A federal judge in Texas struck down the Biden administration’s proposed student loan relief program on Thursday. Biden’s relief program sought to relieve up to $20,000 for some individuals.
The ruling came after a lawsuit from a conservative organization, the Job Creators Network Foundation, who were representing two borrowers who did not qualify for debt relief. US District judge Mark Pittman sided with the conservative group in his ruling, declaring that the Biden administration violated federal procedure.
In his ruling Pittman wrote, “Whether the Program constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court to determine. “Still, no one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States.”
“In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone,” Pittman argued. “Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government … The Court is not blind to the current political division in our country. But it is fundamental to the survival of our Republic that the separation of powers as outlined in our Constitution be preserved. And having interpreted the HEROES Act, the Court holds that it does not provide ‘clear congressional authorization’ for the Program proposed by the Secretary.”
The Biden administration’s central argument for the legality to forgive the debt was the HEROES Act in 2003, as they claimed Congress granted the secretary of education the power to do so.
However, as Judge Pittman argued, “The program is thus an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and must be vacated.” The Justice Department stated they intend to appeal the decision.
This decision is likely pleasing news for many taxpayers who are frustrated with the concept of them having to send their tax dollars to students who took on too much debt to attend college. A recent survey discovered that most people would end up spending the additional money they would save on non-essential items.
The survey found that 73 percent of the applicants would spend the extra money on non-essential goods such as smartphones, vacations, and drugs and alcohol. It also discovered that Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to think it is justified to waste the additional money on these types of items.
The most popular items applicants said they would buy are smartphones, stocks, gifts, gaming systems, weddings, drugs and alcohol, and gambling. The forgiveness program marketed itself as an attempt to help struggling individuals pay off their overbearing debt. Instead it looks like a lot of people will treat this as a stimulus check that will fuel their consumerism.
Many tax payers feel it is not their duty to foot the bill for the overpriced college education that many people have taken exorbitant loads of debt to acquire. It is a blatant redistribution of wealth, and by the looks of the survey, a lot of the relief will be spent on trivial non-essential goods.
It will be interesting to see what happens as this ruling is appealed.
-Macro Conservative
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