Hey, hey, hey, ooh we're back.
We're black, we're brown.
And ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition. We're only down to one brown today because Mandy's on a trip. First of all, Okay, so I'm taking this on Monday the what is today? Monday the twenty second, So yesterday, Sunday, the twenty first. History was made because our current president, Joseph I believe Robin is his middle name, Biden, decided that he was not going to seek re election and not going to be the nominee for Democratic.
Party for twenty twenty five.
Well, he's for sure he's not going to be president for twenty twenty five because he decided to step down and so, and he threw his endorsement behind our current vice president, Kamala. I always want to come, come on, Kamala, but I'm like, it's Kamala, like Kama Kamala.
Harris and the world was thrown into a tizzy. Honey.
I was literally at brunch with a friend of mine. We had taken a walk. So I walked so much this weekend sidebar. I walked like thirteen miles on on Saturday, and like eight miles or so, No. Nine and a half miles on Sunday, your girl was walking, and so.
We went for a walk and.
Someone texted me and said, you know, oh my goodness, you know, ain't this your girls? I just I think I mentioned last week. I just was invited to the Vice President's president. If I hadn't, if I didn't mention that I was, she's on the economic tour stop and I'll talk to you about some of the things I learned. But it was kind of like, WHOA, Okay, I think we're all, you know, I suspect, but you don't know
that I don't live in that house. And so yeah, I think we're all a little bit shocked and surprised, and I want to talk about kind of like what I learned at the Vice President's residence. She is currently on, like I said, an economic tour, and she talked about some of the economic gains of this current administration have done.
She also, because.
It was an economic tour stop that partnered with the Black Chamber of Commerce. They had their annual conference in DC. I don't know if it's in DC, but they had their annual conference, and so they had the reception at the Vice President's residence. She specifically focused on the economic
progress for black communities. So I want to kind of share some of that stuff with you later on in the show, because I had promised the girls, right, we was gonna talk about student loan debt relief because as you know, your girl been, I've been in DC a lot lately, okay, because one of my boo lives there, you know, my new villa, my new booll. But I guess relative to like, you know, all the loss and stuff.
But and so he lives there, and so but I have been going for official business and I was invited to my first Congressional briefing, as I mentioned, I think last episode, and it was specifically about student loan debt relief. And it was held by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who's the Senator of New Jersey, not New Jersey, I'm sorry, New York. He's very in New York. Senator Elizabeth Warren,
I believe she's Massachusetts. Don't give me a line, Senator Warnock, and Representative ayan La Pressley.
And so what was so.
Awesome about it is not only did I get a chance to go, it was only six other creators there, and they really gave us a tremendous breakdown that I'm going to actually share with you, because I was like, can I get this digitally? OK?
And they said yes.
They gave us a tremendous breakdown of kind of like some student loan debt relief backs. So I was like, wait what, and I'll say something new just happened, and I'll mention that too, and then they also kind of gave a breakdown of like what this current administration has done in favor of student on debt relief.
And I figured i'd share some of those things.
With you, but before I forget, if you want, like the stuff I'm going to share today, if you're wanting a copy of it, because I did ask for a digital copy, if you go to my IG the Bunchetista, there should be like a reel where you're going to see, like, you know, like me talking about that day, me going to Capitol Hill, YadA, YadA, YadA, and then I'll say type the word details below and I will send you via DM a copy of what I'm sharing with you now.
So if you want that free copy, and you know you do, go ahead on over to IG.
Check my reels.
Look for the reels about me, but going to Capitol Hill type details and I'll send you to you for free, because honestly.
It was fascinating. So you want to hear about it. Here it go.
Let me pull it up because I was like, wait, say what now? So just some fast facts real quick? Am I gonna be able to look at this big? Honestly, technology is not my fund. You know what, I'm not even gonna I'm not even gonna do this. I know what I'm gonna do because I printed it out because I know how I do u u uh. So I was gonna look at it my computer, so it looks like I wasn't looking at my computer.
But I'm just.
Gonna look because the girl. First of all, I'm a sucker for like swag, Like look look at this. Look at this folder they had given you a girl. It says the United States send it.
You know. I got to keep it good because my mama's gonna want it. She's gonna want everything.
And look, I got a loan name tag the Tiffany Alice. Yes, I might keep this on my desk though she can't have everything. So let's talk about some of the fast facts about student loan debts at a glance.
Are you ready here? Go?
So right now, according to the United States government right now, roughly about forty three million with an American struggle with federal student loan debt. We're ne ever talking about, like, so federal student loan debt is you know how sometimes some people get private loans. I don't know if I ever had private loans. I think allline were federal, but you know, the private loans. Unfortunately, I've seen you guys ask for like, you know, what can we do about
private student loan debt? And unfortunately, the federal government doesn't have jurisdiction there you owe that person directly. But federal student loan debt affects forty three million Americans, which is basically all y'all right, Students take on loans on the promise that college education will provide a ticket towards middle class and we all know the middle class in middle classing.
You know, but between nineteen eighty, you know, in twenty twenty, the cost of college increased by guess how much?
Hey, Because I was born.
