EDITORIAL: Courts again stand in way of Biden’s student loan scheme
President Joe Biden, who insists his presumptive GOP opponent is a dire “threat to democracy” and a potential “dictator,” openly brags about ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court when it comes to student loans. Judges are finally taking notice.
On Tuesday, federal courts in Kansas and Missouri blocked parts of yet another White House effort to buy votes by unilaterally rewriting the law on student loan payments. The Supreme Court last year struck down the administration’s plan to forgive up to $10,000 in balances for most borrowers, ruling that only Congress may implement such a policy. But Mr. Biden has cynically continued to “work around” the decision, canceling about 10 percent of the $1.6 trillion in outstanding student loan obligations.
The rulings this week came after 11 states filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a program the Department of Education recently created to provide debt relief to those holding student loans. Borrowers who enrolled in the SAVE initiative — about 8 million people — were supposed to see their monthly payments significantly reduced and eventually eliminated if they had been current on their accounts for a decade.
But SAVE is on hold after two federal judges agreed with the states, who argued that the White House had again exceeded its authority.
It’s worth remembering that student loan forgiveness plans don’t really erase debt. They simply shift the burden from the borrowers to the American taxpayer. Note that the Congressional Budget Office recently cited student loan amnesty as one of the drivers of the exploding federal deficits under this president. In addition, forgiveness plans not only further erode the vital concepts of personal and fiscal responsibility, they are a slap in the face to those who met their obligations, avoided student loan debt or never attended college.
The federal student loan program — nationalized under the Obama administration under the guise that it would generate a profit — is an expensive mess in drastic need of reform. But Mr. Biden and his fellow Democrats offer little of substance other than backdoor attempts to make college “free” for anyone who can breathe. Meanwhile, the government continues to hand out billions to young adults with little credit history in hopes they can eventually pay it back.
Of greater importance, the president’s repeated and willful insistence on ignoring the Supreme Court makes a mockery of his supposed fealty to “democracy” and highlights how Mr. Biden has elevated his own political survival over fiscal sanity and the separation of powers. That the federal courts are now throwing up roadblocks is a victory for the rule of law.