and which we know is
easier for bars to pay back. And so this forces
people to make a choice like are you going to
be able to continue school? Are you going to get
a private loan? What are you going to do? But
either way, it's going to require for people who are
trying to go to college, community college, or universities whatever
to accumulate more debt, and that's not okay. Some other
(08:45):
key provisions that I thought were really important around student
loans is that the Senate version was very different, and
so because of that, Senators were proposing different amendments to
push back on some of the things that the House
passed because they were just way too strict and would
have just caused way too much harm and financial stress
on folks, like forcing borers who are already paying off
(09:07):
their loans to switch to new repayment plans. Like that
was insane. How you gonna tell me that I have
this payment plan set up and you're gonna switch me
to a different one because you want me to pay
more money and I've already agreed to pay this other amount.
Hell no, that's just not gonna happen. One of the
other major student loan changes was about the caps on
student loans and the type of loans you could get,
(09:28):
like the parent plus loans or grab plus. So in
the House version of the bill, there were caps on
how much someone could borrow and in total undergraduate loans,
they said that folks can only borrow fifty thousand dollars
and one hundred thousand or one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars for graduate and professional programs, and that's just not
(09:48):
realistic at all. And parents would also be limited to
only taking out fifty thousand total and federal loans to
pay for their children's education, which also applies even if
the parents are taking out loans for multiple children, which
is just not realistic. As someone who has a twin sister,
my mom was taking out loans and supporting both of
us for the first few years of college, and she
would have hit this cap extremely quick, and their parents
(10:11):
will also not be allowed to borrow more than two
hundred thousand in total, including both undergraduate and graduate loans.
So if your parent is trying to build pary and
plus loan for undergrad and also tries to do one
for a graduate, they will be at a two hundred
thousand dollar cap under the House version of the bill,
but the Senate changed a lot of that. The Senate
version gets rid of the fifty thousand dollars cap for
undergraduate students, but it does limit parents to borrowing twenty
(10:34):
thousand per year for each child, with a sixty five
thousand dollars total cap per student, which is a little
better with a per student cap, but still we don't
want to cap at all. And it also limits graduate
students to twenty thousand, five hundred per year in loans
and one hundred thousand in total. Also not very realistic
if you're going for like a professional degree like medical
(10:55):
school or law school, and it's just not realistic. The
lowest amount I hear people having to take out for
completing law schools one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand,
like they're going to hit that cap very quickly, and
it's really going to affect those folks who are doing
those professional degrees. And there's also a cap for two
hundred thousand in total, so completely. The Senate also slightly
(11:17):
raised the overall lifetime cap on student loans from the
House version by capping federal student loans their barbers received,
excluding the parent plus loans, at two hundred fifty seven thousand,
five hundred dollars. While that is higher, it's still to
me limits folks who want to get a higher education
(11:38):
and would have to take our loans to get them.
And this isn't like people who are taking out pilgrims,
like they're not getting money, they don't have to pay back.
These are loans. They have to pay them back. So
I don't think anybody will take out all these loans
and then be like, yeah, I'm never going to pay
this unless they're doing like a public service, you know program.
It's just not realistic. The House version of the bill,
like I said before, want to get rid of subsidized
(11:59):
long but the Senate version puts those back in, so
you have subsidized and unsubsidized loans. But they do get
rid of the graduate plus loan program, which is a
really big issue for folks who are trying to build
to grad school. I went to grad school and I
had to take out a graduate plus loan as well,
because that was one of the only options that I
qualified for. There aren't a lot of scholarships and other
(12:22):
type of programs for graduate school, and so I had
to take out that you know, higher loan, and just
getting rid of that really restricts, you know, the type
of education folks can get. And it really reminds me
of when Reagan was in California before he ran for office,
I think he was governor then before he ran for president,
(12:42):
he pushed for them to get rid of free college
because black radical students on different campuses were protesting for
black history courses. They wanted African and Studies departments, they
wanted African and Studies classes, and they were pushing for that,
and Reagan pushed this narrative day, you know, these kids
are just on these campus is protesting, making noise, not
going to class. They shouldn't be allowed to go here
(13:04):
for free. And that started the actual federal loan program.
