Student loans to bankrupt America

Well, the “pResident” has done it. Millions of college graduates, who borrowed money from the American taxpayer, will not have to pay it back. Instead, the government will forgive student loans – in part at first. President Biden has clearly exceeded his authority, no matter what his allies in Congress might pretend. More than that, he’ll add $300 billion to the national debt, allegedly over ten years. And to what high purpose? Training a generation of educated derelicts, while openly mocking those who saved for their (or their children’s) college educations.

How Biden proposes to forgive student loans

The White House posted the mechanism for forgiving student loans as a “Fact Sheet.” (This “Fact Sheet” reads more like a political campaign flyer than a government bulletin.) Biden proposes to forgive balances up to $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants, and $10,000 for other student borrowers. Naturally this has a means test: a maximum annual income of $125,000 for individuals or $250,000 for married couples. The Fact Sheet also explicitly says:

No high-income individual or high-income household – in the top 5% of incomes – will benefit from this action.

In addition, student loan repayment will pause again, to the end of 2022. (It already paused to this month.)

The Fact Sheet goes on to propose:

• Limiting payments to five percent of a borrower’s “discretionary” income,
• Free community college,
• Doubling the maximum Pell Grant size, and
• Tuition controls.

For his authority to forgive student loans, Biden relies on legislation Congress passed in 2003 in a fit of “bipartisanship.” John Solomon’s site Just the News gives the details. The law involved is the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act for short. Under it, the Secretary of Education

may waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the Act as the secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.

What emergency?

The “emergency” the President uses to justify (or excuse) this action is: coronavirus. But that kind of emergency declaration became untenable earlier this month. The Centers for Disease Control abandoned most of its Guidelines for “slowing the spread” of the virus! To be specific, the CDC no longer supports:

• Mandatory testing of anyone who walks in, and quarantine for those who “test positive” but have no symptoms,
• “Social distancing” of six feet or farther, and
• Preferential treatment of those who “take the jab.”

So obviously the CDC no longer supports the narrative that people would drop like flies. They even abandoned the centerpiece of their plan, the vaccine mandate. Someone must have told them that never once did any diener squad push (or drive) a “meat wagon” down a city street, ring a bell, and shout,

Brrrrinnnggg ouuuuuut your deaddddd!

In other words, this isn’t the Black Death, and everybody knows it. And that’s even assuming that the HEROES Act was constitutional! CNAV maintains that it is unconstitutional on its face.

The progs wanted to forgive all student loans

This program will not satisfy the “progressives,” if by to satisfy one means to give them everything for which they could possibly ask. The American political left seems to have abandoned their incremental approach to building Soviet style communism in America. They want it all, and they want it now. Today. This instant.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), three and a half years ago, called for:

• Free college for everyone, and
• Canceling all student loans, not just the first $10,000 or $20,000, for “more than 95% of Americans” owing it.

In fact this program doesn’t seem to satisfy anyone, except a handful of dedicated “communards” in New York City and other large cities. Old political hands see the one thing the President missed. It transfers wealth from working-class families to wealthier families. (The program says nothing about refusing to forgive student loans for anyone who has family members to whom they could turn for family loans. The means test applies to the borrower but not to the borrower’s parents or other family.)

The Fact Sheet stressed the “racial equity” benefit of the program, saying blacks are more likely to take out student loans than whites, and to borrow more. Derrick Johnson, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is having none of that. Why not? Because he wants the President to cancel fifty thousand dollars, or more of student loans.

But what about those who saved for or worked their way through college?

Already people are asking that question. One angry father challenged Senator Warren on that very point.

Separately, when someone asked people what portion of their income they would donate for “free college for all,” people balked!

The problem is simple. This program provides no refunds to:

• Families who put money by and helped their loved ones through college,
• Students who, instead of borrowing, literally worked their way through college, or
• Students who took out student loans and then paid them back.

“Suckers!” the President effectively said, and “Sucker!”, or an insult to that effect, is what Senator Warren told that father.

But Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.-1st) slammed the President’s plan. Says he, in effect, “let’s pass an Act of Congress and do it right!” And also limit it to those in “vital professions.” Not, one presumes, “woke majors,” art majors, etc.

College: who needs it?

CNAV, more than three years ago, pointed out that college will not benefit everyone who goes to it today. Ninety-five percent of college students are going to college for the wrong reasons, or in unrealistic job expectations. Contrary to popular belief, one does not have to go to college to earn a good living. Also contrary to popular belief, a college degree does not guarantee you a “good” job.

The most cost-effective way to use a college education is to:

1. Excel in your science and math classes (and other major areas, too) and earn advanced standing. Which means: acceleration credit when you reach college. Then:

2. Major in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM), and:

3. Cash in your acceleration credits and get your degree in three years, not four. And at some institutions, take advantage of combined-degree programs.

You will save twenty-five percent of the cost of a bachelor’s degree. More than that, you will save time. Then you can get the high-paying job that will pay off your student loan in record time—if you had to borrow money anyway!

All the above even assumes that you can qualify for those STEM jobs. Not everyone can. But somebody has to dig the ditches! So “do you want to be a ditchdigger” is no longer a productive question. Vocational-technical training, especially including apprenticeships, must resume their places as honorable career tracks. This country needs its ditchdiggers, plumbers, and electricians – and not “woke study” professors and other educated derelicts.

Forgiving student loans by executive action is illegal and unconstitutional

Is what Biden is doing even legal? A growing number of smart legal minds says, “No!” The waiver authority of the HEROES Act, they say, gives flexibility to handle individual hardship cases. It does not authorize the government to cancel student loans for the sake of canceling them. That kind of program effectively spends new money – or transfers debt onto taxpayer shoulders, which amounts to the same thing.

In the last weeks of the Trump administration, the General Counsel at the Department of Education clearly understood that.

But apparently not today! The original link to that eight-page memo now resolves to HTTP 404: Page Not Found. (Normally CNAV does not deliberately put up broken links. We do so today to illustrate a point, and in case someone substitutes a new memo at that link.) Similarly, the Speaker of the House has rescinded an earlier opinion that the President could not do this.

All of which to say that the legal eagles encourage opponents of this plan to sue in federal court. The current Supreme Court would almost certainly strike this down. Even if they don’t, it’s worth a try. After all, this administration has seen the courts block or strike down many of its orders.

More to the point, this is yet another Midterms voting issue. Vote against any Democrat, but especially anyone who, like the Speaker, apologizes for such a program.