Senator Elizabeth Warren thinks President Joe Biden has the power to eliminate student debt.
Warren told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Biden has the authority because former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama canceled some debt during their tenures. Warren then slammed the Texas judge who determined that debt cancellation was unlawful, arguing that loan forgiveness demonstrated that Democrats fight for hard working Americans.
“Look, I would be thrilled to codify what Joe Biden is doing,” Warren stated. “But here is the thing: I have no question that the president has the legal right to cancel this student loan debt. President Donald Trump did it, Pres. Obama did it, and President Joe Biden has really already done it on student loan debt relief up to this point. But we have a court in the state of Texas, and if they are going to play politics instead of obeying the law, they endanger the program.”
“This is one of the most obvious distinctions between Republicans and Democrats,” she continues. “Democrats, led by Joe Biden, are claiming, ‘We understand what it’s like to be crushed by student loan debt.’ We understand what it implies, and we’re here to help.’ What about the Republicans? They have nothing. They respond, ‘no,’ the only people they’ll fight for are billionaires, wealthy businesses, and conspiracy theorists. Democrats fight for workers, and when we fight for workers, we win.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman of Texas recently ruled that Biden’s student loan relief was illegal and said that Biden’s plan to cancel $10,000 in debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year or families earning less than $250,00 was unconstitutional.
“Whether the Program is good public policy isn’t for this Court to decide on,” Pittman stated in his decision. “However, no one can disagree that it’s either one of the greatest transfers of legislative power to the executive branch of our government or one of the biggest exercises of legislative power in U.S. history without having congressional permission.”
“We are not dominated in this country by an all-powerful executive with a phone and pen,” Pittman added. “Rather, we are governed by a Constitution that establishes the three independent and distinct departments of our government. The accumulation of all powers, executive, legislative, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether by one or by many, and whether self-appointed, hereditary, or elected, may justly be proclaimed the exact essence of tyranny.”
The Biden administration has subsequently filed an appeal against that decision.
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