EDITORIAL: The absolutely last student loan extension — really
In another example of how the hard left is running roughshod over “moderate” Joe Biden, the president last week announced an extension of the student loan payment pause implemented last year at the onset of the pandemic. Expect the White House to enact an even more generous “forgiveness” program in the coming months to mollify progressives.
The payment freeze for student loans was set to expire at the end of September. On Friday, however, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, extended the policy through January. Borrowers have been allowed to ignore payments, without accruing additional interest, since March 2020 — at a cost to taxpayers of about $5 billion a month. Mr. Cardona insisted this will be the final extension, but that’s the same thing Mr. Biden said about the eviction moratorium.
Notably, Mr. Cardona offered no real reasons for the extension at a time when the economy has been adding jobs, and the unemployment rate for those with college degrees is hovering around 3 percent. As with the CDC’s eviction ban, congressional Democrats seem intent on exploiting the pandemic to implement student loan policy that they could never get through the legislative branch. Never let a crisis go to waste, as they say.
If student loan payments do resume next February, it will only be because the Biden administration has unilaterally decided to forgive a large portion of the nation’s college debt, which now stands at an estimated $1.57 trillion. Progressives want the president to magically erase $50,000 in obligations for each borrower. Mr. Biden, who has said he favors a smaller forgiveness program of $10,000 per loan, has expressed concern over whether he has the authority to unilaterally enforce such an edict. Once again, however, similar concerns didn’t stop him from flip-flopping on the eviction moratorium under pressure from his party’s hyper-liberals.
While there is obviously a need to overhaul the failed federal takeover of the student loan program, a blanket amnesty would be a boon to the wealthy and a slap in the face to taxpayers, particularly those who scrimped and saved to send their own children through college without accruing debt. Meanwhile, the government is still handing out millions in new student loans every month. Who would bother to repay it given the rhetoric coming out of the White House?
And that’s the larger issue. Progressives pressuring the pliant Mr. Biden to cancel billions in debt have offered no path forward once they get their wish other than a fantastical proposal to make college “free” for everyone. So after Mr. Biden waves his hand and — poof! — orders taxpayers to foot the bill for progressive compassion, the government will continue marching down the path that led to the current fiasco in the first place.
What’s that old adage about the definition of insanity?