In nineteen seventy nine, honey, so that was around my time. To twenty twenty, college increased by one hundred and eighty percent.
That's crazy, while wages have not kept up. You already know.
Imagine your wage is increasing by one hundred and eighty percent, they're not. So college has gotten so expensive, and yet income has not gotten so expensive. And so now many millions of student loan borrows are barely treading order, especially if you're of the brown ambition persuasion, if you know what I mean. So, under our current President Biden, things
have started to change, and I'm going to show you how. So. He was able to cancel student loan debt for more Americans than any other president in history combined.
I'm going to give you the exact stats.
Under his administration, nearly five million people before the Supreme cork stepped.
In like a hater and blocked it.
But under his administration, nearly five million people have gotten student loan debt relief. In fact, he has canceled approximately, get this, ten percent of all student loan debt. That was tremendous. I'm like, why y'all not be telling people? Do y'all tell people? Because I'm sitting here in this briefing like eyes blinking, like what? I also got to ask people individual questions which I'll tell you some of
the things they shared. And so unfortunately there are those who are working over time to block student loan debt cancelations.
I wonder why.
So there are like they people have fought in particularly the Republicans quite honestly, have filed lawsuits in order to block the president's cancelation plans. In twenty twenty three, the Supreme Court blocked President Biden's initial plan to cancel student loan debt for around forty million Americans. Matter of fact, let's do the googles. How many Americans? How many Americans are there in America? I don't even know. Let's see how many America's population, and they're.
Their pop ulation.
So the population of America is three hundred and thirty basically six million people, right, and that's everybody. So we're not, you know, obviously not everybody. You know, you might be ten years old, you know, that's what they're counting. But think about forty million people, you know that we're on.
So if forty three million are affected by federal student loan, his policies were going to affect forty million of those people before it got blocked by the student Loans under something called the Heroes Act, you know, but he didn't let that set him back.
Right.
So here's the thing, except for just most recently he was like, we're gonna work around.
He started to work through the.
Department of Education and said we can do some work on this side. But just recently, just literally a few days ago, they have now blocked that as well. I mean, it's not the Heroes Act.
It's gone.
We're not doing that no more. They're like, uh, the Supreme Court already ruled on it.
It's over.
But this way of going through the Department of Education, there was still some hope there and there still is. It's pause while they review, which is unfortunate because it's like, why can't people get student loan debt forgiveness or help?
Hold that thought and we'll be right back.
State firm agents are small business owners too, so they know how to help help you choose personalized policies that fit your needs, like a good neighbor state farm is there? Talk to your local agent today.
Now here's the thing you have to ask yourself when something is blocked, who was on the other side for who benefits? You know, let me tell you who benefits working class and middle class families. Obviously the majority of student loans are held by those with no household wealth. So what does that mean. It means money in the bank. Showed you what you think. There's nothing there, you know, like people are not saving. People have more debt than
they have assets. So the majority are working class families and middle class families.
Who hold student loan debt. This is who would benefit from cancelation. People with four year degrees. Did you get us? Said?
People with four year degrees? So, people with that, I'm sorry for your degrees. This part shocked me. I did not know that the majority, well not the majority, but forty three percent of bars who don't have four year degrees are the ones who are strugg with student loan debt.
Did you get us? Said?
So I'm thinking like, oh, you get student loans to go to a four year college so you can make more money. No, forty three percent, so it's not quite half, but not too far off. Forty three percent are people who are borrowing money for maybe trade school, maybe associates, some sort of like a continuing education that's not a four year degree. Because we know that four year degrees increase your income. You're earning potential tremendously. So forty three
percent of borrows are taking out money. And it's not what you would think the typical, you know, it's not the people who are like, well, at least when I'm done, I'll be a doctor or attorney or engineer necessarily to be able to pay these back.
Public service workers.
So currently the President has canceled student loan debt for almost a million public service workers under his Save plan.
The first year a first year da da, da da.
Let me see, oh this is really all because this would have been so helpful for me. A first year teacher with a bachelor's degree would see a two thirds reduction in the total student loan payments. So if you're a first year teacher and you're like, you know what, I want to be a teacher, although I've gone to school and I have all the student loan debt, you would see your student loan payment go down by two thirds,
which is tremendous. Especially when I started teaching, I was making thirty nine thousand dollars a year, which is in New Jersey girl, nothing.
And so imagine I also was paying student loans.
And I'm going to tell you something about applying, so we've all, well, we're gonna go get into the student loan repayment programs. I applied, and I had been paying. Well, you know, I want to get into that, n amnut. If I want to tell you who also benefits from cancelation, women Women hold about two thirds of student loan debt.
Did you know that?
You know, we know that women tend to go to school above and beyond men, but so many women are taking out student loan debt, so the cancelation would dramatically affect women, which is most of y'all who listen to this pod.
Right, and also people of color. This was a stat that.
