President Biden proposes to give higher education student debtors up to $20,000 in financial assistance by “forgiving” (cancelling) their individual student debt up to that amount. He says the “forgiveness” is to relieve them from financial hardship due to current economic conditions in the country. This rationale for the debt cancellation raises the question of why the rest of our citizens who are suffering the same financial hardship of the Biden economy as the student debtors are not included in this financial assistance program.
Biden`s justification for his “forgiveness” program is defective for two reasons. First, he does not show that student debtors have been adversely affected by the pandemic to such an extent to support relieving them of the requirement to repay all or part of their student loans and second he has not shown that student debtors are affected in a manner that makes them more needful or deserving of financial assistance than other Americans with the same income. The cost of Biden`s proposed student debt cancellation program will have to be paid for out of taxpayer funds and shared by all taxpayers.
The authorization for the expenditure of Federal funds is prescribed by a procedure which is long settled. “Congress controls the purse strings.” The President has authority to spend federal funds only when Congress passes an appropriation bill authorizing the expenditure of funds for a specific purpose and it is signed into law by the President. There is no authority for the expenditure of public funds by the President or anyone else in government that has not been authorized in this manner. President Biden can point to no appropriation authority to authorize his expenditure of public funds to pay for the so-called “forgiveness” of student debt which he announced on Wednesday, August 24.
The President says that the pandemic allows him to spend funds for student debt forgiveness due to a national emergency, in this instance the Covid-19 pandemic. Most objective observers would agree though that the pandemic emergency he says he relies on to justify the “forgiveness” program no longer exists. The President says his authority to forgive student debt due to the pandemic comes from a law passed in 2003. However, the language of that law, the 2003 Heroes Act does not give him such authority based solely on the bare assertion that there is a national emergency. Obviously cancelling student debt repayments would provide welcome financial assistance to these debtors, which he says is the basis for his “forgiveness” program, but it makes no sense that simply stating there is an emergency justifies student loan “forgiveness” under the 2003 Act as Biden asserts. Even if simply declaring an emergency were a sufficient basis for a student debt cancellation program, Congress has not appropriated the funds necessary to pay for Biden`s student debt “forgiveness” program.
Surely the 2003 Heroes Act does not support the cancellation of student debt when there is no showing that students loan debtors are financially affected more than the rest of us due to the Covid-19 emergency nor do student debtors deserve to get financial assistance through cancellation of student debt just because they have student debt that the rest of us do not have. All other U. S. student debt forgiveness programs, and there are a number of them to guide us, are provided ONLY when the debtor undertakes an obligation to provide a specific service for the benefit of society at large, such as teachers going to teach in underserved communities to help poor students get an education. There is not a similar service requirement as part of Biden`s proposed debt “forgiveness” program.
If Biden believes it is necessary or appropriate to give up to $20,000 to student debtors who are earning as much as $125,000 a year due to adverse economic conditions, as a matter of equitableness shouldn’t he be asking Congress for spending authority to make the same assistance available to everyone else in the same income bracket? The current adverse economic conditions are the same for us all. We question whether Biden`s failure to ask Congress for spending authority to provide financial assistance to all is due to the fact that he knows Congress will refuse to agree there is a need to provide such financial assistance at this time and because it is unwise to increase Federal spending during this time of runaway inflation?
As Senator Tom Cotton has said, President Biden`s student “forgiveness” scheme is simply a bribe
It should be clear to all that President Biden is not using his debt “forgiveness” program to redeem a campaign promise made prior to his election as he has said. If it was simply redeeming a promise he would have introduced his “forgiveness” program in his first year in office. Without a doubt the primary reason President Biden proposes “forgiving” student debt at this time, is to encourage the recipients of this Federal largesse to vote for Democrat candidates this November. A bribe consists of the payment of money to another in return for an act performed or to be performed by the recipient(s) of the money. A vote for Biden`s preferred Democrat candidates this Fall in return for debt forgiveness would certainly constitute a bribe and student votes for Democrat candidates is exactly what Biden and the Democrats are aiming for with this student debt “forgiveness” program at this time. If however the President gave the same financial assistance to all Americans making $125,000 or less that would make it equitable for all and it could not be construed as a bribe.
If you know anyone eligible for Biden`t gift of up to $20,000 because they have student debt, ask yourself why they should be given such financial assistance that others do not qualify for because they do not have student debt. In fact, ask any student debtor you may know why they believe they should get such financial assistance but not the rest of us. Biden`s justification for giving this benefit to some but not all Americans similarly situated is wrong and surely the courts will find it to be illegal on that basis alone.
When questioned about the need for debt forgiveness the President asks why are those questioning him on its wisdom while they approve of the “Trump’ tax cuts? The answer is clear, those tax cuts were authorized by an act of Congress and signed by the President as required by law; they were not a unilateral action by President Trump.
The real the nub of the issue is this, why is President Biden willing to commit an act that is likely illegal by giving unwarranted financial assistance to people he believes might be induced to vote for his party`s candidates this Fall in return for this assistance but he refuses to request Congress to authorize such help for everyone making the same income? If the economic conditions justify such payments to student debtors earning up to $125,000 why doesn’t he and the Democrats who control both houses of Congress provide similar financial assistance for all Americans with the same income? Is it because if all Americans are provided this financial assistance half of them will not vote for Democrat candidates in the Fall?
Finally, are higher education costs too high? Yes, but that is a separate issue and why should the taxpayers be expected to pay for exorbitant higher education costs through taxpayer financed student debt cancellation schemes when the answer to that problem is to require administrators to rein in out of control college and university budgets?
Why Now?
How big of an election year boondoggle or scam is this? First, the numbers of people eligible for the Biden debt forgiveness scheme and the total cost are all over the place. The figures used here should be in the ballpark. Don`t be distracted by the comparatively paltry sums of $10- $20,000 per student loan debtor. We are talking of financial assistance through this student “forgiveness” scheme to some 20-30 million student debtors with an approximate total cost of some $300-$900,000,000,000 (that`s BILLIONS) over ten years according to various objective analysts. As shown above, this give away would constitute a monumental fraud in an election year if the Court allows it to happen. In addition, all current and future student debtors would view student loans not as real debts but as sham loans that in the future the Democrat Party can be depended upon to cancel when the loan repayment comes due as long as student debtors and their friends do their part in voting to keep the Democrats in power and in charge of the Federal purse strings.
The Rule of Law
We hear Biden daily pledging adherence to the “rule of law” but in this context what does the rule of law mean to him? As outlined above the legality of President Biden`s scheme to give up to $20,000 to those who have student debt is at best legally questionable and its legality can only be authoritatively decided by the Supreme Court. We also know that it is a real possibility that if the Supreme Court decides the Biden student debt forgiveness scheme is illegal as it surely must be, the Democrats will very likely refuse to accept the decision of the Court just as they still refuse to accept the Supreme Court`s Dobbs decision which struck down Roe v Wade. That is the true commitment of the Democrats to “the rule of law.”
Please contact President Biden, your Senator and your Congress person and demand that this unfair student debt forgiveness scheme be ended and, if not, demand that all those earning $125,000 or less be provided the same financial assistance to be provided to student debtors through Biden`s debt “forgiveness” scheme.