Joe Biden’s plan to wipe out $400 million in college loan debt has got lots of problems — and not just its constitutionality.
A skeptical U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week on the issue. Except for a possible technicality that would let the loan forgiveness skirt through, the majority appears poised to say that the president does not have legal authority to unilaterally write off these loans.
Potential beneficiaries are moaning over the “unfairness” of it all.
The only unfairness would be is if they are allowed to pawn off their debt on all the other taxpayers, including those who either didn’t go to college, didn’t borrow if they did go, or, if they did borrow, had already paid their loans back.
There is nothing more special about student loans than any other kind of debt, even if the rhetoric within the Democratic Party tries to pretend there is. Chief Justice John Roberts made this point precisely when he asked why a student borrower gets better treatment than a contemporary who decides not to go to college but instead borrows to start his own lawn service. Both went into debt on the expectation that it’s a good investment on their financial future. Why should one get loan forgiveness and the other not?
Besides, those with student loans have already received preferential treatment. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have had an interest-free moratorium on loan payments for the past three years — much longer than most of them needed, considering how quickly the economy rebounded and how close to full employment the nation has been for some time.
Of course there are sob stories about people who will never be able to pay off their student loan. But that’s a smokescreen for what’s really going on. Under Biden’s plan, both the needy and the unneedy will get a break. An individual could earn $125,000 a year — a darned good wage in most parts of this country — and still get at least $10,000 in debt canceled.
Wholesale student loan forgiveness is nothing more than an attempt to throw money at a voting bloc — young college graduates — that leans Democratic and on which the incumbent president is counting for his reelection.
Those who support the loan forgiveness are brainwashing the college-educated into thinking they are entitled to this benefit. They are not.
No one told them where to go to school, what to study or how much to borrow. They made these decisions willfully. If they have buyer’s remorse now, that’s a shame, but they shouldn’t expect everyone else — including those who are earning less than they are — to bail them out.
