President Biden wants to forgive $430 billion dollars in federal loans currently owed by 40 million current or former students. To do so would make suckers of those who have either paid back their student loans or who never borrowed money for college or graduate school in the first place.
The issue is currently before the U. S. Supreme Court, which must decide whether President Biden can cancel student debt under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act. According to an article in Inside Higher Education, “Congress passed the first version of the HEROES Act in 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks, to allow the education secretary to waive or modify provisions of student loan programs for those affected by the attack. Congress expanded the law in 2003 so that the secretary could provide relief for borrowers affected by war, military operation or national emergency, as the secretary deems necessary. The Legislature made the act permanent in 2007.
“The law defines an affected individual as someone who is serving in active duty or in the National Guard during a war, military operation or national emergency; who lives or works in area declared a disaster area by a federal, state or local official in connection with a national emergency; or who ‘suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result of a war or other military operation or national emergency, as determined by the secretary, according to the statute.”
The article can be read at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/10/experts-disagree-whether-heroes-act-allows-debt-relief, and the HEROES Act itself can be read at (Pub. L. 108–76 (text) (PDF).
Biden and other candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination first proposed debt cancellation during the primaries. Biden cites the Covid-19 pandemic as the “national emergency” justifying the debt cancellation.
But Biden’s opponents in this matter say the debt cancellation for 40 million students is too broad and costly an action, that the Covid-19 pandemic does not constitute “a war or other military operation or national emergency,” as envisioned by the HEROES Act, and that use of the HEROES Act under these circumstances is inconsistent with its original meaning and purpose. Tellingly, this point is disputed by former Congressman George Miller (D-CA), a co-sponsor of the 2003 version of the HEROES Act and a supporter of Biden’s initiative.
How the Supreme Court will decide the issue remains to be seen. Should it allow Biden’s plan to go through, no doubt millions of debtors will be pleased and may reward Biden at the polls next year.
But actually, the debt will not actually be “canceled” or “wiped away.” Its burden will be transferred to the millions of taxpayers who did NOT contract to borrow the money, but whose tax dollars financed the loans on the supposition they would be repaid, and who are now left high and dry, with nothing to show but the addition of $430 billion to the national debt. Also left high and dry will be those who paid back their student loans or found other means of financing their education. Their only reward will be their new-found knowledge that had they borrowed the money and failed to pay the debt, the debt would have gone away (from them, at least) anyway.
Requiring those who borrowed money for their education to repay it will teach them a valuable lesson: One should pay one’s debts. Learning this lesson will invaluably help those who use credit cards, who borrow money to buy cars, and who take out mortgages to buy homes. On the other hand, implementation of Biden’s debt plan will teach nothing other than that debt repayment is for suckers.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville and taught politics and government at Tarleton since 1987. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990 to the present). He was Mayor Pro Tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He is a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the Stephenville Rotary Club and does volunteer work for the Boy Scouts of America. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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