Shameless Pandering: Warren Says She Would Bypass Congress, Cancel Fed Student Debt Immediately If She Won

FILE – In this May 18, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at a house party campaign stop in Rochester, N.H. Rising disagreement among congressional Democrats over whether to pursue impeachment of President Donald Trump has had little effect on the party’s presidential candidates, who mostly are avoiding calls to start such an inquiry. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

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Funny thing about Democrats.

They argue President Donald Trump can’t take out a terrorist with all manner of legal justification (even with Obama DHS head, Jeh Johnson, saying that Trump had legal authority) because he didn’t have congressional approval.

Yet when President Barack “Pen and Phone” Obama literally creates new law such as by allowing DACA folks to stay or bombs Libya without congressional approval and aids in killing of a foreign leader, Muammar Gaddafi, it’s all just hunky dory.

So with that same sense of entitlement that “D” means you can work around Congress, Elizabeth Warren is now claiming that if she were elected president, she would cancel federal student loan debt for 42 million Americans on the first day of her administration, because…and I know you’ve heard this before…”we can’t afford to wait.”

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Democrats are just fine with running around Congressional approval if it serves their purposes.

From Washington Examiner:

The Democratic presidential candidate said, in a plan released Tuesday, that she would direct her secretary of education to “compromise and modify” federal student loans consistent with her plan to cancel up to $50,000 in debt for 95% of student loan borrowers.

“We can’t afford to wait for Congress to act,” Warren said in the plan.

The Massachusetts senator said that the Education Department, through the Higher Education Act of 1965, already has the authority to cancel student debt.

How’s she going to make up for the difference? Tax the “rich.”

But it’s clear who to whom she’s trying to appeal.

From CNBC:

Americans hold more than $1.5 trillion in student debt, and the problem is particularly acute in Iowa and New Hampshire. More than 60% of new graduates in Iowa and 76% of those in New Hampshire have outstanding student debt, according to The Institute for College Access & Success. And recent graduates in those states also carry higher balances than the national average of around $30,000.

Iowa and New Hampshire are the first two primary states.

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Not pandering too much there, are we? And who really needs the Constitution or to run such a huge thing by Congress, right, when you can govern by edict?

While she had some support from experts, others noted this would completely destabilize the system nor would it be allowable.

However, higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said that authority did not extend to all student loans.

“The U.S. Department of Education does not have the discretionary authority to cancel student loan debt except in limited circumstances specified by the statute, such as death, disability or closed schools,” Kantrowitz said. “Likewise, the authority to compromise debt is limited to situations in which the borrower demonstrates severe financial distress.”

Meanwhile, a rush to forgive student loan debt could destabilize the entire higher education system, said Wayne Johnson, the former chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid. Johnson resigned last year to launch a Senate campaign in Georgia.

“What do you do to the loans you make tomorrow or next week?” Johnson said. “Is everyone who takes out new loans going to think, ‘I don’t have to do anything, they’re just going to be forgiven anyway?’”

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HT: Twitchy

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