(Texas Scorecard) – In a speech at the American Federation of Teachers conference in Houston, Vice President Kamala Harris claimed the Biden-Harris administration has forgiven student loans, that Donald Trump wants to cut Medicare and Social Security, and that conservatives are banning books.
“Our administration has forgiven student loan debt for nearly five million Americans and twice as much for our public servants including our teachers,” said Harris.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden-Harris administration’s first proposed student loan forgiveness program last year. The courts have halted their latest proposed scheme.
“Donald Trump and his allies want to cut Medicare and Social Security,” said Harris.
However, Trump’s Agenda 47 plan states, “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”
While calling for a ban on purchases of “assault weapons”—a term that has no legal definition—Harris said, “These extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation’s true and full history, including book bans, book bans in this year of our Lord 2024.”
Notably, none of the books removed from children’s library shelves across the country for age-inappropriate and often sexually explicit content are “banned.”
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word ban means “the legal prohibition of” or “to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of.”
These inappropriate books are available for anyone to buy online, and students can still bring them to school. They simply cannot be purchased with tax dollars or housed in taxpayer-funded school libraries.
In response to Harris’ attendance at the AFT conference, Harris County Republican Party Chair Cindy Siegel derided the vice president for kowtowing to teachers unions while ignoring the crisis at the southern border.
“Kamala Harris coming to Texas to speak at a teacher’s union event with no plans to visit the border is exactly what I would expect from her; it’s another example of her indifference to the real issues Texans are facing,” wrote Siegel.