WASHINGTON, D.C. – If you happen to be in a grocery store or gas station in Kansas the next few days, get a good look at the person at the checkout ahead of you. You – and probably your yet-tobe born grandkids – may be paying off that person’s federal student loan.
President Biden again mocked a U.S. Supreme Court ruling recently and approved loan forgiveness for another 2,550 student loan borrowers in Kansas, bringing the total now to more than 26,000 Kansans who’ve been exempted from repaying the money they borrowed for their college educations. Biden’s actions nationwide yesterday sent the loans of another 277,000 borrowers –$7.4 billion – to the heaping pile of U.S. national debt.
Supporters of U.S. President Joe Biden’s s plans for student debt relief march near the White House after a U.S. Supreme Court decision blocking the president’s plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt, in Washington, U.S. June 30, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis That “exemption” of course doesn’t include the portion of their federal income tax – and taxes to be withheld from paychecks of workers who have yet to enter the workforce – that will go toward service on the nation’s present $34 trillion federal debt, where that “forgiven” student loan debt will now reside.The White House says those forgiven Kansas borrowers total $1.2 billion in debt cancellation out of the total $153 billion so far gifted, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, to 4.3 million Americans. While the recent move adds $7.4 billion to the nation’s debt load, higher prices driven by inflation are racking U.S. households.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach led a contingent of 11 other state AGs to oppose the federal giveaway in late March, following the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court which said the president lacked the Constitutional authority to forgive federal student loans. The justices said that authority rested solely in the U.S. Congress. The Biden Administration has argued that Congress gave authority to the U.S. Department of Education – whose head is appointed within the president’s cabinet – to define the terms of income driven student loan repayment plans in 1993.
“The Supreme Court blocked it, but that didn’t stop me,” Biden said at the time. Critics say the effort is a thinly-veiled attempt to bribe younger working age voters as Biden’s troubled administration continues to freefall in the polls headed toward the 2024 election.
The White House detailed the Kansas portion of the loan giveaways to date: $44 million in debt cancellation for 3,150 people in Kansas through SAVE early loan forgiveness.
$530 million in debt cancellation for 10,390 people in Kansas through fixes to other Income-Driven Repayment plans.
$526 million in debt cancellation for 8,370 public service workers in Kansas.
$123 million in debt cancellation for 4,660 people in Kansas with a total and permanent disability.
Editor’s note: Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Va. As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association’s Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