Blew my mind. We know this to be like, we know that there is a tremendous difference economically from black and brown people and financially and those who are not people who are white. Right, This stat blew my mind. So I actually gonna read it verbatim because I want to make sure that you hear me, and hear me well, twenty years after taking out their student loans, a typical white barrower owes about six percent of the original debt. So twenty years later they took out their student loan,
they graduated at twenty one years old. Let's say you've graduated at twenty. By age forty, you still owe six percent damn you still Oh that sounds crazy. But wait, the typical black barrow twenty years that same twenty year old that graduated college, and when they're forty years old, guess how much that black bar I'm gonna give you a moment, guess how much that black barrower still owes on student loan debt? Not six percent, ninety five percent of their original debt after twenty years.
Did you hear what I said?
So you have gone to school, done all the things, twenty years later, you still basically owe everything from when you first graduated. If you're a black bar on average, that statistic blew my mind. It is an albatross around your neck at forty used to owe what you owe? Then why interest people making interest payments for barns deferral. We all know that there is a racial wealth gap. Not making as much as your white counterparts, so you're not able to put as much toward it. I mean.
And also two black folks tend to earn less even at the same job as their non black counterparts. But that's That really hurt my heart because it's like, after twenty years, you're still in bondage to student loan debt.
This is why cancelation would be tremendous. So we've all heard about the racial wealth gap, and one of the there are multiple components that aid in the racial wealth gap, basically the gap between how much the net worth of people of color and especially black folks versus white white folks.
Like what is that gap?
And the gap is tremendous, and so it's like, well, what aids in that. One of the things that aids in that is home ownership. There's way less homes, you know, although with the times we live in now and they're so crazy, still home ownership aids in the increased.
Wealth for any American. Right.
So for example, I bought my home for one hundred eighty thousand dollars in twenty seventeen. I renovated it and put like one to eighty into it. So that's like what three something, right, And that house is now worth about five point fifty. So now that five hundred thousand dollars contributes to my to my net worth. I bought this kind of that I'm living in now. I bought it for like five oh six or something like that.
I don't know what it's worth now, but it'll likely, especially in New Jersey, be worth way more than five years. So home ownership, Like, my parents bought their home in Westfield for two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars when I was nine or ten, So that was thirty five years ago. No, let's just say so, yeah, thirty five years ago they bought this house for two hundred and fifty thousand.
That house is worth well over a million dollars.
And so even if I would tell my parents, you guys are millionaires, They're like, no, we're not, but you are because your assets, say so, they don't owe any money. The house is paid off, their cars are paid off, they don't have debt, and so they have a net worth that would make them quote unquote millionaires. So this is what homes can do. I mean, I know right now,
right now, home ownership is really funky. But I'm just telling you that home ownerships not only do not enough, they are not enough Black homeowners because a myriad of reasons not standing, one of which is that we're not making enough. There's racism. Also, what happens is our homes are undervalued. There are billions of dollars lost because our homes are undervalued. I had told you all this story some years prior, where I had got my home. What
is that thing called appraised? And black homes are appraised, under appraised significantly more than any other home. And so the guy came. He seemed nice enough. My husband and I had renovated the home. He kept commenting on whoever lived here before I did a good job of renovations, as if it couldn't have been us. I didn't want to say nothing to him because I was like, y'ad, just get out of my house and do what you gotta do. He underp praised my house by like thirty thousand.
I felt like it seemed low. I asked my realtor friends what would my house go for on the market. They gave me the number. I said, you know, that's not what the appraiser said, and they're like, girl, that seems low.
And I said, well, I don't want.
To make everything a black thing. And then here came the New York Times. The New York Times is doing an article I had posted about being underappraised. The New York Times is doing an article about black homes being under appraised. They saw my posts on socials, said can we interview you?
No, it's either a Wall Street journal. I'm sorry that can we interview you? Said?
Sure you can, and they said, give us your appraisal and we will do an independent appraisal. They did, and they that not only was my home under praise by thirty thousand dollars, it was intentional because the man who under praised my property, although he commented on all the brand new renovations, I mean it was a gut job, he wrote.
He gave my property a symbol.
There's like symbols that you can give each property and it would say something like, this house is a tear down, this house is a new build, this house is newly renovated. This house is kind of like has a lot of wear and tear. He wrote my house down as a wear and tearhouse, even though it had been brand new, fully renovated. Meanwhile, he told me what a great job this renovation is. You knew, sir, your racism is showing. So he intentionally put that down. And on top of that,
he also used comparable. So when you are praising a home, you have to look at other homes in the area that are similar. He used homes that were broken down to the ground.
Baby.
Meanwhile, we had just moved in six months prior. There were still stickers on the window from our renovation, and he was like, oh, this house is similar to the broke down crack house you know on the other side of town. Girl, you tried it so much so that I'm actually I'm working on a bill to make a law making that like illegal and punishable. Like I'm still working on that law, you know, with my friend, a Congresswoman,
Angelovia McKnight. And so that like the networth of black and brown people, especially black folks when it comes to home ownership, some of that racial wealth gap is as a result of not being able to afford homes, but also homes being undervalued, and also how much.
Money you owe in student loans.
Because net worth is what you own your assets versus what you owe your liabilities, own, assets owe liabilities, right, that is what your net worth is. And so if the things you own are undervalued and you owe more and more and more student loan debt, your net worth is tremendously lower. So imagine what would happen if the forty million people that the that the current administration was trying to assist with student loan debt relief got that relief.
