House Cmte.: “There Is No Such Thing as Debt ‘Forgiveness;’” Joint Resolution to Block ‘Biden’s Student Loan Scam’ Advances

Craig Bannister | May 19, 2023
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On Thursday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce advanced a joint resolution (H.J. Res. 45) to block a Biden Administration rule forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for billions of dollars of student loans. H.J. Res. 45 is now scheduled to be considered by the House Rules Committee on Monday, May 22.

If passed by both the House and Senate, the joint resolution would overturn President Biden’s Debt Relief Plan and prevent any further extension of the pause on federal student loan repayment.

Introduced by Rep. Bob Good (R-VA.) in the House, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA.) on the Senate side, the joint resolution would overturn President Biden’s Debt Relief Plan and prevent any further extension of the pause on federal student loan repayment.

As the Committee’s report explains, the resolution seeks to save taxpayers more than three hundred billion dollars:

“H.J.Res.45 takes an important first step towards stopping the Biden Administration’s student loan scam by barring the discharge of up to $20,000 in federal student loans for borrowers making up to $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples) and preventing any further extension of the repayment pause. These Biden administration actions, first announced on August 24, 2022, would ultimately cost taxpayers $315.6 billion and would have unprecedented repercussions for students and taxpayers if implemented.”

“President Biden’s student loan scam is illegal, unfair, and immoral. There is no such thing as debt ‘forgiveness’” the Committee concludes, noting that the Biden rule punishes financially-responsible taxpayers:

“President Biden is simply transferring the debt from borrowers who willingly took out student loans to hardworking taxpayers who did not. This is no insignificant portion of the population: in fact, eighty-seven percent of Americans did not take out loans. This number includes those who did not go to college, who worked to avoid loans, or who had the grit to pay their loans back.”

“In total, the President’s illegal student loan schemes could cost taxpayers nearly $1 trillion dollars—that’s more than the federal government has spent on postsecondary education in our entire history,” the report explains.

“The repayment pause is exacerbating Biden’s inflation crisis caused by his party’s reckless spending spree,” the report says, citing analysis showing that Biden’s rule will continue to make inflation even worse:

“Since March 2020, most federal student loan borrowers have not had to pay a single penny on their student loans at a cost to taxpayers of $5 billion each month that the repayment pause continues (that is $200 billion to date).

“The repayment pause is exacerbating Biden’s inflation crisis caused by his party’s reckless spending spree. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), the latest extension of the repayment pause increased inflation by 20 basis points; Biden’s student loan bailout could increase inflation by an additional 27 basis points if it goes forward.”

“Thus, Biden’s bailout isn’t even benefitting borrowers in the short term. To make matters worse, loan forgiveness of white collar workers is making it harder for blue collar workers to put food on their table and gas in their cars—both in the present and in the future,” the report warns.

A joint resolution, which would have the same weight as a law, would take effect once both houses of Congress pass it and it is either signed by the president or his veto is overridden by Congress.

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