You have to give the Biden/Harris administration credit for stubbornness; they persist, despite all evidence to the contrary, in operating under the misapprehension that the solution to any issue is to throw enormous piles of taxpayer cash at it. That operating assumption also applies to student loan debt — debt taken on by students who signed contracts, who were given repayment terms, and who are now squawking about being made to pony up.
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Well, the Biden/Harris administration, virtually on their way out the door, is throwing a few billion more at these whiners.
The Biden administration announced another $4.28 billion in student loan handouts as President Biden and Vice President Harris prepare to leave the White House.
The massive loan handout will give 54,900 public workers loan forgiveness.
“Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a release on Friday.
The action brings the total loan forgiveness approved by Biden to nearly $180 billion for nearly 5 million borrowers.
The administration is touting this as an incentive for federal chair-warmers to remain in government. To a certain extent, I can see that; back in the day, the Army offered student loan repayment as part of your retention incentives, the official line being that the service needed smart, educated leaders. But you can carry a good thing too far, and extending something designed to keep warfighters in the service grows a little silly when it’s extended to bureaucrats.
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Here’s the onion:
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden pledged to forgive student loans for millions of Americans if elected, but the president has faced continuous legal roadblocks in his attempt to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.
Yes, he did — until the courts stamped the brakes on that illegal idea.
See Related: Another Blow to Joe: Appeals Court Blocks Biden Student Loan Plan
SCOTUS Stomps Brakes on Biden/Harris Student Loan Payoff Scheme
He may get away with this one, as it only appears to apply to federal employees. And, candidly, his time is running out anyway; this is just one last-ditch attempt at pandering to the almost universally leftist federal workforce.
But on the larger issue: We must note that these loans are not just magically erased. The money has been disbursed and needs paid back. No, this is not forgiveness; this is a transfer of debt from the young skulls full of mush who signed contracts to the taxpayers, many of whom have already paid off any student loans of their own.
Is it too much to ask that these people, who signed contracts and who read the repayment terms, pay their own loans back? What happened to taking responsibility for one’s own decisions?
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This is, of course, another argument for a major reform of how we finance higher education. As in, get the government out of it. Period. No more government-guaranteed student loans. If a student wants to go to university, let him or her show up at a commercial lender, high-school transcripts, university acceptance, and degree plan in hand, and ask for a loan. A promising student with a 4.0 average looking to pursue a STEM degree will probably be fine. A less-impressive kid with pink hair, a 3.2 average, looking to take an Underwater Ethnic Dog-Polishing Studies degree will be politely shown the door.
That’s the best and fastest way to reform higher education that I can think of.