The Biden administration has repeatedly brazenly floated another plan to bypass the Supreme Court and unilaterally forgive millions of student loan debts. Imagine how much Donald Trump would howl and scream if he were this indifferent to the rule of law while sitting in the Oval Office.

The latest version of President Joe Biden’s great student loan giveaway, courtesy of the American taxpayer, gives the Department of Education the authority to forgive outstanding obligations where “a hardship is likely to impair the borrower’s ability to repay the loan in full or cover loan costs.” “Unfair loan collection continued.”

Department officials told The New York Times that this “could include things like surprise medical bills, burdensome child care or elder care expenses, and financial losses from a natural disaster.” There is no information on the cost of the plan (it will run into the hundreds of millions at a minimum), but taxpayers can be assured that the government will operate under a liberal definition of hardship.

The Times reports that the process may include a “holistic assessment” of the applicant’s financial situation (whatever that means).
Republicans will certainly challenge the new rule, and if history is any indication, they will likely prevail. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the executive branch does not have the authority to write laws, defeating the White House’s efforts to erase billions of dollars in student debt. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority: “The question here is not whether something should be done; is the person who has the authority to do so.”

Since then, two federal courts have blocked the administration’s efforts to change federal laws to accommodate loan forgiveness. In August, an appeals court panel ruled that Biden overstepped his authority with a proposed regulation lowering payment caps. A federal court last month struck down a separate plan that canceled interest accrued to 25 million borrowers.

As The Wall Street Journal noted, “Courts are playing whack-a-mole with the administration’s debt write-offs ending Congress never authorizing such broad-based debt forgiveness.”

All of this is especially ironic, given the progressive hysteria about Trump’s second term and concerns that he will ignore constitutional guardrails. Meanwhile, with the White House determined to ignore the nation’s highest court, Senate Democrats are plotting to end the filibuster, cram the Supreme Court, and bring the justices to their knees by making it harder for them to check Congress’s indifference to the Constitution.

What greater threat to democracy and the nation’s institutions?

Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service