{"id":22211,"date":"2022-04-30T11:11:58","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T18:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=22211"},"modified":"2022-04-30T11:12:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T18:12:47","slug":"gop-accidentally-admits-that-biden-has-the-power-to-cancel-student-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/30\/gop-accidentally-admits-that-biden-has-the-power-to-cancel-student-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP ACCIDENTALLY ADMITS THAT BIDEN HAS THE POWER TO CANCEL STUDENT DEBT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By introducing a bill to prevent Joe Biden from wiping out student debt, \u201caren\u2019t Republican senators admitting that student debt cancellation is within the authority of the president?\u201d asked one journalist.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY KENNY STANCIL<\/a><\/strong> APRIL 28, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden speaks to guests during a visit to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University on April 14, 2022 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Allison Joyce\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams<\/a> on April 27, 2022. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday inadvertently acknowledged that President Joe Biden has the power to wipe out federal student loan debt with the stroke of a pen, a move the White House is considering<\/a> amid sustained pressure<\/a> from progressive advocates and congressional Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) unveiled<\/a> a bill that would constrain the executive branch\u2019s ability to provide relief to federal borrowers by taking away the Secretary of Education\u2019s unilateral authority to cancel outstanding loan balances, limiting the amount of time a presidential administration can suspend payments while adding congressional oversight to the process, and excluding people above a certain income threshold from potential benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the legislation has virtually no chance of passing and is intended to be a vehicle for the GOP\u2019s widely debunked<\/a> talking point that reducing or eliminating student debt would be a \u201cfiscally irresponsible\u2026 bailout [of] high-income earners<\/a>,\u201d The American Prospect<\/em>\u2018s David Dayen responded to its introduction by asking, \u201cAren\u2019t Republican senators admitting that student debt cancellation is within the authority of the president?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thune\u2019s bill, co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy (LA), Richard Burr (NC), Mike Braun (IN), and Roger Marshall (KS), comes just one day after multiple news outlets reported<\/a> that Biden is exploring options for canceling at least some federal student debt after he extended<\/a> the repayment moratorium through Aug. 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently estimated<\/a> that the two-year pause on student loans held directly by the federal government, first enacted at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and extended multiple times by the Trump and Biden administrations, has saved nearly 37 million borrowers almost $200 billion collectively through April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While welcoming Biden\u2019s fourth extension of the payment and interest rate freeze earlier this month, progressives stressed<\/a> that it only postpones economic hardship for millions of borrowers\u2014many of whom are struggling<\/a> to make ends meet amid widespread price gouging<\/a> and disappearing federal relief programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new survey released last week found<\/a> that over half of student loan borrowers in the US would not currently be able to make a single monthly payment\u2014the national average is estimated to be $460<\/a>\u2014if they were required to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been more than a year since the Biden administration received<\/a> a memo from the Department of Education (DOE) outlining the extent of his authority to broadly cancel federal student debt without legislation. Despite repeated<\/a> demands from dozens<\/a> of Democratic lawmakers, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has not yet made the concealed memo public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal experts<\/a> and Democratic lawmakers<\/a> say the Higher Education Act of 1965 clearly empowers Cardona to wipe out roughly $1.6 trillion in student debt for all 45 million federal borrowers nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section 432(a) of the law states that the education secretary has the authority to modify loan terms and \u201cenforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand, however acquired, including any equity or any right of redemption\u201d\u2014a provision the DOE has invoked to unilaterally eliminate<\/a> more than $17 billion in student debt for hundreds of thousands of borrowers in the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Debt Collective has drafted<\/a> an executive order for the president directing Cardona to \u201ccancel all obligations to repay federal student loans,\u201d which would save borrowers hundreds of dollars per month and boost<\/a> the nation\u2019s gross domestic product by more than $173 billion in the first year alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent polling shows<\/a> that a majority of adults in the US, including those without education loans to repay, support student debt cancellation. Demands for action are especially pronounced<\/a> among young voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncertainty over what Biden\u2014who has yet to fulfill his modest campaign promise<\/a> to eliminate up to $10,000 of debt for certain borrowers\u2014may do to address the student debt crisis comes as Democrats face a looming battle for control of Congress in this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Democratic lawmakers have urged<\/a> the White House to wipe out at least $50,000 per federal borrower while economic justice advocates continue to call for<\/a> the cancellation of all outstanding federal student debt as a step toward free higher education for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s approval rating among people under the age of 35 has plummeted during his time in office, a collapse that political observers have attributed<\/a> to the Democratic Party\u2019s failure to advance downwardly redistributive policies through legislative or executive channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInaction is going to be really dangerous for us in the midterms,\u201d Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has urged Biden to eliminate all student debt, said<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnthusiasm is really low,\u201d Omar said of Democratic voters. \u201cIt\u2019s important to listen to the people who have sent us to represent them\u2026 and I know that student debt cancellation is a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you want to help us keep producing more of the radically independent news and in-depth analysis The Real News provides, please consider making a tax-deductible donation<\/a> or becoming a monthly sustainer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By introducing a bill to prevent Joe Biden from wiping out student debt, \u201caren\u2019t Republican senators admitting that student debt cancellation is within the authority of the president?\u201d asked one journalist. BY KENNY STANCIL APRIL 28, 2022 (CommonDreams.org) President Joe Biden speaks to guests during a visit to North Carolina Agricultural… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22211"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22211"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22213,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22211\/revisions\/22213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}