Democrats press Biden for student loan workaround
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images.
Democratic lawmakers, particularly progressives, are urging President Biden to try to circumvent a Friday Supreme Court ruling blocking his student debt forgiveness program.
Why it matters: Pressure from the left has been effective in getting Biden to look past his own reservations about the legality of broad executive actions.
What they're saying: "As President Biden said yesterday following the court’s bad ruling on affirmative action, 'We cannot let this decision be the last word'," Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said in a statement.
- Omar, one of the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said "every option needs to be on the table," calling for the administration to "continue the fight—to follow through on their promise" to borrowers.
- Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said that "while the Supreme Court closed the door to this approach, I refuse to believe there’s no path forward."
- "I am calling on President Biden and Secretary Cardona to use other tools available to them to swiftly cancel student debt," said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).
The intrigue: The calls also came from Democratic leadership.
- "The fight will not end here," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). "The Biden administration has remaining legal routes to provide broad-based student debt cancellation."
The other side: “The President of the United States cannot hijack twenty-year-old emergency powers to pad the pockets of his high-earning base,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), calling the ruling a “heavy blow to Democrats’ distorted and outsized view of executive power.”
- National Republican Senatorial Spokesperson Phil Letsou, in a statement, asked if vulnerable Senate Democrats will “retract their support for Biden’s illegal bailout.”
Zoom in: Similar to their reactions to the court striking down affirmative action in college admissions, Democrats took personal aim at the judges and the court.
- "The rightwing justices reek of corruption," said Omar, citing, among other things, recent reporting about lavish gifts accepted by conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
- Schumer said the ruling "shows the callousness of the MAGA Republican-controlled Supreme Court."
- "The hypocrisy is clear: as justices accept lavish, six-figure gifts, they don’t dare to help Americans saddled with student loan debt, instead siding with the powerful, big-monied interests," Schumer said.
Zoom out: In a 6-3 decision on Friday, the court's conservatives ruled that Biden's plan to forgive student loans up to $10,000 for borrowers making under $125,000 and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients is unconstitutional.
- The justices sided with six Republican state attorneys general who sued to block the plan on the grounds it exceeded the federal government's authority. The program, which saw 26 million applicants, had been blocked by lower federal court orders since November.
- The Department of Education has reportedly been devising backup plans for both a short-term grace period for when loans come due in October, and longer term relief.
- But conservative opponents of student debt relief are similarly preparing to sue to block those potential plans.
