Is Student Loan Forgiveness Constitutional?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns President Joe Biden’s scheme to forgive student loan debt. The Biden administration claims authority to redistribute the money to taxpayers who did not take out the loans. They claim that the 2003 law known as the HEROES Act gives “broad authority to waive or modify student loans to alleviate hardships on by national emergencies.” This claim contradicts their claim that the COVID-19 pandemic is over because they want to open the southern border even more. Either the pandemic is over, or it is not. They cannot have it both ways. 

            Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said a year ago that the President does not have authority to forgive student loans. In July 2021, Pelosi told reporters that the POTUS does not have the power for debt forgiveness. “He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power.” She continued, “That has to be an act of Congress. And I don’t even like to call it forgiveness because that implies a transgression. It’s not to be forgiven, just freeing people from those obligations.” Now she is cheering Biden’s action. 

            Biden knows that his action is unconstitutional, but he knows that it will take time for the matter to go through the court system. Depending on the judge, he may get his way. If the judge strikes down the action, he will get credit for trying. Meanwhile, the people who paid off their loans, or did not take out any loans for college, are stuck with paying off the loans taken out by doctors, lawyers, and others with graduate degrees.

            Catherine R. Pakaluk counted at least three lies behind Biden’s scheme to transfer student loan debt: “a bald-faced lie, a half-lie, and a lie of omission.” 

First, in its Aug. 24 “fact sheet,” the White House advances the falsehood that college is the “ticket to a middle-class life.” That’s untrue.

The ticket to a middle-class life, now as ever, is finishing high school, working a full-time job, and getting married before you have kids. A recent report by the Institute for Family Studies by scholars Wendy Wang and Brad Wilcox lays out the data brilliantly. A stunning 97% of adults who follow those steps are middle-income or higher.

A middle-class life is eminently attainable without a college degree…. [Pakaluk quoted author Ian Rowe as saying that hard work, thrift, and sensible life choices will give anyone the power to rise above their current circumstances.]

And what if you do go to college? Studies show that high price tag degrees don’t add value to lifetime outcomes. Students do just as well attending low-price institutions as prestige colleges, but those attending the latter are more likely to carry loan debt….

Second, the White House “fact sheet” states that the “total cost of both four-year public and four-year private college has nearly tripled” since 1980, and that federal support “has not kept up.” In this case, the lie is in the second part.

While total costs have indeed ballooned, it wasn’t a proverbial “act of God.” Instead, the federal support the White House claims “has not kept up” is in fact the single-biggest reason why tuition prices keep rising. Economists estimate that 60% of federal credit extended to student borrowers through subsidized loans gets “passed through” in the form of higher tuition prices.

Colleges and universities see federal guaranteed loans for students as money on the table, and tuitions get hiked to capture those dollars. It’s a vicious cycle: Feds offer student aid in the form of grants and loans; that aid props up artificially high demand, given tuition prices; and voila, tuitions rise again. Rinse and repeat….

The third lie is harder to spot because it’s unstated.

The entire loan-relief plan carries on as though there is no other solution to the problem of student debt than this giant, unfunded $500 billion taxpayer giveaways…. There are many other solutions, ranging from refinancing to private charities.

But the simplest solution is probably the best one: First, own up to the fact that colleges and the federal government have been in cahoots to foist unconscionable debts on millions of Americans for degrees of questionable worth. Second, back away and let universities find a way to offer their goods and services without special subsidies muddying the waters….

            At least half of Americans realize that Biden’s scheme to forgive college loan debt is a “Hail Mary” pass to buy votes. He has less than a 40 percent approval rate, and Democrats have nothing good on which to campaign. This unconstitutional act accompanies the unconstitutional attack on Donald Trump’s Fourth Amendment rights. The Biden administration obviously does not care about rule of law. They will do anything necessary to stay in power. Americans should show them that corruption is not acceptable and vote Republican all the way.