Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of six states suing to block President Biden’s $400 billion student loan payoff scheme. While liberal Justices such as Elena Kagan seemed sympathetic to the idea that Congress gave Biden that power, the majority conservative Justices thankfully were skeptical of his attempt to rewrite the law, the Constitution and the English language.
They were right to be skeptical, since Biden himself has previously said he didn’t have the power to do this unilaterally. Also, the law he’s citing that allows the Education Department to forgive student loans was called the “Heroes Act” and was limited to military members fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11. Biden is trying to expand it to any college loan borrower earning up to a six-figure income.
If allowed to stand, this program will harm every American taxpayer and every citizen who doesn’t want presidents to rewrite laws, ignore the constitutional separation of powers, and rule like kings.
I’m not a lawyer, but I would submit as evidence a photo of a U.S. Marine in Iraq and a photo of a nose-ringed gender studies major and ask the Court, “Which one of these people do you think Congress meant when they said ‘Heroes’?”
Biden’s Naked Power Grab
Hopefully, the SCOTUS will kill this naked power grab, an attempt to usurp Congress’ constitutional power to determine major spending in order to buy votes from a key Democrat constituency: under-employed college grads with useless degrees. It’s also a huge transfer of wealth from poor working class taxpayers to wealthy degreed professionals. And once again, a Biden spending plan would supercharge inflation. Tuition at private colleges is already up by 150% since 1995, and if colleges think they can charge any amount and the government will pay it off, what do you think that will do to tuition prices in the future?
We All Have ‘Standing’ in This Huge Transfer of Wealth
One sticking point is that the SCOTUS might refuse to rule based on the plaintiffs not having “standing”; that is, not being able to show that they are directly harmed. “Standing” has become a too-common method in recent years for courts to dodge their responsibility to protect the Constitution. If allowed to stand, this program will harm every American taxpayer and every citizen who doesn’t want presidents to rewrite laws, ignore the constitutional separation of powers, and rule like kings. We should all have “standing” to oppose it.
The Unhinged Meltdown Outside the Court
Of course, the more entertaining show was going on outside the Supreme Court, where all the protesters were gathered to demand that we pay off loans they voluntarily assumed.
Yes, that woman giving the crazy rant is the president of our largest teachers’ union. This is the person leading the people we pay to teach our children! Instead of paying off those student loans, maybe the students should demand a refund from the schools.
I couldn’t help thinking that since there are 11 million jobs open in America right now, maybe if those protesters would just take one of those, they could start paying off their student loans and then they wouldn’t have their Mondays free to hang out on sidewalks, demanding that other people pay their bills for them.
Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.
Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.