President Joe Biden’s emergency powers bail out of student loan debt is an unconstitutional overreach of executive power and a political miscalculation that will not help Democrats at the polls this November.
The cost for the plan is too high and the White House hasn’t even explained how it will be paid for, which is fiscally irresponsible. Penn Wharton Budget Model is projecting a $1 trillion price tag, while other groups have the total cost less, but still in hundreds of billions of dollars. We can’t afford this.
The White House claims they have authority to cancel federal-backed student loan debt through the HEROES Act, which was passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Act allows the administration to use emergency powers during an emergency. Student loan debt is not an emergency. The Covid pandemic does not qualify as an emergency under the Act. This is an unconstitutional overreach that should concern everyone.
Democrats have been promising student loan forgiveness legislation for the last several campaign cycles. Congress has not passed any of it. Some in their base have demanded it. The Progressive Caucus has been pushing it. AOC talks about it. Senator Warren is always complaining about it. Senator Kaine tweets about it.
The problem that Democrats are misunderstanding right now is how narrowly exclusive student loan forgiveness really is. Only federal-backed loans with outstanding debt up to either $10,000 or $20,000 will be cancelled. The recipients are college graduates who, on average, earn more than those without college degrees. And look around, they’re mostly all liberal. The rallies where demonstrators demand student loan forgiveness are not attended by conservatives. This narrowly targeted, controversial plan helps almost exclusively one party with the cost shared by everyone.
The base should hold firm. Democrats usually perform well with their base, in that their base still shows up in the General Election after a divisive nomination. Here, Democrats should’ve communicated better to the student loan holders demanding forgiveness. They needed to tell them to be patient and let legislation on this work it’s way through Congress.
Clearly, Democrats are concerned about the mid-term elections. They should be. The economy has stalled and prices are up across the board. We’re in a recession because words have meaning and two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth is a recession. Voters are tired of senseless Covid restrictions and the authoritarianism shown by this administration and the Democratic controlled Congress.
If you’re on the fence about which party to support this fall, and if you don’t have any student loan debt, then this plan couldn’t possibly sway you to vote Democrat. If this was done to shore up the AOC wing, then the Democrat Party is in really terrible shape.
Biden’s student loan forgiveness is fiscally irresponsible because the White House hasn’t described the total cost and they haven’t explained how it will be paid for, the plan is unconstitutional because student loan debt of $10,000 is not a national emergency, and giving Democrats a handout at the expense of every taxpayer is a political miscalculation.
