Biden’s student loan forgiveness bailout plan was decisively blocked by a federal judge last evening.

A federal judge in Texas has struck down President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, declaring it illegal.

The lawsuit was filed by a conservative group, the Job Creators Network Foundation, in October on behalf of two borrowers who did not qualify for debt relief.

Biden’s program was already on hold due a separate legal challenge.

The parties, shopping, and trips planned by those who thought they were getting a cash windfall just got put on hold, indefinitely. Golly, whatever will they do no? Learn to budget better? 

Keep in mind, this bailout was going to cost taxpayers somewhere to the north of $300 billion dollars once it was all said and done. Yet Biden persisted in trying to make this happen, even though his Democrat-led Congress refused to enact any legislation. That’s right. He utilized, illegally I might add, executive orders to try and make this happen. 

Biden planned to “forgive” up to $10,000 in federal student debt for those making under $125,000 annually and households making under $250,000, as well as relieving $20,000 in debt for Pell grant recipients. The executive action would transfer the cost of the loans to the American public.

Here’s the problem with this in addition to the fact that it will cost us billions to “forgive” these loans. Only certain people are eligible, which can be construed as discriminatory. Which led in part to this case before Judge Pittman. As he notes, Biden tried to use the HEROES Act as justification for debt forgiveness. Keep in mind, the HEROES Act is only to be used during a national emergency.

In a court filing responding to the complaint, the Justice Department argues that the 2003 statute underpinning Biden’s plan doesn’t require notice and comment. That law, known as the Heroes Act, authorizes the secretary of education “to alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer as a result of national emergencies.”

Since Covid was a national emergency, the Biden Administration used that as justification, which was quite the stretch given the parameters of what is and isn’t a national emergency.

Another key point is this:

Defendants seem to argue that no one has standing to challenge the Program because where the government is providing a benefit, nobody is harmed by the existence of that benefit. ECF No. 32 at 57–58. And according to Defendants, “sometimes the result is that there is executive or legislative action for which there isn’t an appropriate plaintiff.” Id. at 57 (emphasis added). The Court must disagree. The Supreme Court has recognized that a plaintiff has standing to challenge a government benefit in many cases. See, e.g., Ne. Fla. Chapter of Associated Gen. Contractors of Am. v. City of Jacksonville, 508 U.S. 656, 666 (1993) (holding that plaintiffs who did not qualify for government benefits had standing); Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U.S. 714, 721, (1986) (holding that the failure to receive benefits is enough to confer Article III standing). …

Plaintiffs have a concrete interest in having their debts forgiven to a greater degree. Brown is ineligible for the Program because her loans are commercially held. And Taylor is ineligible for the full $20,000 in debt forgiveness under the Program because he did not receive a Pell Grant in college. Brown and Taylor’s inability to obtain the full benefit of debt forgiveness under the Program flows directly from the Program’s eligibility requirements. Thus, Defendants’ procedural error of not providing for a notice-and-comment period—which the Court must assume as true for standing—deprived Plaintiffs of “a non-illusory opportunity to pursue [the] benefit” of greater debt forgiveness and an opportunity to advocate for the expansion of the eligibility criteria of the Program. Ecosystem Inv. Partners v. Crosby Dredging, LLC, 729 F. App’x 287, 292 (5th Cir. 2018).

You can read the entire 26-page ruling here. 

What’s amusing and telling is Chuck Schumer’s reaction.

This MAGA judge is siding with the special interests over what’s best for the people. This is why we need a Senate Democratic Majority.

But the law is on our side and we will keep fighting for the millions of Americans with student debt. https://t.co/g1Bo72p5go

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 11, 2022

Chuck pontificates that those in debt WANT student loan forgiveness and NEED student loan forgiveness and a Senate majority will ensure that happens. Except the Senate and the House have had years to put together legislation to do this, and have held a majority since 2020. Yet they did nothing. 

The political reality is this. Congress won’t and never had any plans to fix this. This is pandering to a specific group of people for political points. It was a specific group of people of whom the majority admitted they were planning parties and trips with their windfall. 

It was executive orders for votes. Now a federal judge has put the kibosh on the entire thing. 

Feature Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey/flickr/CC BY 2.0.