It's real simple. Get a copy of the US Constitution and read it: all appropriations (that means spending) originates in the House. That's it. A US President cannot spend money without their approval.
Yes, vote buying. If I'm a person paying on my student loan, and I vote Democrat, I may get 10 to 15K erased off my student loan. If I vote Republican, they will make sure that doesn't happen. Gee, what's the choice here when I vote?
Last election the demographics were released. 63% of the younger voters (age 18 to 29) voted Democrat while only 35% voted Republican. Gee, now why is that? It's most likely that those 18 to 29 are repaying their student loans, that's why.
Yeah they can little mrs. Snow flake
Student loan borrowers are now waiting indefinitely to see if they'll receive debt relief under President Joe Biden's
student loan forgiveness program after a federal judge in Texas struck down the program Thursday, declaring it illegal.
The Department of Justice immediately appealed to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals. But that case will have to play out before the Biden administration can cancel any federal student loan debt under the program.
While the Biden administration has faced several legal challenges to the student loan forgiveness program since it was announced in August, the ruling on Thursday is the most significant setback thus far -- prompting the Department of Education to
stop accepting applications for debt relief.
Biden's program was already on hold due to a separate legal challenge before the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals, but the administration had continued accepting applications, having received 26 million to date.
Under the rules of the program, eligible low- and middle-income borrowers can receive up to $10,000 of federal student loan forgiveness and up to $20,000 in cancellation if they also received a
Pell grant while enrolled in college.
The legal road ahead is murky, but it could take many months for the issue to be resolved.
The Texas decision "makes it more likely that the issue will ultimately go to the Supreme Court, though it is still too early to say," said Abby Shafroth, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.
Four days after the Texas decision, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals dealt another legal blow to Biden's program, granting a request for a preliminary injunction sought by plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit. The November 14 ruling does not change the status quo for borrowers since the program was already halted.
What happens now for borrowers?
Borrowers will have to wait for the government's appeal to the 5th Circuit Court to play out. While it can be tough to follow all the various legal challenges, borrowers can
subscribe for updatesfrom the Department of Education and check the
Federal Student Aid website for further information.
It could take months for the court to issue a final ruling. If it overturns the Texas lower court's ruling, then the Biden administration could begin canceling student debt.
Initially, the Biden administration said that it would start granting student loan forgiveness before payments are set to resume in January after a years-long pandemic pause.
But Thursday's ruling in Texas puts that timeline in jeopardy.
"For the 26 million borrowers who have already given the Department of Education the necessary information to be considered for debt relief -- 16 million of whom have already been approved for relief -- the Department will hold onto their information so it can quickly process their relief once we prevail in court," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement Thursday.
"We strongly disagree with the District Court's ruling on our student debt relief program," she said.
What are the legal arguments?
What The Biden administration has argued that Congress granted the secretary of education the power to broadly discharge student loan debt in a 2003 law known as the HEROES Act, which was passed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The government's lawyers argue that the law allows the secretary to discharge debt in an event of a national emergency, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the Texas federal judge found that the law does not provide the executive branch clear congressional authorization to create the student loan forgiveness program.
"The program is thus an unconstitutional exercise of Congress's legislative power and must be vacated," wrote Judge Mark Pittman, who was nominated by then-President Donald Trump.
"In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone," he continued.
The Texas lawsuit was filed by a conservative group, the Job Creators Network Foundation, in October on behalf of two borrowers who did not qualify for debt relief.
One plaintiff did not qualify for the student loan forgiveness program because her loans are not held by the federal government and the other plaintiff is only eligible for $10,000 in debt relief because he did not receive a Pell grant.
They argued that they could not voice their disagreement with the program's rules because the administration did not put it through a formal notice-and-comment rule making process under the Administrative Procedure Act.
"This ruling protects the rule of law which requires all Americans to have their voices heard by their federal government," said Elaine Parker, president of Job Creators Network Foundation, in a statement Thursday.
The advocacy group was founded by Bernie Marcus,
a major Trump donor and former Home Depot CEO.
