Joe Biden tried this twice before and lost. Yet, days before our recent election, he took a third bite of this unconstitutional apple. This wouldn’t be some Democrat Party wealth transfer scheme to buy votes now, would it?
Before this all started, years ago, both DimJoe and Speaker Nancy Legosi stated that the President doesn’t have the authority to “forgive” student loans. That should have been the end of it. But don’t let their Orwellian verbiage cloud the discussion. Student loan “forgiveness” is simply hanging someone else’s loan around your neck. It doesn’t magically evaporate at the stroke of DimJoe’s pen. Over the years, millions of student borrowers declared that they needed your money more than you and they took it. They chose to attend college and backed their taking with a solemn promise to repay. Most do pay it back because they need to make good on their promise for a host of legal and moral reasons.
Enter the pander bears. Democrats that take your money to buy votes should pay a price at the ballot box. Thankfully, on November 5th, Camel Humped-Her-Way-to-the-Top Harris was defeated, roundly by modern measure. Candy store promises may have swung a few votes, but thankfully it wasn’t enough. With the election over the lame-duck Biden-Harris idiocracy will try to ram through every remaining item on their liberal Christmas wish list. That’s where you, Dear Reader, have an opportunity to vent your anger, indignation, and perhaps stop at least one item of their holiday steal.
DimJoe is pushing this through using administrative law and therefore you have a right to submit comments. Unlike an Amicus Brief, your argument can be plainly spoken, not case precedents and legal analysis. The Heritage Institute created a site that makes it super easy: https://heritageaction.quorum.us/campaign/90756/. State your opposition there in your own words. Simply enter your name, contact info, and paste your thoughts. To get your creative juices flowing, The Railer offers the following. Feel free to copy-paste, edit, and add as you see fit.
Summary
- This Presidential action is an unconstitutional power grab
- Loan programs drive up the cost of education
- Places an already privileged group above the law
- Undermines support for legitimate government lending and contracts
- Sets a precedent, that political pressure, or benefit to, the Executive will dissolve contracts and obligations
- This action distorts employment and education markets
- This action is a slap in the face of people who don’t attend college, don’t take loans, or repay loans as agreed
- This cynical vote-buying scheme, if allowed to stand, further damages our dire fiscal condition
- The solution
- My story
This Presidential action is an unconstitutional power grab
Spending authority rests with Congress. This is a “major question” as defined by the Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA and should be decided by The People through their elected representatives. This is not a national emergency or urgent matter. It is raw, naked, cynical, politics. Both Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi publicly stated that the President does not have this authority. Constitutional scholars agree. Yet, his own words aside, Biden continues to push this unlawful scheme, despite the Supreme Court’s previous ruling. This is a lawless President, acting with corrupt contempt.
Loan programs drive up the cost of education
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published a report in 2017 that found for every dollar increase in student loan guarantees, tuition costs rise by 60 cents. This confirms what we’ve known for a long time, that when you expand the pool of available government money, universities will increase costs to capture it. That’s a key reason why education inflation typically runs twice the general inflation rate. Biden’s proposal only heightens this effect, removing the borrower’s fear of repayment and thereby increasing their willingness to borrow beyond reasonable or sustainable limits.
Places an already privileged group above the law
People who attend college consume significant public resources and generally reap significant lifetime benefits including higher lifetime income and employment security. Bachelor’s degree holders earn 31 percent more than workers with an Associate’s degree and 74 percent more than those with just a high school diploma according to the U.S. Department of Education. They are a privileged group within our society. What justifies release from their obligation to repay The People? There is simply no rationale. Students freely make education and career choices. Poor choices, poor performance, or simple refusal are not acceptable defenses for dissolving a voluntary debt to The People. Attending college is an opportunity, and taxpayer funding makes The People a shareholder in that endeavor. Taxpayers are entitled to repayment.
Undermines support for legitimate government lending and contracts
Our government offers loan programs beyond education: housing, business, disasters, farms and ranches, among others. Forgiveness without cause or pretext for any one of these constituencies undermines public support for all of them. “Forgiveness” is not forgiveness at all, it is simply the transfer of the obligation to The People. The People would reason, correctly, that all public loan repayments are subject to the whim of the Executive, that such programs will become vote buying schemes. Sooner or later they will bear the burden, without benefit. Acting through their representatives, The People would demand an end to this Executive power grab, and the elimination of government loan authority to the detriment of the public good.
Sets a precedent that political pressure, or benefit to, the Executive will dissolve contracts and obligations
What rationale supports this Executive action? Is the “need” of government debtors greater than The People who bear the burden? Why not forgive everyone’s loan? Can those with political power use that power to arbitrarily transfer obligations? Those are questions for Congress, acting on behalf of The People, not a lawless Executive. Government loans are a contract between an individual or entity and The People. Rule of law and basic equity demand that all parties fulfil their contractual obligations.
