Student Debt Forgiveness Program

By Dawson Beard, Skyline Columnist

Once again, Joe Biden has shown complete disregard for the United States Constitution with the unveiling of his new federal student debt forgiveness program.

First, let’s go back into history a bit. During the 2020 election cycle, one of the biggest issues concerning Democrats was the 'student debt crisis' with each candidate having their own plan of action to address it. Most of their plans involved forgiveness of loans of varying amounts.

Unfortunately for hopeful borrowers, the president alone does not have the authority to forgive student loan debt.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi affirmed this in a July 2022 press conference, “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not."

"He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress," said Pelosi.

Joe Biden didn’t get that memo. Leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, in what must have been a calculated move to gain votes, the president, through executive action, bribed thousands of borrowers with a plan that would forgive $10,000 of their student debt or even as much as $20,000 for Federal Pell Grant recipients.

Unsurprisingly, Democrat lawmakers were radio silent on the matter, or even voiced support of it, presumably not wanting to contribute to the then-anticipated 'red wave' of the midterms.

It is estimated that the program would forgive all, or a portion, of 95% of borrowers’ federal student loans. This figure accounts for those individuals making less than $125,000 per year.

The top 5% of borrowers wouldn’t qualify. If a person reaches that mark of income, apparently, they can’t possibly be in financial straits.

However, breathing room is something that all borrowers have had more than enough of at this point, considering no one has had to make a payment on their federal student loans, nor have those loans been accruing interest since March 2020.

Forgiveness is irrelevant now. If the government decided to lift the suspension of federal student loan payments right now, and borrowers were forced to start making payments again and were still having trouble making them after THREE YEARS of grace, the amount of debt was never the issue. The issue is the borrowers themselves.

This case is now headed to the Supreme Court, where the fairness, constitutionality, and legality of the president’s actions will be adjudicated. All of which there is very little of.