In the aftermath of a clear overreach of power by the Biden White House, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals put the brakes on the administration’s student loan forgiveness plan.
The three-judge panel issued a nationwide injunction to remain in effect until that court or the Supreme Court rules differently. Still another extralegal move by the president has been halted by the judicial system.
As any middle school civics student knows, the Constitution gives “all legislative powers” to Congress. These may be delegated to the executive branch, but as a U.S. District Court in Texas recently confirmed, there must be “clear congressional authorization.”
Lacking this, the White House set out on its own to carve out election-year actions that it did not legally have the power to enact.
And the administration has already declared that it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the judge’s ruling and reinstitute its student debt relief program.
Biden will ask the Supreme Court to allow his student-loan forgiveness plan to move forward after lower courts blocked the relief https://t.co/ViQvJxU1UP
— Politics Insider (@PoliticsInsider) November 17, 2022
There clearly had not been a congressional action allowing the executive branch to enact a $400 billion student loan forgiveness initiative. It is a simple fact that Congress controls the purse strings.
This Biden administration, of course, did not accept the ruling. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre proclaimed that “we are confident in our legal authority for the student debt relief program.”
She added that it is necessary to assist borrowers “as they recover from the pandemic.”
Jean-Pierre cited the White House’s commitment to “working- and middle-class Americans.”
According to Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, this is a falsehood. Burke noted that those working- and middle-class Americans who chose to forgo college or follow through with their student loan commitments would foot the bill.
The Biden scheme, she said, would “rob working Americans” simply to pay for the higher education of those who will already statistically earn more in their lifetimes.
It is noteworthy that, during a heated midterm election season, the president enacted a policy that was clearly outside of his constitutional authority. Doubtless this attracted some younger voters to the ballot box, though it should ultimately become merely fools’ gold.