This action distorts employment and education markets
The decision to attend college, which college, which major, starts with a basic analysis. Does the degree create value, monetary or otherwise? Do the benefits outweigh the cost? If someone borrows from The People to pursue a degree, will it produce sufficient earnings to repay the loan? This is not an argument against frivolous degrees, but their pursuit is not a legitimate burden to lay upon The People. For example, we need engineers and nurses. Students who achieve those degrees will have the means to both repay their loans and contribute social value. A degree in Puppet Arts from an expensive Ivy League school may be someone’s passion, but The People cannot afford, and should not fund, non-remunerative indulgences through this lawless Executive action. We offer student loans to all without strings or prejudice. We must demand repayment from all and thereby inject reality and sober consideration into education and career decisions.
This action is a slap in the face of people who don’t attend college, don’t take loans, or repay loans as agreed
Why should a truck driver who spends days and weeks away from home pay for a barista’s NYU film degree? The truck driver lives by his labor and asks for nothing. The frivolous barista made bad choices and now pleads poverty. That is not an entitlement to pilfer the truck driver’s wallet. Attending college is a choice. Choosing a major is a choice. Taking a loan instead of working, joining the military, earning a scholarship, or securing other funding, is a choice. Repaying a loan from The People is not a choice. It should be seen as a solemn obligation, the act of a grateful, responsible, and privileged citizen.
This cynical vote-buying scheme, if allowed to stand, will only exacerbate our dire fiscal condition.
Our national debt is $36 trillion, more than 100% of GDP. Our annual Federal deficit is $2 trillion. Large entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, will exhaust their trust funds within a decade. As Tytler famously said: “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.” This unlawful Presidential action is a cynical, profligate waste. This action, if allowed to succeed, is a threat to our Democracy.
President Biden identified and targeted student loan borrowers for votes. President Biden devised this crime to buy votes for both himself and other Democrat Party candidates. Moral hazards abound in this scheme and it must be repudiated. For legitimate needs, and with the support of The People, Congress has the power to act. They did not act here. Instead, we have this lawless Executive action in defiance of The People’s will.
The Solution
If Joe Biden and the Democrat Party want to “forgive” student loans, then they are welcome to open their personal checkbooks and do so. There is no law, impediment, or bound, on their generosity. More-caring-than-you Democrats can create a non-profit or for-profit agency, solicit and collect donations, and disburse funds in any manner they choose. Make it fun! Have one fund for Trans-Furries, and another for Antisemites-for-Zionist-Abortion.
75 million Americans voted for the Harris-Walz ticket, and we can assume that nearly all of them support loan forgiveness. If every one of those voters wrote a check for $13, it would total $1 billion. If Democrats want to forgive all student loans, approximately $600 billion, then every one of these Team D voters needs to write a check in the amount of $8,000. Some will pay more to compensate for those who can’t afford their “fair share.” Oh, does that $8,000 sound like a heavy, unbearable, burden? The rest of us think so too.
My Story
Unlike Camel Harris, The Railer was not born middle class. He spent his first several years living with his family in a small, towable, trailer. Through very hard work, his father carried the family slowly upward and their condition improved. The Railer worked hard in school, earned good grades, and made plans to become an engineer. His senior year his father lost his job in a corporate takeover. He was unemployed for more than a year. Thankfully, The Railer was accepted by his local Big Ten school. That was fortunate as he couldn’t have gone anywhere else. It was his only practical option.
Throughout his four years at the University, The Railer paid for his school and living expenses, working two jobs in the summer, typically 60 hours per week, and 30 hours per week when classes were in session. It was hard, very, very hard, at little more than the minimum wage. He bussed tables, flipped fries, cleaned restrooms, painted warehouses, loaded trucks, cut lawns, worked in a department store, a small factory, and repaired computers and (tube!) televisions on the side. Anything to scratch together what he needed to continue school. He subsisted on Ramen noodles, half price pizza lunch leftovers, and five cent happy-hour hotdogs. He lived in a dump apartment that rained inside when it rained outside and slept in a drafty, windowless, unheated room while it snowed. He worked and paid his way through the sweat of his brow in a constant state of exhaustion.
The Railer never took a loan.
Joe Biden’s effort to wave away student loans is personal. The Railer did it on his own. How about sending him a check now for say, $50,000 (1970’s money, no interest), to balance the books? That would only be “fair” and “equitable.” It would make him feel less like a fool for his apparently stupid habit, living independently and responsibly. Joe Biden, head of the Biden Crime Family, says theft should be rewarded. The Railer says no.