President Joe Biden’s federal student loan forgiveness plan has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court after several states and organizations have pushed back on its legality.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court said it will begin to hear arguments for the heavily scrutinized program during its February session and will have a final decision by June of 2023. The Biden Administration has attempted to have the program continue in the interim, but it will remain paused until a decision is made.
The program would forgive $10,000 of federal student loans for borrowers who make $125,000 or less per year. Pell Grant recipients would receive $20,000 of student loan cancellation.
Republican-led states Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina and Kansas challenged the constitutionality of the program in the lower courts which resulted in a block to the implementation of the administration’s program in October.
Opponents of the program argue that it places the burden of the $400 billion estimated price tag on future taxpayers and is outside of the authority of the administration.
In the Spring, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stated that the President does not have authority to cancel student loan debt.
Nancy Pelosi says Biden DOES NOT have the power to cancel student loans.
“People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not.” pic.twitter.com/0iz8uQeKXG
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 29, 2022
“People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not…That has to be an act of Congress.,” she said back in April.
There still seems to be a great amount of confusion — or misrepresentation — of the legality of it all. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted on Thursday that Biden does indeed have legal authority to implement the program. Her tweet was quickly fact-checked showing once again that he does not.
— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) December 2, 2022
One would think as a previous professor of law that she would have an understanding of the constitution but then again, she also thought she was of native descent.
Democratic leaders are framing the situation to make it seem as though money hungry GOP leaders are taking away the borrower’s rights of having the loan forgiven, thus hurting the middle class. But there’s no such thing as free lunch. Someone must pay for it.
It doesn’t take a college degree to realize that our government doesn’t have an extra $400 billion set aside for the program. The bill shifts to the taxpayers.