And what a lifting of network that would be to black communities who don't want that. I'll tell you who don't want it. But I just couldn't believe. I couldn't believe twenty years later that black households are still owing basically everything that.
They borrowediw.
Ugh. So other people who would benefit from cancelation older Americans. So studies found that nine over nine million, or about twenty percent of all federal borrows are at.
Least fifty years old.
That's crazy, right, In the past twenty years, the number of bars over the age of sixty has increased six times, while the amount old by older Americans has increased by nineteen times. So people are getting older and older and dragging their what they owe with them because it is becoming almost impossible to pay down these student loan debts.
And so this current administration was really trying to create space for people to have help, because if I'm still paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month in student loans, I don't have the access to buy a home. I don't have the access to join the stock market and invest I don't have the access to put avoid side money for retirement, which also aids in networth building. I don't have the access to travel. I might not have the access to have children because it just costs too much.
It was a lot, honestly, if you like it. So I'm going to go over like some other ways that you can still apply for student loan forgiveness, and but I just wanted you to have that kind of like at a glance. And if you want a copy of this, like I said, of what I'm sharing with you, if you go to my ig the Budget EASTEM, there will be a real where you could type details underneath it and I'll send you a copy of it for free. I'll literally slide in your DMS. Okay, details, okay, all right.
Now here are some student loan debt relief options. So one is probably the most popular that people have heard of is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program that's PSLF. I applied for this when I was teaching preschool and I was denied. And now I find out why.
Because the PLF came into existence into law by twenty twenty four.
So it was that ten years ago, you know, like twenty twenty four PLF came into existence. So PLF cancels the debt of people who have worked in public service federal, state, local, tribal government, or qualifying nonprofit.
Organizations, which I did for ten years or more.
Right now, guess how many people in ten years that this program actually gave for forgiveness?
To guess how many people?
Guess we just talked about there are forty three million people who are affected by federal student loans, and some of those people, a great majority of those people are people who you know, would qualify for public service loan forgiveness. But in ten years before the current resident like cleaned it up, only seven thousand bars received relief.
That's why I was then child. It was denying everybody. The devil was busy. Okay, so that's crazy. Only seven thousand and ten years? What is what's the ds?
Let me break that down, Let me bring me let me what's my calculator because the math is not mathing calculator. So ten years, let me see, seven thousand divided about ten years, seven hundred people a year?
What in the entire hell. That's crazy right now.
Guess what, So before he got shut down to the ground, you know, guess how many public service workers to the PPSLF program. Once the president became president and he put this into action, guess how many people Because basically people's payments were like not being corrected, We're not being we're not being counted correctly, paperworkers being lost. So he had to clean up the messy cysm them of the Public
Service Loan Forgiveness program. In so doing, Guess how many people actually were able to get canceled student loan debt. Guess how many from seven to ten years to nine hundred and forty two thousand since he's been president.
That's transformational. And I knew one of the ladies who did this.
So one woman, I think she worked for a nonprofit hospital, and she said that the forgiveness saved her about a million dollarsand student loans.
I said, gir, you took out a million dollars.
She said, no, but I took out a few hundred thousand, and with the interest over the next ten twenty years of paying it, it would have cost me a million dollars out of pocket. She was a doctor a million dollars. Her life is transformed as a result of that nine hundred and forty two thousand public service workers, and the number keeps growing, okay. Or Another program is called the
Income Driven Repayment Program the IDR plan. The IDR plan lowers people's monthly payments based upon their income and other factors, and cancel people's debts after twenty to twenty five years of payment. Now this one is what blew my mind. So this program started in the early two thousands. Hey, look, I'm like literally like, oh, maybe me want to chout.
Guess how many people since this program's inception, before this president came along, actually qualified for the IDR plan under Betsy Devau Betty Debal, that rich lady who was like the Secretary of Education, and we were all like, why she's the word. She don't care, she didn't so under her, Guess how many people actually got repayment forgiveness. Guess how many people this thing started in the early two thousands.
You will never.
Guess thirty two people. You heard that, not thirty two thousand, not three hundred and twenty three to two thirty two.
That's it.
Thirty two people had received cancelation through IDR income driven repayment.
That's crazy.
So again, one of the President's number one things was to revamp this system, and he has canceled more than a million borrows since he improved the IDR plan right, addressing long stand administrative failures and the misuse of forbearance by loan officers. Because you used to go to a loan officers, I can't pay, they put you on forbearance versus say we have this income driven repayment plan. You know they used to push forbearance deferment versus there's actually
a plan. You've been paying for twenty years. You know you you can, you know you can. You can have that forgiven thirty two people to one million people. Lord another plan that you know, unfortunately has been shut down by the Supreme Court. This one it was the SAVE Plan, saving on Valuable Education. So the SAVE Plan is President
Biden's new id IDR plan. So he created this plan and it's the most borrow friendly IDR plan yet, cutting many bars payments in half and drive popping some bars down to zero payments.
