Biden is already spending toward $1 trillion in student loan handouts
Fox News
Big student loan forgiveness proposals are taking center stage, but they obscure the hundreds of billions Biden has already spent.
Nat Malkus is a senior fellow and the deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
The grandest of Biden’s proposals is his blanket forgiveness of up to $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers earning $125,00 or less, which comes before the Supreme Court at the end of February. The administration maintains the president’s authority to categorically forgive student debt comes from the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 to address "financial harms of the COVID-19 pandemic," a pandemic whose public health emergency declaration Biden will end on May 11. The Penn Wharton Budget Model pegs the cost of Biden’s plan at $469 billion this year.
The court may rule against the president, at least in part because his plan violates the bedrock principle of separation of powers, but we know what the president will do if he can, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.