Any of y'all remember the showdown over the Bush tax cuts during the Obama administration?

George W. Bush passed massive tax cuts after 9/11 in an effort to goose our shocked economy (and kick a few billion to the wealthy), but they were intended to be temporary and expire a decade after they had passed.

When it came time for the taxes to expire the United States was still recovering from the banking crash, the wealthy had recovered most of what they'd lost but the middle class was still struggling to find employment, and raising middle class taxes during an economic recovery could have set back what few gains they were making.

So President Obama made a simple proposal: We'll renew the tax cuts for Americans making less than $125k/yr, and expire the tax cuts for those making more.

McConnell refused.

McConnell insisted that either President Obama renew all the tax cuts, including those for the wealthy, or expire all the tax cuts, even for the working class.

President Obama didn't want to raise taxes on working folks and so he had to renew the whole damn thing, which sucked even more because those tax revenues were expected to pay for the ACA, so instead that spending went on the deficit.

After writing all of this, the point I'm getting at is how differently the parties approach means testing: Republicans tend to start at the bottom and work their way up, Democrats start at the top and work their way down.

The Democrat's means testing for student loan forgiveness is essentially just "You have to make less than $125k/yr."

If Republicans (somehow) forgave student loan debt, they'd start off with a work requirement, a drug test, a signed affidavit from your husband or father, and a genital inspection.