[June 27, official Washington Examiner editorial] The lawlessness of President Joe Biden‘s power grabs is made especially clear when even Democratic-appointed judges repeatedly smack them down.
Two judges appointed by left-wing former President Barack Obama did so this week, putting Biden’s student loan vote-buying scheme into merited limbo. The even better news is that by upholding the Constitution’s separation of powers, the judges are also helping save taxpayers nearly half a trillion dollars.
The two cases in district courts, one in Kansas and one in Missouri, involved Biden’s second attempt via executive fiat to transfer loans on a massive scale from the students who borrowed the money to taxpayers who did not. The Supreme Court struck down Biden’s first attempt, so this time, his appointees at the Education Department cited a different law to claim authority for the debt largesse.
Loan forgiveness makes suckers of responsible former students who paid back their federally guaranteed loans. It also, according to estimates accepted by one of the courts, adds at least $475 billion over 10 years to the federal debt. Those who already paid full tuition and people who never attended college would foot that bill.
Biden figures that half a trillion dollars or extra fiscal irresponsibility is worth the price if it attracts the votes of 4 million deadbeat borrowers who would see their obligations eliminated, plus another 30 million who would walk away from at least part of what they owe.
As the judges in the two cases noted, though, only Congress, not the executive branch, has constitutional authority to appropriate taxpayer dollars. Both judges concluded that Congress did not give the president or his appointees the power to spend money from the Treasury to repay loans on this massive scale. Both judges allowed the Education Department to alter the schedule of borrowers’ repayments but not to write off the loans entirely…. [The full editorial is at this link.]
