You had to know this was coming. Biden, or, more realistically, Biden’s advisors, knew this was coming, because Joe has no clue, as there’s no way the Executive Branch has the authority to “forgive” up to $20k in legally accrued debt
Court temporarily blocks Biden’s student loan forgiveness
A federal appeals court late Friday issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans, throwing the program into limbo just days after people began applying for loan forgiveness.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay while it considers a motion from six Republican-led states to block the program. The stay ordered the Biden administration not to act on the program while it considers the appeal.
It’s unclear what the decision means for the 22 million borrowers who already applied for the relief. The Biden administration had promised not to clear any debt before Oct. 23 as it battled the legal challenges, but the soonest it was expected to begin erasing debt was mid-November. (big snip)
The six states sued in September. Lawyers for the administration countered that the Department of Education has “broad authority to manage the federal student financial aid programs.” A court filing stated that the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act, allows the secretary of education to waive or modify terms of federal student loans in times of war or national emergency.
“COVID-19 is such an emergency,” the filing stated.
Remember when Biden said in September that the pandemic was over? Of course, he then extended the Chinese coronavirus emergency for 90 days, because authoritarians gotta authoritarian. It would be one thing if repayment pause was continued, or, say, interest was reduced, but, wiping out up to $20k in debt? No.
Regardless if you agree or disagree with the debt forgiveness being just, this move doesn’t address the root cause of skyrocketing college costs. Fast forward a decade or two, and a whole new group of people are going to be dealing with the same predicament. The college system is primarily run by Democrats, and they keep the price of college high. As long as it is super easy to get a loan it will continue to rise. Especially when those loans are forgiven.
“forgiving” a federally backed loan amount would require a spending bill in congress. So, the democrats, who control congress could rush one through in the middle of the night, if they really cared about this. But they won’t. In fact, they could have attached it to one of those trillion dollar spending bills they rushed through. But they didn’t.