The federal loan program has not been in place since
the start of America this is not a program that
you know, the founders thought of the federal student loan
program ain't that old, actually, And the reason why free
school was taken away was because they said, too many
black niggas's out here getting educated, and we refuse to
(13:26):
let that happen. They out here making noise. They want
Black history course, they want afric kand of studies classes.
We don't want to do none of that shit. So
let's make it harder for them to go. And it
did make it harder for folks, but it didn't mean
that they weren't going at all. And now these changes
just made me think of that as well, because you
see how the Free Palestine movement has really activated students.
You see how black folks have been pushing for, you know,
(13:48):
justice for black folks, justice for black lives, making sure
that people aren'tdying for police brutality, and how they've activated
on college campuses, how they've gotten students galvanized. A student movement,
I would say, is just it's a strong as it
was in the seventies. The pseudo movement is very active,
and to me, this is just their way, the Republican's
way of trying to make sure that them radical niggas
(14:08):
don't keep going to these schools. They said, y'all got
to get the fuck up out of here, and we're
gonna make that happen by making it harder for you
to go by deleting these loans, taking away all these
options for you. And you know, of course they gonna
hide all the good information in books, And where do
once people get access to books and academic texts college?
Because I couldn't access Jstore when I wasn't in college,
(14:29):
I couldn't access certain like academic novels and scholarly articles
when I wasn't in college, I didn't have the access
to do so, like, let's just be real here. There
were a few changes that the House also made on
repayment plans. Both the Senate version and the House version
wants to change the repayment plans to only having two plans,
but the Senate version changed some of the House versions
(14:53):
stipulations which put a took away a cap on monthly payments,
and the Senate version keeps the cap on monthly payments
under the income based repayment plan, and it allows for
folks to consider their spouse's income like take their spouse's
income into account when setting up their repayment plans. Also
in the House version of the bill, they actually wanted
to create a pel grant program for short workforce training
(15:16):
programs that were they had to be at least fifteen
weeks long or longer, and the Senate parliamentarian struck that
down because he stated that you are not allowed to
create a peil grant program for short term courses, and
so that's no longer in there. But they also the
Senate also changed some of the House regulations around paeil grants.
(15:36):
They took away the credit hour requirement, but they did
keep the restrictions based on a borrow student a index,
which is what I was talking about earlier with if
you have a full ride or if you're technically your
full student aid is meant, then you are not allowed
to receive pail grants, which, like I said before, it's
not realistic because for low income students who are going
(15:56):
to school, like there's more than just your tuition that
needs to be support, Like some of them don't have transportations,
some of them have to buy books, a meal plan, like,
there's so many other things that aren't being considered here.
And I just think that further, you know, it's going
to further diferent franchise people. And I'm sure most of
y'all have heard about the Medicaid cuts, but I do
want to touch on it just a little bit. The
custom Medicaid are going to be astronomical. There's already I've
(16:20):
already seen lists of different hospitals that will close due
to these Medicaid cuts if they passed, and the Senate
build their proposal added a lot more restrictions actually, and
they didn't ease up on what the House passed. Their
version would tighten the eligibility requirements so that adults with
children age fifteen and over would need to work or
volunteer at least eighty hours a month. And there's also
(16:43):
a proposal to lower provider taxes, which is what states
use to help fund their share the Medicaid costs from
six percent to three point five percent by twenty thirty one.
