Our country is suffering through a gigantic Republican freakout right now, one precipitated by the news that President Joe Biden has announced the student loan forgiveness of up to $20,000 per borrower.

The freakout — let's call it "Student Loan Derangement Syndrome" — has taken several forms.

Chief among them are the over-the-top predictions that the move will lead to catastrophic consequences to the middle class, to our economy — even to national security.

As just one example, Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana (R, obviously) tweeted that forgiving student loans was bad because it would make military recruitment harder.

Now, it's true that some go into the military because they are poor and can't otherwise afford college, but, and I can't believe I have to say this, that is not a good thing.

That's like saying we should end seat-belt laws to increase organ donation or arguing that food pantries are bad because they lead to fewer blood donations.

Poor people are not a natural resource.

Then there are the hypocrites, never in short supply but particularly plentiful of late.

Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz were up in arms about the announcement but seem to have no problem with loan forgiveness as a general concept. They both took out and were forgiven tens of thousands of dollars in payroll protection loans during the pandemic.

They, and plenty of other critics of Biden's move, have passionate but strikingly newfound moral objections to borrowing money from the government and then not paying it back.

There's also an outbreak of "pay-your-own-way-ism" infecting Republicans.

To them, tax cuts, corporate welfare and subsidies to coal companies, giant farming conglomerates and drug manufacturers aren't examples of situations where people should pay their own way.

Paying your own way means taking out $100,000 in student loans and then working at whatever grim job you can get for the privilege of making continued payments on those loans.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney worries that loan forgiveness "creates irresponsible expectations."

Now, when I went to college (redacted) years ago, I felt quite keenly the unfairness of having to put myself into debt to pay for a degree that helped me more in the title than it did in the education. My husband helped me repay my student loans. Maybe Romney thinks I should have turned him down.

"No," I should have said, "I need to pay my own way. How will I ever learn responsible expectations otherwise?"

I'm assuming Romney's kids have never gotten so much as a free lollipop out of the fear that it will create entitlement issues.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's social media company owes $1.6 million to creditors and reportedly hasn't paid the bills since March. But that's different to conservatives because those weren't loans; they were contractually agreed-upon charges. And they're not being forgiven; they're just not being paid back.

Now, let's admit that there are good arguments against forgiving student loans: It doesn't benefit non-college-educated people and it doesn't do anything to solve the underlying problem with higher education, which is that college costs far too much and confers degrees of questionable value.

But Republicans aren't making good arguments. They're taking wild, random jabs, mostly because they realize how popular the decision will be.

Rank populism has been their purview, and now that a Democratic president is engaging in it, suddenly they see its dangers.

If conservatives want to debate student loan forgiveness, fine. Let's debate it. But let's debate in good faith, without the histrionics, hyperbole and hypocrisy. Let's not debate just because the plan's proponents have Ds after their names instead of Rs.

Because that's not discussion. It's derangement. And we shouldn't forgive that.

To learn more about Georgia Garvey, visit GeorgiaGarvey.com.

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