You’ve got to hand it to President Biden — when he puts his mind to something he doesn’t let mere semantics like the rule of law stop him. Despite an earlier Supreme Court slap down, “Middle Class Joe” provided an upper-class gift to some 150,000 college graduates in the form of $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness. That brings total educational loan forgiveness under this White House to $137 billion effectuated by nothing more than a stroke of Biden’s pen via executive order. Biden openly boasted of his defiance, all but inviting the justices to try to stop his patronage gambit.
It’s not that anyone can blame him, because it’s a political win-win for the White House.
There are no banks complaining, because once the Obama administration nationalized the student loan industry, the federal government took over the role of lender. The education industry is happy because with minimal borrowing limits and the ever-present promise of future student relief, they have no reason to control costs that have been climbing for decades. American taxpayers may grumble initially, but will likely lose interest because it will not hit their pocketbooks directly. These student loan write-offs will be piled atop the nation’s gargantuan national debt, which at this point has broached $34 trillion with no end in sight.
But is any of this legal? Constitutional Law 101 taught us that the power of the purse belongs to Congress. Biden is not only obliterating the separation of power between the legislative and executive branches of government, he is abusing his limited statutory authority and essentially daring the judiciary to step in again and stop him.
Biden’s previous effort to wipe out massive student loan debt relied on the HEROES Act, a 2003 law enacted in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks designed to aid borrowers in times of war or national emergencies. By invoking the law on the premise of Covid-19, Biden claimed unchecked authority to cancel nearly half a trillion dollars in loans for another 40 million borrowers regardless of any showing of financial harms caused by the pandemic. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in Biden v. Nebraska rejected this position, which in the words of Chief Justice John Roberts constituted an “exhaustive rewriting of the statute” by the Department of Education.
Not one to be deterred by the law or common sense, Biden is now charging ahead with a new cancellation effort he terms the “Saving on a Valuable Education” (SAVE) program estimated to cost a total of $500 billion. This time he is invoking the Higher Education Act as the basis for absolving debt based on income levels. Education secretary Miguel Cardona claims the initiative is meant to address the root cause of this student loan issue which is that “the cost of college is out of control.” But it is hard to comprehend how additional loan cancellation reduces higher education costs, when in fact it only incentivizes colleges to increase tuition levels and students to assume higher debt levels. Biden put it more bluntly in his announcement: “The Supreme Court blocked it. But that didn’t stop me.”
And where is Congress’s effort to stop any of this? Earlier in our nation’s history, the legislative branch would assert itself and push back against executive abuses regardless of partisan loyalties. Yet, despite former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s moment of candor in which she conceded that the president lacks the power of debt forgiveness, today’s Congressional Democrats remain mum.
Joe Biden may market himself to blue-collar voters, but his actions betray where his loyalties reside. These student loan bailouts are nothing more than a lawless sop to the upper class who will vote for and contribute to the Biden campaign. Meanwhile, they do nothing for struggling Americans and drive up the national debt for future generations to grapple with.
If Congress will not step up to assert its legislative authority, let’s hope the Supreme Court again wades in. Otherwise these executive overreaches will only continue, and when power ultimately changes Democrats will rue the day they failed to keep their coequal branch in check.
