(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) President Joe Biden plans to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for Americans making less than $150,000 per year, according to reports, in a move of dubious legal merit and potentially catastrophic financial implications for taxpayers.
Though Biden planned to make the announcement during his May 28 commencement address at the University of Delaware, his alma mater, the White House has decided to cancel those plans in the aftermath of the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, according to a report from the Washington Post.
Anonymous officials told the Post that Biden’s plan would call for “limiting debt forgiveness to Americans who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly.”
The White House has denied the report, and the sources cautioned “some details of these plans could change before the White House makes the decision official,” the Post reported.
“No decisions have been made yet,” said White House spokesperson Vedant Petal, who lauded Biden’s total inaction on student loans since his election.
“As a reminder, no one has been required to pay a single dime of student loans since the president took office,” Patel told Reuters.
The exact same words were used by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a “press gaggle” on May 17.
“As a reminder, no one has been required to pay a single dime of student loans since the president took office,” Jean-Pierre said.
Biden’s forthcoming executive order will cost $230 billion, according to the Washington Post.
The figure comes from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which has also “estimated that roughly 70 percent of the benefit will go to those in the top half of the income spectrum.”
Biden’s plan has not been received favorably in certain quarters.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson argued on Twitter that “canceling $10,000 in student loan debt is like pouring a bucket of ice water on a forest fire.”
And National Review columnist Charles Cooke blasted Biden’s “illegal” policy.
“Joe Biden is about to desecrate his oath of office in order to engage in an act of wanton political suicide that, in addition to making a mockery of his vow to uphold the law, will . . . haunt the reputation and fortune of the arthritic Democratic Party for many years to come,” Cooke wrote.
