Posted on 08/26/2022 5:31:59 AM PDT by lasereye
President Joe Biden's plan to cancel up to $40,000 of student loan debt for households earning $249,000 a year is "reckless" and "indefensible," former Obama adviser Jason Furman said Wednesday.
Furman, a Harvard professor who served as deputy director of the U.S. National Economic Council, denounced the administration's proposal in a lengthy Twitter thread. "Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless," he wrote. "Doing it while going well beyond one campaign promise ($10K of student loan relief) and breaking another (all proposals paid for) is even worse."
In response to a White House fact sheet citing examples of how the plan would help low- and middle-income Americans, the economics expert questioned why the administration would "design a policy that would provide up to $40,000 to a married couple making $249,000" and includes law and business school loans among those eligible for forgiveness. Furman also slammed the "incoherent, inconsistent [and] indefensible cherry picking" the White House used to argue the plan would not lead to increased inflation.
"There are a number of other highly problematic impacts including encouraging higher tuition in the future, encouraging more borrowing, creating expectations of future debt forgiveness, and more," Furman wrote, adding that hardworking Americans "will pay for this either in the form of higher inflation or in higher taxes or lower benefits in the future."
Many legal experts, including former Obama administration attorney Charles Rose, have argued that Biden lacks the authority to unilaterally cancel student debt. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) concurred with that assessment. "People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not," she told reporters in July 2021. "He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress."
Furman noted these concerns while adding that even if Biden's plan was "technically legal" it would not be a "reasonable" use of executive authority. "I don't like this amount of unilateral Presidential power," he wrote.
I paid for my damn loan now I have to pay for some morons loan because they studied something worthless. F^^K THIS!!!!
in an unrelated report, college tuition just increased $40,000 a year.
Almost NONE of all the grandiose schemes proposed, and many already enacted into law, have any provision of means by which they may be “paid for”. Thus, more and more inflation is being built into the already cascading mountain of debt looming, and no apparent way to escape the consequences.
“A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re are talking about real money.” An update on the quote from the late Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois.
Sooner or later (likely sooner) the fit will hit the shan.
It’s a worthless plan that costs half a trillion dollars. And over on CBS this morning they were upset that NASA has spent 90 billion over the past ten years on their program and research.
He does not have the power to do this.
I seem to recall Democrats complaining that “we can’t afford to build a wall.”
reverse robin hood from the party that brought you taxpayer subsidies for electric cars that only the rich can afford.
the whole higher education scheme is based upon student stupidity - pay top dollar for a worthless degree, then when you can’t find a job, the poor people who couldn’t go to college will bail you out so you can do more stupid stuff
This might all be a scam for the midterms. So Biden comes out with this ridiculous emergency order. Democrats in contested areas speak out against the plan, what a great way to distance themselves from Biden, appear moderate and save America with their bipartisanship. If this was so popular why didn’t some democrats draft a bill and pass it?
The bigger picture is that this is a huge payoff to “higher education”. Where does the cash go when a student gets a loan? To the schools. Who gets paid exorbitant fees to indoctrinate students? The so called “professors” who do the indoctrinations. Who found the way to make taxpayers PAY for that indoctrination? Politicians. Who is genuinely and royally getting screwed in all of this qwap? YOU guess. Bend over America. This will hurt! “I don’t need sex. My government screws me every day” applies here.
Another middle finger to the Middle Class people who work, play by the rules, and act responsibly. A gross, in-your-face move to use our money to buy votes. Just as with allowing illegal aliens to pour into our country. Wonderful.
lawyers own the lobbyists who own the Dem party. They want a break for their kids Ivy League loans they are on the hook for.
Higher education is a critical plank of the Revolution - they will never face any financial penalty from this government. They are doing work collectivists need done.
One thing we wont hear is the number of students who took out loans and never graduated.
So like the Dire Straits Song.. “ Money for Nothing” is what we are on the hook for.
encouraging more borrowing, creating expectations of future debt forgiveness, and more,”
To me, this is a major issue. What about students in school now, and into the future. They are borrowing for school now and years ahead. Will more people borrow more money, in the expectation that they will have loan forgiveness for their future loans?
Will people just expect that there will be loan forgiveness in the future? I don’t know if Biden planned this as a one time event, but will people start to think it will happen regularly in the future? And then will political pressures be brought to bear, to do this again and again????
Bkmk
Who’s going to stop him?
The word has been going around for months that the young had given up on Biden. He has to have their votes so he bought them.
They can’t say how they will pay for this because everyone else (who is going to pay) will hit the roof.
All the polling has said for months that the young have given up on Biden. He’s trying to buy their votes at everyone else’s expense. Giving $40,000 to families that make up to $249,000 a year will be inflationary, the FED will have to raise even more to undo that half-billion dollar explosion.
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