Biden has learnt to say no

All that talk before the election about Joe Biden mulling over whether to cancel the mighty student loan debt mountain has come down to a one-word answer from the new president. No, he said. Biden was appearing at a town hall meeting, one of those folksy meet-the-people events which all politicians must either love or dread. The tricky bit is when a voter at the back of the hall asks a very pointed question and expects a truthful answer. If it's a journalist asking the question, Biden might well hedge his bets but an "ordinary" guy or gal, as it was in this case, is somehow different. So when Biden was asked by a woman if he was going to pay off the $50,000 loans taken out by tens of thousands of students, he just replied that wasn't going to happen. Wow, big shock for the progressive members of the Democratic party who have been urging the president before and after the election to do just that. Apparently Biden might be more amenable to cancelling £10,000 per student but definitely not the full $50,000. Cancelling student loan debts would mean finding billions of dollars, adding further to the skyrocketing national debt. A British politician wanting to become prime minister once boasted that he would cancel all student loan debts but when he had the actual chance to do it - admittedly not as prime minister but as a minister in a coalition government - he backtracked and it never happened. Didn't do his political career any good at all. So Biden took the sensible option and just said NO. So much better when a political leader is decisive and knows when to say yes or no and not maybe possibly. The town hall meeting in Milwaukee was as folksy as you could get. Positively mumsy wumsy. When he was asked about Donald Trump, Biden referred to him as "the former guy". Not former president but former guy. I love that. Pretty dismissive but without being rude. I expect Trump has a different description for Biden. Probably unrepeatable in a family blog.