In the runup to the recent off-year election, President Biden announced a massive student loan forgiveness program. One may legitimately question the timing of this announcement; on the surface it smacks of political opportunism.
If the Supreme Court decides that President Biden was not justified in canceling a portion of student loan debt, then Biden should try to get a reform package through Congress, Orlando E. Delogu writes. Seth Wenig/Associated Press, File
But the president and his people characterized it as a long-overdue righting of wrongs by lenders who have reaped tens of millions of dollars (in profits) from ill-informed students, their parents and the widespread use of “fine print” provisions that came home to bite unsophisticated borrowers. Readers can decide which characterization they prefer.
Politics aside, it’s worth noting that the federal bureaucracy (and college student loan guidance personnel) have done little over the years to distinguish (ferret out) the “loan sharks” in the student loan industry from the honest brokers in this category of loans. Nor have they been quick in crediting (or even notifying) borrowers with respect to loan reduction provisions, penalty clauses, penalty-free delay provisions dealing with borrower incapacity or national emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
While acknowledging the president’s long-standing generosity of spirit with respect to those the system has abused in one way or another – which includes the many mired in student loan debt – the president is nonetheless obliged to follow the law, even in pursuit of a worthy end.
That brings us to the point of this piece. A Washington Post story carried by the Press Herald (“Supreme Court to review legality of Biden’s student loan forgiveness program,” Dec. 2) noted that: “The Supreme Court on Thursday announced it will expedite review of the legality of President Biden’s plan to cancel federal student loan debt for millions of borrowers.”
Two different lower federal courts had put the president’s program on hold. Kudos to the Supreme Court for expediting its review. The issues are important and need to be settled as soon as possible.
The president’s staff (including legal counsel) have no doubt fashioned a line of reasoning that justifies his actions. If that reasoning prevails in the U. S. Supreme Court, good on them.
But many observers, including the two lower federal courts, have recognized that there is a vast difference between COVID-related delays in student loan repayments and the outright cancelling of a portion of the debt. Delays might not have been challenged and, if challenged, might well have been sustained. Outright presidential cancellation seems to many to be a step too far. The fact that both lower courts have blocked the program during this litigation indicates that they believe the president went too far.
If the Supreme Court takes that view, I’d urge the president to not give up. He’s trying to do the right thing – to take steps that are long overdue. He needs to put his reforms (including a measure of debt reduction) in a more correct legal form, i.e., in the form of detailed, carefully drafted legislation. Even in our polarized era, Democrats and Republicans alike have constituents who have been and continue to be hurt by student loan abuses of the past and present. A bipartisan student loan reform package seems possible.
A judicial challenge to a congressional enactment signed by the president is unlikely to succeed. That’s the road I’d have urged the president to take in the first place. And if the Supreme Court sustains the reasoning of the lower federal courts, it may be the only road open to him. Stay tuned.
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