One of my friends, she was able.
To qualify for this, so bars who kept up with their acquired payments will also no longer see their loans grow due to unpaid interests.
So I love that.
So as long as you're paying, your interests for going to grow, because payment is one thing, but payment plus interest really slows you down, right, So I love that that. Like with this planet, it's like, as long as you pay, girl, we're not gonna grow your interest because that was one of the things that you guys asked me over and over and over and over again. Can they lower interests? Can they lower interest? They said, we can eliminate it as long as you're paying. Okay, not eliminated. We can
stop it from growing. No more interest add on payments as long as you're paying. So so far President Biden has canceled the student loan debt of four hundred and fourteen thousand bars through Save and So. But this is the program that I believed that was blocked by the Supreme.
Court, which is really disheartening.
Okay, there's also relief for people cheated by schools. This current administration has provided for relief for people who are missileed by school or whose schools closed while they were enrolled. You know, you hear about Member oh there used to be that school that Mario not Mario, who is that guy Romeo masterpiece son? Remember he was like in this commercial about some school that you could some night school that you could be a part of. Anyway, some of.
These schools were garbage schools. They were not real. They are the private quote unquote schools.
That did not get you a job, and many of them closed. Member Trump had a school his included. So so far he has canceled student loan debt of one point six million borrowers who were cheated by their schools or saw their institutions closed, right and so like, and just one last one, the total permanent disability discharged. So I have a friend that has a disability that and it's like, you can't work as much for some people's disabilities, and so this cancels debts for people who have total
and permanent physical or mental disability, which makes sense. I remember, in particular that when I was teaching, there was a woman who something was wrong. I just remember being like, how is she teaching? She had her masters and everything else. I found out that she was in a really terrible car accident that left her mentally. I don't want to use the word disabled, but that's all I can think of. But she was still working as a teacher because she had her master she was able to get a job.
And I was like, I found out later because with her student loans she couldn't afford to not work. That's crazy, and so for her total and permanent disability discharge wud be so helpful.
And so far this.
Current president has canceled student loan debt of more than five hundred and forty eight thousand bars with total and permanent disability. Okay, now, there was this new plan, chum that I saw that the you know, the courts have.
Temporarily paused.
But on the same day that the Supreme Court struck down his first cancelation plan, Present and Biden announced a new plan to cancel people's student loan debt under the Higher Education Act. This is what I was saying before Plan B. This is Plan B because Plan A is out the windows since since they've since struck that down. Will will provide relief for bars who own more than they did when they started repaying their loans. Did you know that was possible that you can borrow money, be
paying and still own more because of interests? So he would reply because so many of you guys asked about interest interest interests. So this is what Plan B is supposed to do that they have since paused because of a lawsuit. Why also, bars who have been paying back their student loans for at least twenty years. Remember I said, the average black bar twenty years later will still own ninety five percent of that loan.
This will also help. Plan B will help bars who.
Attended colleges and universities that failed to provide value. So that's up for debate, right, Bars who are otherwise eligible for loan re relief but have not yet applied, and bars who experience financial hardship. Combined with President Biden's other cancelation plans, Plan B will help cancel student loan debt of thirty million Americans. And they just recently I just saw this. They just recently paused due to a lawsuit. And so the Department of Education is in the middle
of a long rulemaking process required by law. But the administration hopes on rolling out the final version this fall. But like I said, I just saw that there's a lawsuit kind of pausing this. Yeah, I just so one question I did ask, like cause you know, like I said, I was there with the senators and representatives, and I said, so oftentimes when something is forgiven, So let's just say you had a mortgage and you had foreclosure and they took the house, and now you don't have to pay that,
you know, your mortgage anymore. If you have anything forgiving over six hundred dollars, you can get a tax bill.
So I asked about that.
I said, what about a tax bill, because if you forgive my student loan debt of one hundred thousand dollars, the unfortunately, the government says, when you do, don't have to pay.
You made money. I'm gonna say that again.
The government says, when you owed, but don't have to pay, that's income anything over six hundred dollars. And so I said, so, what about if somebody gets one hundred thousand forgiven, you know, two hundred thousand forgiven, fifty thousand forgiven, a thousand forgiven, don't we have to pay because it's going to trigger.
A tax bill.
And so they said, as the way these plants are written right now, that there will be no tax bill through the end of twenty twenty five. Right, So, yeah, the end of twenty twenty five, and then I guess we'll see, depending on who wins the selection, like what
it looks like after that. So that means if you get your student loans forgiven or you've gotten them forgiven between now and you know the end of twenty twenty five, you won't have a tax bill because you could potentially end up paying twenty thirty percent taxes, you know, on forgiven items. Is there something that I share that's made you say, wow, what that's crazy?
Yeah, honestly, I hope to.
I want to bring because obviously I'm not an expert on student loan debt relief right. And like I said, if you want a copy of like what I just information I just share with you.
It's totally free. Go head on over to my ig the Bunjanista.
Type details under the real where I talk about going to the congressional briefing. Just type details and I'll DM it to you so you can have it for yourself, because information should be free and available.
