Joe Biden Ignores Supreme Court, Unveils Plan for Even More Student Loan Forgiveness to Lure Young Voters

AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib

Conservatives love to say that if it weren't for double standards, Democrats would have no standards at all. Double standards sure do seem to be alive and well for Democrats. For the last three years, Joe Biden has cherry-picked the laws he likes to enforce and the ones he doesn't. The border is proof of that. Most of them usually involve the prosecution of his chief political rival, Donald Trump, or some other Republican. But in an election year, it's the votes, Stupid. Now, it's not a law that is separating Joe Biden from votes, but a Supreme Court decision. But whatever the case, Joe Biden has decided to blow it off. 

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On Monday, Biden announced his new plan to forgive the student loan debt of roughly four million Americans. The plan will eliminate at least $5,000 for more than 10 million borrowers and will get rid of accrued interest for 23 million Americans, leaving American taxpayers on the hook for the majority of the bill. In total, through executive action, the Biden administration has canceled $146 billion in student loan debt. In an obviously strategic campaign move, Biden will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, a college town, to discuss the new plan. The scheme targets low and middle-income students, whose loans will be forgiven if they are enrolled in an "income-driven repayment plan." Other categories of those with outstanding student loan debt include anyone who attended a "low-value" institution.

It's a gimmick Joe Biden has tried before. In August of 2022, Biden announced that up to $10,000 in loan debt for non-Pell Grant recipients would be forgiven and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients using the 2003 HEROS Act, which allows the Secretary of Education to "waive or modify student loans for wartime or national emergencies." The HEROES Act was used during the COVID-19 pandemic. But apparently, the Supreme Court was not interested in Joe Biden's campaign promise to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans. In June of 2023, the court struck down Biden's student debt forgiveness plan, saying the administration had "overstepped its authority" 

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But far be it for Joe Biden to let a little thing like a Supreme Court decision get in the way of pandering for votes. In February of this year, he announced the go-ahead of the SAVE repayment plan, originally announced a year earlier, that would cancel $1.2 million in loan debt by executive power. Elaine Parker is president of the Job Creators Network Foundation and called Biden's actions on student loan debt cancelation for what they are, saying:

The Biden administration is lawlessly ignoring the Supreme Court and Congress by launching another massive student loan bailout program. The Supreme Court ruled last year that mass student loan cancellation is unconstitutional, but Biden has made it clear that he won’t respect this decision. He is acting as a King, not a president.

Tuning out the Supreme Court decision on student loan forgiveness is becoming a must for Joe Biden's reelection. A recent NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist College poll showed Biden two points behind Donald Trump with both Millennial and Gen-Z voters, and a recent Fox News poll from March showed Trump leading Biden among under 30 voters by 18 points in a two-candidate race and 21 points in a race that included third-party and independent candidates. 

Joe Biden may be in for another disappointment from the Supreme Court. Several state Attorneys General have already stated that they will challenge this new proposal as well and attempt to overturn it. They plan to use the same argument, that the Biden administration is overstepping its authority, and misinterpreting (accidentally on purpose) the 1965 Higher Education Act.

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As always, let's ask the standard question: what if this were Donald Trump defying a Supreme Court decision? Former Trump advisor Stephen Miller summed it up in a tweet on Monday, "Amazing how Supreme Court rulings only apply to Republicans."


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