The completely illegal and unconstitutional student loan debt cancellation that Joe Biden decided to hand out to his Democrat base yesterday is going to cost a LOT of money. What Team Biden is now actively trying to avoid is answering the question “how much?”

The details of the plan for the American people to pay off the publicly held college loans of people who got worthless degrees is not pretty. The administration hasn’t announced a price tag, and given what numbers other groups are coming up with, there’s a good reason why they would prefer not to say anything.

The National Taxpayers Union’s estimate of costs per taxpayer is based on data from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, which found the total cost of proposal could be $329.1 billion over 10 years, based on $10,000 in forgiveness for borrowers with less than $125,000 in income.”

Based on a total of under 158 million taxpayers in 2019, that works out to $2,085.59 per taxpayer, the National Taxpayers Union found.”

The Penn Wharton estimate is “definitely going to increase” based on the Pell Grant and income-based repayment features announced by Biden on Wednesday, Wharton professor Kent Smetters said.”

The Congressional Budget Office has yet to evaluate the total cost of the policy.”

So, does everyone have an extra $2000 lying around to help pay off the college debt of your local barista? Because that is essentially what will happen here. Those who got degrees in something that had no job prospects, are now going to get their debts paid by working people. Some of those people paid off their college debts. Some of those people chose cheaper colleges because they could afford it without debt. Some of those people didn’t go to college at all. But ALL of those people will be paying off the debts of others, because Joe Biden is very generous with YOUR money.

And it is YOUR money. It’s MY money. The government has no money, they can only take ours. But Team Biden wants to focus on rainbows and sunshine, not the dollar amounts involved. Please don’t ask them about the numbers, it just makes them nervous. How can you tell that they’re nervous? They can only keep repeating the same line.

"How much does this cost?"

Education Secretary Cardona: "The projections are still coming out”

"What's the range?"

Cardona: “Those projections are still coming out”

"How will this be paid for?"

Cardona: Biden "has been very clear about reducing the deficit” pic.twitter.com/R4JAIATzcQ

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 25, 2022

We don’t have a CBO score, and the Biden administration really is not going to like that number when it comes out. Even $2000 per taxpayer is bad, and that doesn’t even include the extra potential money for Pell Grant recipients.

Karine Jean-Pierre says thank you for that, by the way.

Karine Jean-Pierre: "Some of us in here probably had gotten Pell Grants. I had to get a Pell Grant when I went to college." pic.twitter.com/KzYFOIeslu

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 25, 2022

Jean-Pierre is in the position of having to defend this plan to the media, who are asking some not-very-easy questions of her. You see, the Biden administration is using the legal justification that COVID-19 is still a national emergency, so they are going to use the HEROES Act of 2003 to claim the authority to forgive student loan debt.

The HEROES Act, first enacted in the wake of the September 11 attacks, provides the Secretary broad authority to grant relief from student loan requirements during specific periods (a war,
other military operation, or national emergency, such as the present COVID-19 pandemic) and for specific purposes (including to address the financial harms of such a war, other military operation, or emergency). The Secretary of Education has used this authority, under both this and every prior administration since the Act’s passage, to provide relief to borrowers in connection with a war, other military operation, or national emergency, including the ongoing moratorium on student loan payments and interest.”

Specifically, the HEROES Act authorizes the Secretary to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs” if the Secretary “deems” such waivers or modifications “necessary to ensure” at least one of several enumerated purposes, including that borrowers are “not placed in a worse position financially” because of a national emergency. 20 U.S.C. § 1098bb(a)(1), (2)(A).”

But we aren’t IN a national emergency any more! As multiple people have pointed out, that was the Biden administration’s entire reasoning for dropping Title 42!

This is bullshit legal reasoning, but it’s especially bullshit legal reasoning when you remember that the Biden administration (correctly) ended Title 42 in May on the grounds that the pandemic was over. https://t.co/DjA0TeDj1p

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) August 24, 2022

This cannot be Schrödinger’s national emergency – unless there’s a Democrat in the White House, that is. And that is a question that Karine Jean-Pierre can’t answer, only dodge.

But even Karine Jean-Pierre has to admit they have no numbers.

“All of this, when it comes to cost, will depend on how many of the loans canceled were actually expected to be repaid,” Jean-Pierre said. “It will depend on how many borrowers actually take up this opportunity before we have a real sense.”

Jean-Pierre went on to argue that the cost will be offset by the deficit reduction included in other Biden administration priorities. She told reporters that the bill will not be “fully paid for” internally as past White House initiatives have been, but will be further offset by the resumption of loan payments after being paused since 2020.”

“We don’t believe that it’s going to increase the deficit, because what we’re saying is the $1.7 trillion – we’ve done the work to lower the deficit,” she said.”

Here are other questions we don’t have answers for yet, besides what the CBO will eventually say. The “American Rescue Plan” passed in 2021 laid the groundwork for any student debt forgiveness done by the federal government to be income tax free, otherwise it would be counted as taxable income. But what about state income tax laws? We don’t know. What about Parent Plus loans, where the parent takes out the loan in order to pay for their child’s college expenses? We only have word of mouth that these loans will be included, but so far there is nothing in writing. And does everyone know that this “debt cancellation” only applies to federal loans, not private loans?

There are many other unanswered questions out there, like IS THIS LEGAL. The answer to that is obviously no, but that’s not what Biden is worried about. His administration is likely trying to avoid hard numbers because they are thinking, like before with the eviction moratorium, that the Supreme Court may kill the entire plan. And then Biden would get to blame the Supreme Court for not being allowed to give out goodies to all his loyal Democrat voters. But will the Supreme Court do that? Well, someone with “standing” who can prove harm has to sue, but who has standing in this case is difficult to figure out. So if Team Biden was hoping to get the credit for the attempt, but avoid the blame in the execution, they may be out of luck.

In fact, we all might be out of luck – and money – if this goes forward.

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Featured image via Gunjan2021 on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license