Joe Biden is not one to give up even when the Supreme Court tells him what he's doing is illegal.
The Supreme Court foiled Biden's plan to forgive $800 billion in student loan debt last June. The court ruled that only Congress can forgive the debt since Congress created the student loan program in the first place.
But Biden didn't let that stop him. He's been chipping away at the $1.3 trillion in debt owed by students for the last three years by finding various loopholes and gimmicks to "forgive" about $136 billion in debt using his power as president. These executive actions are "legal" in the sense that Biden has stretched the legal framework to accommodate various relief proposals already present in the law.
Now, the Biden administration is expanding the relief effort by creating a program to assist borrowers who are suffering "hardship."
And yes, it's a loophole you can drive a truck through.
"The ideas we are outlining today will allow us to help struggling borrowers who are experiencing hardships in their lives, and they are part of President Biden's overall plan to give breathing room to as many student loan borrowers as possible," Under Secretary James Kvaal said in a press release. "It's an important part of the Biden-Harris Administration's permanent solutions to the problem of unaffordable loans."
If they were "unaffordable," why the hell did they take them out in the first place?
Ironically, the Biden administration's "permanent solutions" to the student loan crisis will likely only end up making the problem worse. While supporters of the proposal say it would provide necessary relief for borrowers unlikely to pay their loans back, providing blanket forgiveness to those struggling to pay their loans back would likely end up incentivizing universities to hike prices and encouraging students to enroll in expensive programs.
If students know that they can have their loans forgiven as long they prove financial hardship, it will directly incentivize prospective borrowers to take on huge balances for dubiously valuable degrees. In turn, colleges can assure students that taking on tens—or even hundreds—of thousands of dollars in loans is a wise choice. After all, the government has promised to step in should repayment become burdensome.
Democrats love to talk about fairness. But in all the verbiage spoken about forgiving student loan debt, we haven't heard a single word about those who 1) paid their loans off on time or 2) paid their own way in getting a college degree without taking on any debt at all.
What of them? If I were someone who held down two or three jobs to work my way through school and pay off my student loan, I would be cursing the ground Democrats walk on.
Who's responsible for taking on these massive debts? I will grant that a fair percentage of borrowers were snookered by shady loan companies, but most borrowers went into debt willingly and with their eyes wide open.
Simply, they should be made to pay.
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