Biden betrays workers and the Constitution with student loan antics

Visiting Wisconsin last week, President Joe Biden announced his revised plan to cancel or reduce federal student debt for over 30 million borrowers. This “alternative path,” in Biden’s words, represents his administration’s renewed effort to cancel student debt. It follows his initial effort to cancel $20,000 in debt for 43 million borrowers — amounting to $400 million of taxpayer money. That gambit was struck down at the Supreme Court.

The problem?

​Canceling student debt amounts to transferring wealth from workers to higher earners. According to one report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, America’s highest earners will reap nearly two-thirds of the giveaway and the 87% of people without student loans will be stuck with the bill. Furthermore, forgiving these loans will inflate the soaring costs of college and incentivize more students to continue borrowing massive amounts of money, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, for degrees they will likely never be able to repay.

Conservatives should reject out of hand any federal bailout that subsidizes the college and university system.

Our schools of higher learning have become hotbeds of left-wing extremism, including anti-Americanism and anti-white racism; critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion; safe spaces; restrictions of free speech; antisemitic protests; violent riots; and so much more. Our college system no longer exists to produce well-rounded students prepared for life as self-governing citizens; instead, it exists to indoctrinate our young people and create loyal foot soldiers for progressive values. We should not be bailing out such institutions, nor should we be encouraging students to solicit their own indoctrination.

But there is a deeper structural problem at play here, too. 

After his initial plan to cancel student debt failed, Biden bragged that “the Supreme Court blocked it, but that didn’t stop me.” This statement is an open rejection of our constitutional system of checks and balances and the separation of powers, which secures liberty for us as Americans. As most of us learned in grade school, Congress passes laws, the executive branch enforces laws, and the Supreme Court interprets laws. By moving forward with this student loan plan, Biden is actively upending our system of checks and balances and rejecting the very foundations of our constitutional order.

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It is also no coincidence that Biden is doing this during an election year. The Biden administration is engaging in what amounts to an illegal payout to millions of young voters, hoping to boost his flailing campaign in November. The irony is that Biden calls his opponents “extremists” and “threats to democracy,” while he then engages in unconstitutional actions in order to manipulate the electorate into supporting him.

Let’s hope that state attorneys general and the Supreme Court step up to stop this gross abuse of power. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for institutions that teach their pupils to hate the principles that made this country great. 

Dr. Ben Carson is the founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute.