CANCEL THIS

CANCEL THIS

BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, CONSTITUTION, JOE BIDEN

President Biden premised his cancelation or forgiveness of student loans of up to $20,000 per person on “the financial harms of the pandemic.” However, a Wall Street Journal editorial duly noted that “the government had halted student loan payments since 2020, holding borrowers harmless. A month before he declared the pandemic ‘over,’ Biden extended that student loan pause through Dec. 31.”

Biden’s “plan,” as he calls it, is blatantly unconstitutional. It’s not unfair to say that everything about it is wrong. The only question is whether any party has legal standing to challenge it.

Indeed, Biden has altered the “plan” since the original announcement to exacerbate the standing issue for possible challengers. At last word, the estimated cost of the plan was $400 billion.

Thanks to an Eighth Circuit order on Friday, the “plan” is temporarily on hold while a panel of the court considers the standing issue raised in the lawsuit brought by six states in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The Wall Street Journal has a good editorial on the Eighth Circuit order.

Biden’s “plan” amounts to a sort of royal decree. Things aren’t supposed to work this way. Indeed, Biden himself seems to be confused about the source of his authority. I can’t find the source of the clip posted by RNC Research below and can’t add the context around it. Taking it at face value, this is big-time delusional.

Professor Turley takes it straight and comments on it below. He calls it “a bizarre boast,” which seems to me euphemistic. At the least, “a bizarre boast” is an understatement.

Biden traveled to Delaware State University to talk up his “plan” last week. The White House has posted the transcript here. He omitted any discussion of the legal issues underlying it. However, he made up for it in attitude:

I will never apologize for helping working- and middle-class Americans as they recover from the pandemic, especially not to the same Republicans officials who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut that mainly benefitted the wealthy Americans and the biggest corporations that wasn’t paid for and racked up our deficit.

I don’t want to hear it from MAGA Republicans — officials who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts, even millions of dollars in pandemic relief loans forgiven who now are attacking — attack me for helping working-class and middle-class Americans.

My team at the White House posted a vizio [sic] — a video of those folks online. You should check it out.

I will only add this quotable quote: “But despite what Republican officials say, we can afford student relief. That’s because the first two years of my administration — that’s because of the historic deficit reduction, the very deficit reduction the Republicans voted against.”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/cancel-this-3.php