And that's going to really impact how much Medicaid funds
we have because the states are literally using that tax
to help pay for those funds, Like the Medicaid fund
in Tennessee is paid for partially by those taxes and
(17:08):
there's a provision being added to require Medicaire re enrollment
to shift from once a year to every six months,
and the people who are enrolled, we have to provide
additional income and residency verifications, just making it even harder
to get support. Mind you, these medicaid cuts are to
support tax cuts for billionaires. They are to support other
(17:29):
investment in other social programs. They're to support getting tax
cuts over all because they want to give more cuts
to billionaires to benefit the one percent. None of this
is helping your everyday person. And just want to remind
y'all this will y'all voted for it because the majority
of the country voting for this white man who don't
give a fuck about you. The majority of Tennessee is
(17:51):
poor white Tennesseeans, and they voted for him enthusiastically, and
now they're about to be fucked. And I mean, what
am I supposed to say to that? Because we tried
to warn y'all and you didn't listen, and now look
at where we are. The last part I want to
talk about is the snap benefits, because this bill would
also require states to contribute more to the program, and
(18:12):
it is partially funded by the federal government, but the
states also contribute to it. And it also adds a
work requirement for able body snapping rollies who do not
have dependents, which I think is very interesting because I
don't know many able bodies snapping rollies who don't have
a job or who aren't trying to get a job.
So it just further feeds into this idea that you know,
(18:33):
all these people don't want to work, and they want
to give free stuff and give free instances from the
government and never want to do anything to better their lives.
It just feeds into that narrative, which is just not true.
I have friends right now who've been trying to get
jobs for over six months. I have friends who've been
trying to get jobs for over a year since some
of their campaign gigs ended. Like, it's not that people
(18:53):
don't want to work, it's that y'all aren't hiring folks
and the government isn't doing anything to help because all
they worried about is billionaires much text because they're gonna
get and these senators are just not doing shit. Like
other than three or four right now who are on
the fence or who have alread said they're going to
vote no. They don't care about us, like they're enthusiastically
(19:14):
voting for this. And the vote was so freaking close,
like it was like fifty one to forty nine, And
so there is still room to get this bill to fail.
There's definitely room there. And I know that at least
two senators already said they're voting no, including Ram Paul,
which was interesting for folks who don't know. He's like
a staunch Republican, but he been turned the tide a
(19:34):
little bit. He been, you know, speaking out a little
bit more. And Tom Tillis, I know he's voting no.
But we have to get at least two or I
would say three to be safe, more nos like, because
this bill cannot pass and if they fail it in
the Senate, then we good. And they got to come
back to the table and figure something else out. And
I also think if it fails, it sends a clear
(19:55):
message that we really is not playing with them. I
don't know if y'all have been watching the news, but
there have been protests everywhere about this, people going up
to the Capitol building, Folks on medicaid and wheelchairs were
arrested last week. Like they definitely not playing with them,
but also the stendant in the house definitely playing in
our fucking faces, Like let's just be real. So yeah,
(20:15):
I just want to give you all this breakdown on
this bill so you know what's happening. If you want
to get more information, I would go to Booker squared
on Instagram. My friend Elizabeth has been posting about each
of the different hearings as they've been, you know, going along.
Right now, they're in the voter rama where they're gonna
have time to put unlimited amendments on the bill. And
so if you have the seat Span app or if
(20:36):
you have a TV, you can watch seat Span and
they're showing the live Senate hearing so you can see
what's being said and what's being talked about. But I
just think it's really important that we are calling our senators,
emailing them, tagging them on social media, like get on
the ass, because Marsha Blackburn, stupid ass, should not be
supporting this instead of working for a compromise. You should
(20:57):
have been voting no because your state is gonna suffer
and she knows that and she don't care. It's like
she don't care about their ready ass. Here on top
of her head. But I hope that this has really
gave y'all some insight on this legislation that is really
going to affect us federally. It's going to trickle down
to the state and cause a huge impact, and we
just don't need that, especially while we were literally in
(21:19):
a fucking recession, bro, So thank you for tuning in.
Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram the
same name The Low according to Amber, and I'll see
y'all soon for another episode. For more content, feel free
to also check out Ads for Afro my main page.
I post different political content on there as well and
(21:39):
break down and explain the videos every Wednesday and Friday.
As part of my creator and residence program with MLK fifty,
he's
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