Thursday, February 22, 2024

Posting because I love the headline

The Corner: "Sugar Daddy Joe Biden and the Student-Loan Hustle,"

Hey, those votes ain't gonna buy themselves.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There must be a glitch in your website archive. I can find no sign of your objection to President Trump quadrupling government handouts to farmers from $11.5 billion to $46 billion. While tweeting "I hope [it's] the thing they will most remember."

Community Notes said...

Readers added context they thought people might want to know

All farm subsidies are created either by farm bills passed by Congress, or are ad hoc payments that need congressional approval.

Biden's student loan bailout is an attempt to create a subsidy by executive action alone, not involving Congress, and in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling.

https://crsreports.congress.gov...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics...

Anonymous said...

I hate to take a thick steaming dump on your Readers Context shtick, but... well, actually I don't really hate to do it.


(1) Trump tapped into the Commodity Credit Corp to implement his farm subsidies. The CCC is a federal agency within the Department of Agriculture. Congress has no sway over such decisions since it passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, which authorizes that CCC is reimbursed for any net realized losses. Like $46 billion of free cash payouts.


(2) Previous presidents have created subsidies by executive orders. For example:

*John Kennedy unilaterally declared the existence of the Peace Corps. It was funded for more than half a year before Congress did so.

*Donald Trump signed an executive order for a $400 unemployment benefit. He even signed an executive order deferring student loan payments.

*Donald Trump authorized funding for his border wall by improperly diverting money from Defense and the Treasury. When petitioned, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with Trump's border wall funding grab.


(3)You are wrong about "defying" the Supreme Court. The Court ruled against Biden's sweeping debt forgiveness plan. The Justices have not ruled at all on Biden's current series of smaller actions, which are being implemented via the 1965 Higher Education Act. The HEA gives the Secretary of Education the power to “compromise, waive, or release” any “claim” against student borrowers.

The Supreme Court is unlikely to wiggle around that word “release.” For that reason, many Democrats had urged Biden to use the HEA from the beginning.

But even if the Supreme Court manages to find a way, the debt forgiveness can has been successfully kicked all the way to the 2024 election. Much like some of Trump's legal appeals.

Regardless of the ultimate outcome, millions of young voters have already received a financial benefit that cannot be undone. From their benefactor, Joseph R. Biden.

"I hope it's the thing they will most remember."