If you haven’t heard, Democratic President Joe Biden is attempting to keep at least one of his many campaign promises: to forgive student loan debt in America. Thankfully, thanks to the GOP, there is a way that plan could effectively be blocked.
According to the Washington Examiner, a number of Republican senators have recently joined together to create an unusual and rather out-of-the-box idea. It’s a resolution under the Congressional Review Act that, if passed, could overturn the whole thing in one fell swoop.
As the outlet points out, this is all possible because the Government Accountability Office has approved of Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in debt per person as subject to the Administrative Procedures Act. And that means it’s also subject to a CRA resolution.
Like most other legislation, such a resolution requires a simple majority of both houses. Unfortunately, it also requires the signing off on it of the President to be made official. This means for the whole thing to work, Biden would have to knowingly break another campaign promise.
I know you are all thinking that it just won’t happen. And to be sure, there is that possibility.
However, as more than a few have pointed out, things aren’t quite as simple as Biden just not wanting to sign it.
For starters, there is the very real possibility that Biden’s entire plan is a bit illegal. In fact, the Supreme Court is set to rule on such in June.
Part of the reason it might not be legal is based on the HEROS Act, which Biden cited as why his plan should go through.
According to him, the country is going through a rather stressful time, with the pandemic and all. And so, much like when then-President Donald Trump delayed loan payments when COVID first arrived on our shores, Biden thinks that entitles him to stop them altogether.
However, as Nebraska AG Mike Hilgers has noted, the HEROS Act was not meant to aid our general population but those in our military forces during a time of war.
Then-President George W. Bush created it after the Iraq War began as a way to ensure that active-duty soldiers were still able to make ends meet while in service to our country. The Act effectively paused student loan payments until those soldiers returned home and were not on tour.
Trump only temporarily invoked the Act during a time of “national emergency,” as the Act states. But as Hilgers and others have noted, Biden went on live TV in September and stated that 1) the pandemic was over and 2) the national state of emergency was no longer in effect.
So why would the HEROS Act need to be invoked?
Additionally, as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts says, “half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans” doesn’t exactly “fit under the normal understanding of ‘modifying’” the HEROS Act, as Biden suggests.
There is also the fact that Biden’s plan would add some $430 billion more to the national deficit. And that’s a rather large pill to swallow for some, even on the political left.
Already two Democratic senators have been convinced that while forgiving student debt isn’t all bad (if the root of what makes college so unaffordable is found), the way Biden has it laid out would not be good for the nation or our economy.
Basically, it takes the debt of willing individuals and transfers it to the federal government, which means we all will now be forced to pay it in taxes.
And for the Democrats who don’t cross party lines to vote against Biden’s plan, it’s noted that 2024 is right around the corner. And it could cost them dearly.
In any case, the CRA is likely to do some damage to Biden’s cause, whether it cuts it out completely or not.
