On student loan debt, President Joe Biden is ignoring Congress and acting outside the rule of law.
The Supreme Court struck down Biden’s student-debt forgiveness initiative in June, but another Biden plan – with a reimagined design – is in the works. Millions of Americans with student loans will be able to enroll in a supposed repayment plan that offers extraordinarily lenient terms. Interest won’t accumulate as long as borrowers make regular payments, and in as little as ten years, any remaining debt will be canceled. Borrowers can begin submitting applications for the program as federal student loan payments are set to resume this October.
The administration calls it the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. The program, which applies to current and future federal student loan borrowers, will limit payments based on income and family size – and some borrowers will have monthly payments totaling $0.
Is a payment really a payment if the amount paid is $0?
The president’s revised student loan repayment system will let borrowers pay back far less than what they owe. And in an Orwellian twist, the so-called SAVE plan will be a huge cost to taxpayers. If spending other people’s money is how to save, many of us have been doing it wrong all our lives.
President Biden and his Department of Education continue to conjure an executive power to cancel student loans. They are bending the Higher Education Act to their political will without involving Congress. But the president’s authority is to execute laws as written. President Biden is not a co-legislator with the power to redraft legislation long after it’s been passed by Congress. Nonetheless, Biden is pushing a forgiveness plan – really, a taxpayer-bailout plan – more expansive than anything Congress has constructed.
As the great Yogi Berra said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
Elaine Parker, president of Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF), had this to say about Biden’s bold new plan to fleece working Americans:
President Biden is ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down his student loan bailout and moving forward with an Income-Driven Repayment workaround that is merely a de facto bailout. This alternative is also executive overreach and unfair to taxpayers. It fails to address the underlying problem driving crushing college debts: unaccountable colleges that overcharge students. JCNF will continue to fight Biden’s bailout workarounds in order to build support to solve the student debt crisis rather than exacerbate it.
Last time around, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s bailout after a legal challenge by the Job Creators Network Foundation. The JCNF was successful in resetting the public conversation by considering bipartisan action to deal with the underlying reasons for the student-loan debt crisis. A college education has become unaffordable for too many Americans; tuition costs have skyrocketed at more than double the inflation rate over the last generation.
The president’s new plan (like the old one) ignores the root causes of the crisis. As the JCNF has emphasized, the administration’s plan is “nothing more than a temporary band-aid that will give colleges a blank check to raise tuition even more.” What’s more, the JCNF put a spotlight on how Biden’s plan to “forgive” student loans is flawed policy – it adds to the national debt, fuels inflation, and constitutes an illegal executive overreach. And the bailout is unfair to myriad Americans who never earned a college degree – working-class Americans, small businesses, and entrepreneurs should not be forced to shoulder someone else’s financial obligations.
What happens next is uncertain. The JCNF saved Americans billions the first time Biden tried to force a bailout. Before the case hit the Supreme Court, lower courts blocked Biden’s “forgiveness” policy. The debt-cancellation program was put on hold, the bailout was halted in its tracks, and the administration was required to stop taking applications. The Job Creators Network Foundation helped save working people from being compelled by their own government to pay debts they did not owe.
During the initial legal battle over the student loan bailout, JCNF’s Parker branded Biden’s plan an “unprecedented executive power grab” that would allow “greedy and bloated colleges” to keep raising tuition. “Bailing out this debt only kicks this problem down the road,” Parker continued. “By blocking this inflationary taxpayer bailout, JCN’s lawsuit can lay the groundwork to actually solve the student debt crisis by holding its college perpetrators accountable.”
Too often in Washington, nothing changes. Biden’s original proposal was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to cost Americans $400 billion. Now Biden’s SAVE Plan, which alters how borrowers repay their loans, is estimated to cost taxpayers up to $550 billion over a ten-year budget window. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
The JCNF has offered a way forward on how to solve the student loan crisis. Instead of reviving an illegal scheme to bypass Congress, President Biden should work with legislators to develop sensible bipartisan reforms that will make college more accessible and affordable for future generations.
The Job Creators Network Foundation saved us once before on the student loan crisis. Let’s heed its counsel again.
Jerry Rogers is an editor at RealClear and the host of the ‘Jerry Rogers Show’ on WBAL NewsRadio. Follow him on Twitter @JerryRogersShow. This article was originally published by RealClearPolicy and made available via RealClearWire.
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