There’s an old adage, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Trump has spent a long, pathetic career in solving his problems by delaying, obfuscating, and obstructing. And now, with the 2022 midterm elections sitting on a razors edge, the GOP is hauling out Der Gropenfuhrer playbook.
Recently President Biden signed an executive order that forgave $10,000 of student debt for all students meeting financial requirements who already had outstanding student debt. That relief was doubled to $20,000 for lower income students that had obtained Pell Grants. For decades the 18-24 voting bloc has been the lowest turnout bloc in the country. But in 2018 and 2020 that group set records for voter turnout. Nice move by Biden.
But the GOP, already seeing what should have been a walkoff election are panicstricken. On most university campuses, the Young Republicans Club can hold their meetings at a Hardees. Giving students with already existing student debt $10-20,000 in student loan relief can’t help but jack up young voter turnout for the Democrats.
Time for the Trump playbook. SUE! Lawsuits take time to settle, almost certainly long past election day, and lawsuits may make vulnerable students feel like Biden’s action might be illegal bullsnhit. And that’s the game the GOP is playing now.
It started out with GOP aligned groups filed federal lawsuits to stop the Biden order from going forward. One of them just went to the Supreme Court on an emergency stay request. Justice Amy Coney Barrett slot them down without a backward glance. Now GOP Attorney Generals are throwing their weight into the plot, and filing federal suits. The simple object being to suppress the youth vote my muddying the waters until after election day.
There’s only one small problem with these federal lawsuits. It’s the matter of standing. In order to file a federal lawsuit, you must be able to prove that you personally are going to be harmed by the actions of the defendant, either personally, professionally, or financially. And who can be personally harmed by the President erasing student loan debt?
This is the simple standard that Justive Barrett used to shoot down the emergency stay the activist group requested. Which begs the simple question, How are the plaintiffs personally or professionally harmed by the actions the President took? Who, other than predatory for profit college lenders loses in a student debt forgiveness order? Nobody!
Which makes the lawsuits filed by GOP Attorney’s General even more imbecilic. Because, if the student loan relief is granted, exactly what does the state lose? Simple answer. Nothing! In fact, if the President relieves student debt, who almost immediately stands to gain? The State!
Follow the logic here. If the government gives a state resident $10-20,000 in student debt relief, does the state honestly believe that they’re going to hide that stash in a mattress? Of course not! They’re going to buy a car, or they’re going to go shopping, they’re going to eat out, they’re going to buy a house. All of which adds tax revenue to the state’s coffers. And so, riddle me this Riddler? How is the state personally, professionally, or economically damaged by that action?
This whole thing is just another GOP Trump con to try to obstruct and misinform the voters until after the election. Make the nations college students, and former college students think that Biden’s order was just a political stunt which can’t survive the courts. Personally, I prefer to believe that the majority of college graduates, and college students with outstanding student loan debts are smarter than a 3rd grader, which is the way the GOP is treating them. Don’t touch that dial.
They don’t really understand how smart college graduates are, since they know so few of them on their side. They think graduates are only as smart as third graders, because that’s actually how smart they, themselves, are.
exactly!