Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
President Joe Biden and his surrogates indicated Thursday that they would not relent in their effort to cancel billions in student loan debt.
In a filing in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department indicated it would appeal lower courts’ decisions to freeze or strike the president’s loan forgiveness program.
Monday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction barring the Department of Education from erasing student loan debt. Meanwhile, a 5th Circuit judge struck down the program whole cloth.
“We are confident in our legal authority to carry out this program, and will be taking this fight to the Supreme Court so that borrowers can get the clarity and relief they deserve quickly,” White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said in a statement reported by CNN. “President Biden will never stop fighting to deliver relief to working and middle class Americans.”
In all likelihood, it will be many months before the end of the legal struggle between the Biden administration and numerous entities that oppose Biden’s executive order that would cancel $10,000 or $20,000 in student loan debt for thousands of borrowers.
Republican lawmakers have been generally opposed to the plan since its announcement in August.
“The president’s plan to forgive student loans is incredibly unfair to those taxpayers who never incurred student debt because they didn’t attend college in the first place or because they either worked their way through school or their family pinched pennies and planned for higher education, and it will do nothing to address the problems that actually created this debt crisis,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune said at the time. “Regrettably, Democrats have made clear that they do not have a serious plan to lower the cost of higher education and instead support putting taxpayers and working families on the hook for billions of dollars of student loans in a blatant political payoff.”
Conservative tax advocacy groups and Republican attorneys general have all sued to end the program, and the next legal fight will be over whether the conservative states have standing to bring a suit.
Earlier this week, The Hill reported that House Republicans likely will attempt to end the program through legislative action, a plan that on its surface seems doomed to fail thanks to a lack of votes in the Senate and an abundance of Biden in the White House.
However, The Hill quoted a pair of experts who stated Republicans could make progress if they bide their time until a “must have’ bill enters the lower chamber.
By withholding their yes vote,, Republicans could force Biden to yield.