Here's the thing, here's the thing we started out, here's the thing, and where's Maddy?
Yeah?
Yet sensual being on?
Anyway, Whenever I say here's the thing, it always makes me think of Kelly Clarkson.
Kelly Clarkson. So here is the thing.
Student loan debt I believe is a racial justice issue because those that would benefit most from student loan debt are women and black and brown people, middle class, working class.
It's a social justice issue.
Because there is a blocking of aid and assistance to people who needed most.
And you have to ask yourself.
Why, Why would helping people to have access to more money to improve their lives want to be blocked? Why?
Child?
You know, I someone said, ain't no hate like Christian love. I'm gonna say again, as somebody who considers your self Christian, ain't no hate like Christian love. These supposed conservative Christians. I mean, one of the number one components of that faith, of my faith is generosity. It's kindness, it's grace, it's forgiveness. And yet they're like, no, absolutely not. If Jesus were here today, they would.
String that man up. They don't the girl. It's never been about that.
That's why I when I see people arguing with people, because I don't argue with you on line, I just block you if I even see it. If I'm being honest, you know, cause I know somebody'll gonna be mad at this episode. Child say, I don't read the emails. Child, you're gonna be young. Let the intern or whoever look at these emails. I don't read the emails. Even with you side of my DM child the wave. I have my Instagram filtered. If I haven't allowed you to talk
to me, I won't see it. And even when you're in the comments, I got someone who looks through the comments and deletes all the foolishness. Because what I don't want to do is I don't go back and forth. My black name is stronger than that baby's grip. Okay, because my piece, child, what I look like going back and forth?
Do you?
But what I realize is that I also am not looking to try to talk sense into people who worship nonsense. People know that DEI is a good thing, and that the more diversity you have on a company, the more money you make.
They don't care. They rather lose money than see you win.
People know that student loans to really help families, really help people who need most. They don't care because people rather lose then to see you win. People know that you know it's only getting tougher and tougher and tougher out here. This is why people don't want.
To have kids.
They don't care because there are people who worship power so much. They rather get low in the muck and the dirt with you than to help you elevate if it means you're gonna be any closer to them. That's why I don't go back and forth. They know, they
know it's intentional. It's intentional. They did a study on Americans where it showed if you gave Americans a choice, I think I might have said this of they would get a raise, and if they got a raise, they would still be paid less than everybody else in the office. So meaning like I go from fifty thousand to sixty thousand, but everybody else is making sixty five, right, Or.
I could not get a raise and then everybody else would be making fifty or fifty five. What would I choose as an American?
Would I rather get myself a ten thousand dollar raise, No, I'm making five thousand dollars less than everybody else. Or would I rather not get a raise at all, knowing everybody makes less than me. Do you know more than half the people say make less than me? It's like, Sis, did you hear what I said? If they make less, you make less?
Yup?
If they make less you Yep? That is how some people navigate that they rather have and make and have access to less, just so you can have even less than them. It's wickedness, it's evil, and it's unfortunate. That's why I don't go back and forth because what I look like like going back and forth with wickedness and evil. Child, you already know that's between you and whatever make it you be looking at because A kno the god I serve,
I know that's right. So yeah, I just wanted to share that We're gonna take a quick break and when I'm back, we're gonna talk about like I met the Vice president. I take a picture of a video with her, and I'm gonna share she's on an economic tour. I just want to share you some core points and then you know, then we'll chatt agan.
On for all right, we are back at Black and and Ever. Honey.
Okay, So, just last week, before the announcement that our current president was not going to seek nomination, you know, I was able to go to the Vice President's residence alongside for the Black Business Leaders reception.
It was pretty awesome. So I got the invite.
I had been invited to do something with the vice president before, but I couldn't do it because I had something else speaking engagement I couldn't get out of. And so they invited me out again and I said, yes, I'd love to come, and so.
So it was just like this whole hull of balloot.
They were like, okay, when you come in, make sure you call us, and so you go through security, which of course is a lot of security, and then we want you to go to the left or instead of the right, because on the left that's why you get to take pictures.
I said, not me being a VIP player. Hey, this degree. So your girl went to the left, to the left, to the left, everybody to the left. So went to the left.
When I got there, I met my handler, if you will, Hay Morgan, and she was like, ooh girl, okay, you want to take picture with the Vie President.
I said, sure do.
She said, okay, you're going to go inside the house because the reception was in the garden in the back, which.
Is beautiful, this beautiful pool. It was killed one over.
She said, I'm gonna do a real about it, because oh, you know you can do you can always go to my highlights and see like my day it's called BP so like on ig So went to the back. She said, okay, this is the house. You're gonna go inside. They're gonna check your name. Of course, you know I'm probab whipped up my ID like five times. Once you get on property, you're gonna check your name, make su're on the list
to be inside the house. In the end, you're gonna go to the next whatever stage, they're gonna check your name again. They're gonna give you this announcement card that has your name on it. Mine said, Tiffany, the budget lista influencer. I was like, I don't know about influencer. I prefer financial educator. But whatever, girl, we're not here to squabble bobble.
Okay.
