Senate Dems Break Ranks With Biden Over Student Debt Relief

Biden and his team have long known they wanted to offer free tuition to students. The question was ‘how’.

When the COVID issue came up, they started coming trough the laws looking for any rule that could possibly give him authority to grant student debt relief unilaterally. He found a 9/11-era law on the books that was intended for people who were serving in the military.

The ‘COVID emergency’ gave him the justification to make good on that promise, at least until such time as as it worked its way through the courts. And if he loses in the courts, he can still claim to be Santa while someone else takes the blame as the Grinch.

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Separation of powers? Meh. That’s somebody else’s problem.

The Senate passed legislation blocking the President’s authority to cancel this debt.

The Senate passed Republican-led legislation Thursday seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt relief for tens of millions of borrowers, setting up a promised veto from the White House.
On a 52-46 vote, the Senate gave Congress’ final approval to the measure to nullify the debt cancellation program and repeal the freeze on student loan repayment and interest.
Democratic rebuke: Moderate Democrats teamed up with Republicans to pass the legislation. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) and Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema (Ariz.) voted in favor of the measure.
Manchin blasted Biden’s student loan program this week as a “reckless” plan that adds too much to the national debt. In a statement explaining his vote, Manchin said it also “forces hard-working taxpayers who already paid off their loans or did not go to college to shoulder the cost.” — Politico

What’s ironic about the anticipated exercise of this veto is that President Biden took unilateral action that exceeds the scope of his valid powers… as shown by the fact that it took creative rules interpretation from a law written in response to special circumstances 20 years ago.

Now, the President is expected to use his unilateral power (the Veto) to tell Congress that they cannot use their lawful powers (legislating) to tell the President that he has no right to usurp their authority in this matter.

The interesting wrinkle here is that members of his own party recognize he is out of line on this issue. They have sided with Republicans.

Whatever resolution that particular drama may eventually land on, all eyes now turn to the Supreme Court, expected to make a ruling before the end of June:

For months, the Biden administration’s ambitious plan to discharge billions of dollars of student loan debt has been on ice, blocked by lower courts, its fate left in the hands of skeptical conservative justices on the Supreme Court.
Decision day is fast approaching.
The stakes are high, with 43 million people eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief.
The total cost if the program ever goes into effect has been calculated at more than $400 billion, with the administration estimating that 20 million people would have all of their remaining student loan debt canceled.
The proposal is also important politically to President Joe Biden, as tackling student loan debt was a key pledge he made on the campaign trail in 2020 to energize younger voters. — NBC

Sources Cited:
Politico
NBC