Elaine Parker: Biden’s Loan Forgiveness Programs Are Lawless and Unfair

Team Trump should scrap the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness programs as part of its first 100-day agenda. These programs are lawless and unfair, and they fail to address the root cause of the student loan problem.
Stopping them can also free up funds to advance Trump’s broader pro-growth agenda, such as extending and expanding the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which is set to expire this year.
President Biden’s proposed student loan bailout in 2022 was one of the most flagrant examples of executive overreach in modern American history.
Job Creators Network Foundation sued the administration on behalf of two plaintiffs, and our lawsuit played an integral role in the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to strike down the program.
Our case blocked the bailout at the district level and stopped the application process, allowing the legal challenge to go to the Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, this victory proved somewhat pyrrhic, as the Biden administration has since lawlessly pursued a series of student loan bailout workarounds in a naked (and ultimately fruitless) vote-buying attempt.
According to the Education Department, Biden forgave $184 billion of student loans for more than five million Americans. “The Supreme Court blocked it,” Biden bragged last year, referring to his flagship program, “but that didn’t stop me.”
Biden’s loan forgiveness in all its forms is unfair to Americans who have to pick up the tab for their generally wealthier counterparts.
Ordinary folks don’t get their small business loans, credit card debt, or medical bills forgiven. So, why should student debt be treated any differently?
But the bigger issue is that student debt forgiveness ignores the heart of the problem: Unaccountable colleges that overcharge students.
Colleges have raised tuition by more than double the inflation rate over the last generation while sitting on nearly $1 trillion in endowments.
If anyone should be on the hook for student loans, it’s colleges themselves. For too long, they have milked students to pay for administrative bloat, programs, and amenities that provide no educational value.
Biden’s bailouts give colleges a blank check to continue overcharging and underperforming. They simply kick the can down the road until a new crop of graduates will be clamoring to have their loans forgiven too.
Stopping them can set the stage for long-overdue bipartisan action to hold colleges accountable and stop the wealth transfer from taxpayers and middle-class families.
For instance, colleges should have a direct stake in the outcomes of their students and bear responsibility when graduates can’t repay their loans.
Scrapping the programs can also help pay for an extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has been a lifeline for American small businesses during the weak Biden economy. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) estimates that ending the student loan bailout can save $200 to $330 billion.
By directing these funds to pro-growth initiatives like extending the tax cuts, college graduates can benefit from economic and job opportunities that make their student loans easier to repay.
Ending Biden’s student loan bailouts is the right move from a legal, moral, fiscal, economic, and college cost perspective.
Elaine Parker is the president of Job Creators Network Foundation.