So they said you're gonna get a card. The cards should be read, and I said, okay. She said, because you're not allowed to take your person obviously, so with just to meet the vice president and the second gentleman. But you, Tiffany, because your card is read, you could take your cell phone. I said, okay, So everybody can't take a cell phone, she said, because you know if you want to take a selfie, because they're like, girl, basically post, which I am at because I have planned
to post anyway. So they were like, okay, take your phone with you. You can ask Madame Vice President, may I take a selfie with you? I said, girl, I was boll of times like this, so waited in line. Remember so you know Cynthia Bailey from Real Housewives of Atlanta and she was there.
I was like, hey, saying this. She was really nice.
Took a picture of her Valencia, she worked at Google and all these major places. Took a picture where her She's that's the home. Mean. Rohan Marley was there. Yes, Bob Marley's son. Yes, Lauren Hill's ex husband. And okay, like the joy of my license.
In Zion his son, Yeah, dot Siam he was there. He was a the light.
Okay, Lauren, girl, I can see honey because he was so fun, so fun.
Took a picture of.
It.
Was just oh. Angie Stone was there. You know, black brother, I love you. Yeah, that Angie Stone. She was there. Beautiful.
Everybody was really friendly and nice. First of all, can I say, like, you know you do the work, but you don't realize how far reaching the work is.
The girls was coming up to me.
I'm talking about from the photographer to the Black Chamber of Commerce CEO or presidents.
Of their chapters to everyone. Oh my god, but you need you know you're this lobbyist.
Young woman came up to me no less than like ten fifteen people were like, I just want to thank you for your work. I just want to thank you for your work. I was like me, oh me, not half me, but a hold me. So that was really heartwarming and really really heartwarming, you know. And I just took a ton of pictures with people who were just like, thank you so much. My friend Ty Alexander was on the one and two. She DJ'ed, so I didn't realize the fancy black don't be dancing because I was dancing.
I was like, oh, just me, okay. Me and Rohan, who was the only one cut the step so we was like, I see you. He was like I see you.
Locks I said, okay, he was there with his partner. We'll not to put his business out there sold let me not get him in trouble and so yeah, so it was a good time. So I got my announcement card. I go in and I was like, oh my god, so excited to me. I said, my mom is going to freak out what she finds out to meet you. And she said, well, your mom' should be so proud of you, I said, Madame Vice President. I went off script because as I ought to do, I said, Mandam
Vice President keep saying on a video. She started laughing because she knows because her mother is of West India, is West Indian, so you know our foreign born mamas shall they can't wait to tell the auntie. So I whipped out my cell phone and I said, hey, mommy, I know I didn't go to law school.
Hopefully this mixed up for it. And I panted to her and she said, hey, mommy, you should be so proud of your daughter.
She's doing so good. Girl, I said, she is going to love this. We took a Celfie and then they have an official picture taker. They took our pictures and stuff like that. You know, I met the second gentleman. He was really nice, and then you know, want about.
My business super dope.
I even met this one woman who was like, oh my god, my god, I love you so much. And my friend was like, you know who that is? I said no, She said, that's Stevie Wonder's wife.
He's Stevie Wonder's wife. She was so nice.
I told her how my niece loved her husband and wanted to meet her. I told her, like the sweet story how Amelia was like, I want to meet him because we had saying her the Stevie one d version of the Birthday song, and then he had said.
Kids can get that song. I thought that was just for adults, and I was like, yes, kids can get the Stevie Wonder version. She said, who's Stevie Wonder? Show me him? So I showed her on YouTube.
She said, oh, I want to meet him. I said, girl, you cannot meet him, and she was like, look up where he lives, and so it showed that he was from Detroit, Michigan, and she she knows maps very well. She said, that's not that far. Can you call his mommy and see if he could talk to my mother? Her mother, who's my sister, to talk to mommy to see if I can meet him, which I thought was so cute. She's trying to get a play date with
Stevie Wonder. So she's turning to she was turning seven, and so we looked up his mother because she insisted, and it turns out his mother passed away. And his wife was like, yes, you know, she was telling me. I said, yes, we know because we looked it up. And she got very sad for him that his mother passed away. And she was like, oh my god, that is so sweet. I'm going to tell Stevie that story. And it was funny because we looked up and said that he had seven children, and she was like.
Seven kids. That's a lot of lunches to make in a morning, which I thought was hilarious. Oh my gosh.
And then I had her do a video to Amelia where I said, hey, Amelia, guess who I met. This is not Stevie Willingder mommy, but this is his wife. And she's going to tell Stevie Wonder how much you love his song.
And she was like, hi, Amelia, and she was so nice, and she said she's going to see it. Maybe he can make a video for her. Girl. The way Amelia be getting the things that she wants.
Okay, we need to all take a lesson from Amelia. Anyway, I showed it to her and she was grinning from you know, ear to ear, which was so cute. So it was a time, honey id time with the fancy blacks down at the Vice President's residence. So one of the things I learned, so the Vice President maybe one
day president, because you know, you never know. She is on this Economic Opportunity Tour and so she is going from all these different states across the country and highlighting the policies or how the policies of the Biden Harris administration have benefited the American people.
