Why does Biden persist with legally unsustainable policies?
President Biden’s New Student Loan Plan Faces Challenges
President Joe Biden wasted no time in responding to the Supreme Court’s rejection of his student loans plan. Despite facing opposition from both the court and Congress, the Biden administration unveiled a new action last week, vowing to continue their efforts leading up to the 2024 elections.
“President Biden continues to fight for student loan borrowers on all fronts,” a White House official stated.
The new plan includes an “adjustment” to the existing income-driven repayment program, resulting in the cancellation of $39 billion in loans for 800,000 borrowers. While this is a smaller percentage compared to the original loan forgiveness scheme, the political impact remains the same — officials will highlight their efforts to assist borrowers while Republicans voice their objections.
House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) immediately criticized the latest move, calling it “a desperate Hail Mary attempt to save his bid for reelection.”
“It’s embarrassing, but more importantly, his willingness to ignore the Supreme Court and thumb his nose at the rule of law reveals a man who believes his power is absolute,” Foxx said. “That is not someone who deserves to lead our great Republic.”
The Biden administration has also expressed interest in exploring other avenues for implementing broad student loan forgiveness, ensuring that the issue will remain a prominent topic for Democrats well into 2024 and beyond.
Biden had promised to cancel student loan debt during his successful 2020 presidential campaign, but initially stated that Congress would need to take action first. Congress eventually did address the issue, overturning the student debt transfer in June. Although Biden vetoed the decision, he was unable to prevent the Supreme Court from striking down the program later that month.
Nevertheless, the White House has not been deterred and has pursued alternative measures, such as the new $39 billion program. They have also discussed the possibility of attempting the $400-plus billion program under the Higher Education Act, rather than relying on the HEROES Act as a legal justification.
From a political standpoint, Biden has squarely placed the blame on the Supreme Court.
“I didn’t give any false hope,” he stated on June 30. “What I did, I thought, was appropriate and achievable. I didn’t give borrowers false hope. But the Republicans snatched away the hope that was given.”
This court defeat follows a familiar pattern for Biden, particularly regarding policies developed during the pandemic. The White House has faced numerous setbacks in the judicial system, ranging from the eviction moratorium to federal mask and vaccine mandates, as well as the southern border expulsion.
Foxx is not alone in suggesting that political motives influenced some of these decisions. The announcement of student loan forgiveness coincided with the start of early voting for the midterm elections in late August 2022, only to be blocked in court two days after the election concluded. Even some progressives questioned the president’s intentions.
“They used the promise of student debt cancellation to induce young voter turnout — knowing it wasn’t going anywhere because they relied on faulty legal authority,” former Bernie Sanders spokeswoman Briahna Joy Gray tweeted at the time. “It’s hard to convince me that the Biden administration didn’t do this intentionally.”
More recently, Boston University law professor Jed Shugerman suggested that losing the case may have been part of the administration’s political strategy.
“Frankly, if I’m being a little cynical here, I think maybe they took the Supreme Court threat so seriously that it was part of their own political game plan,” he said.
However, financial aid and student loan researcher Mark Kantrowitz argues that the new, more limited $39 billion program is likely to withstand legal scrutiny.
“This program will satisfy legal scrutiny because Congress already authorized it,” he explained. “The Republicans won’t be happy, but there’s nothing they can do about it.”
Administration officials are openly discussing the possibility of reviving the larger program using the Higher Education Act. However, Kantrowitz believes that this approach is unlikely to succeed, especially in court.
“There are more reasons why the Higher Education Act will fail than the HEROES Act attempt failed,” he said. “As far as a plan B, I think that’s being driven more by politics than policy. It provides hope ahead of the next election and establishes a sharp contrast between Democrats and Republicans.”
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