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President Joe Biden’s student loan handout is now estimated to cost taxpayers $500 billion, according to the committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Many ranking Democrats have praised Biden’s executive action, but it was not long ago that some of them admitted the president lacks authority for such a sweeping action without congressional authority.
In July 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told members of the press, “People think the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.”
Jen Psaki during her tenure as White House Press Secretary repeatedly said from the briefing room podium and in other media interviews when she was asked about Biden’s delay to act on student loan cancelation that he was waiting for Congress to “send him a bill,” suggesting that Congressional action was necessary for the President to act.
Biden himself cast doubt on his Oval Office authority related to student loan debt handouts when he was asked about his plans in a 2021 CNN Town Hall.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a press conference. (Getty Images)
“I do think that, in this moment of economic pain and strain, that we should be eliminating interest on the debts that are accumulated, number one,” the president said.
And, number two, I’m prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not $50,000… Because I don’t think I have the authority to do it by signing with a pen.”
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on student loan debt in the Roosevelt Room of the White House August 24, 2022 in Washington, DC. P (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Since the Wednesday announcement, the White House has come under heavy scrutiny for Biden’s sweeping executive action without congressional approval. Legal experts have said that Biden is stretching the function of a post-9/11 law that, during a declared national emergency, gave the executive branch power to ensure military members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be penalized for late or missing federal student loan payments.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a rally hosted by the Democratic National Committee. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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The perceived political calculation of the presidentially-decreed student loan handout could eventually cost the Biden White House in court, as some experts say the legal basis is too thin to hold up at the Supreme Court.