Okay.
And so it kicked off in April and she's been going ever since. And so here's some of the top highlights. Are you ready, Okay? So One, this administration has been making unprecedented investments in small businesses and achieving the fastest creation of black owned small businesses in more than thirty years, with the share of black businesses of in their tenure black business owners has doubled, which I thought was pretty incredible.
So they've been doing more than thirty years, doing more than four years that has been done in thirty years because of their unprecedented investments. Also, this administration, according to them, created a record number of jobs, including two point six million jobs for black workers while achieving the lowest black unemployment rate on record and the lowest gap between black and white unemployment.
That's tremendous.
Also increasing the wealth of American families, with black wealth up by sixty percent relative to before COVID nineteen pandemic, representing the largest increase on record. Remember we talked about the black wealth gap or the wealth gap, the racial wealth gap, so this is helping to Their administration has been helping to on purpose to slim down that wealth gap. Also, this administration has increased access to capital for underserved.
Communities while working to achieve a goal of.
Increasing the share of federal contracting dollars to small disadvantaged businesses by fifteen percent fifty five zero by twenty twenty five, translating into an additional one hundred billion dollars to minority owned businesses. If you like me, I am women, I'm certified women own minority owned business and so having access to contracting dollars is critical and the fact that this is going to result in one hundred billion dollar infusion into minority owned businesses is tremendous.
Also, before the block they.
Have forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history, combined boosting investments and education, including giving a record seven billion dollar investment in HBCUs that's historically black colleges and universities, tremendous. They've also erased over five hundred million in medical debt to date with support from the American Rescue Plan. And also this is so critical because
I'm pre diabetic. I just found out capping the cost of insolence for seniors, insulin for seniors, and expanding access to healthcare with tax credits that led to a forty nine percent increase in Black Americans who are enrolled in the Affordable Health Affordable Care Act Member that's Obamacare.
So like capping that insul, I think it was I want to say it was like.
Thirty five dollars because insulin. If you're a diabet because you don't get insolent, you won't be here. You won't be here, and it is possible that your medicine calls so much that you have to choose between sustaining yourself with life and food or sustaining yourself with medicine. So having that insolent cap because diabetes affects black populations far more than any other population. They've also been making housing more affordable and lowering childcare costs, securing a thirty percent
increase in funding to the Childcare Development Block GRANT. I don't know, like right now, everybody tell me childcare is on the up and up. If there's a block grant, y'all need to google it to see what you can do for your babies, you know. And lastly, investing in infrastructure, roads, bridges, public transfers, transit, waterways, and more, including four billion to reconnect underserved communities that were previously cut off from economic opportunities.
And so you know, like, according to the Office, Vice President Harris has been long focused on ensuring that minority and low income communities have capital and resources that they need to thrive.
And so she had been meeting with a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs. And we hope that work continues.
At the end of the day, at the black end of the day, we hope that work continues not just for black and brown people, but for all people. If I'm being honest, this is not all lives matter, but for all people. I saw this and I'm gonna end with this. I saw this woman say on Instagram the other day, I thought it was really poignant that what's good for black women end up being good for everyone. That It's like black women are like a thermostat that like when we are thriving, it means all the other
people around us thrive. If you notice, when something happened, the first people to rally around are black women. Just last night, you know, once the President endorsed Kamala As you know, as his replacement for Democratic nominee, black women got into action and I was part of a historic
call of forty four thousand black women on Zoom. There were so many women on Zoom they called the CEO of Zoom to lift how many people could attend, and even still, we were spilled over to clubhouse, we spilled over to.
Google meets. Forty four thousand women.
That call alone in three hours, raised a million dollars, and so far since then, over fifty million dollars has been raised for the we don't know who our vice president pick will be for the Kamalumn bid for presidency.
That is the power of investing in.
Black women that we lift as we climb, we create access and opportunity for everyone around us. It's not just about black women, but to help black women is to help everyone. And so there's so much at stake during this election coming up.
I'm not gonna lie. Give me a lot of anxiety, a lot of nervousness, a lot of fear. I know a lot of you. Some people are calling me a sale. Oh you're a sellout for Kamala girl. What's the alternative? The hell is wrong with you? That's your boy? Orange go ahead says, Let's see how you faire. You know, like, what are we even talking about? What's the alternative?
I get it, nobody is perfect, but you know what, I'd rather have access to my reproductive.
Rights that have already been cirkailed. Project twenty five is not a joke. Literally, things are already in place where it's like this, what's gonna look like? Okay, I just don't understand.
We can acknowledge that someone is not perfect and know the Lord what the alternative is is way worse.
Okay.
So I hope you get your mind right and get your vote right and decide that you're going to choose what is best for you, whatever that looks like. I'm not here to tell you who to vote for. But I'm here to tell you keep it cute when it comes to my comments.
Because this girl I block.
I'll see you on Friday. Hopefully this was a good lesson Again, do not forget. If you want what I just shared as far as student on debt relief, go to my IG. Type details in the real about my Capitol Hill briefing and I will send it to you for free in your DMS until Friday. Y'all.
Bye,