Joe Biden has done it again. By announcing an arbitrary annulment of arbitrary amounts of student debt for an arbitrary slice of the American population, Joe Biden has managed to make a national problem worse in a sad attempt to buy votes in the upcoming midterm election.
Bottom line: federal backing for student loans has caused university costs to spiral, further driving up demand for loans. When an overstuffed panel of overpaid administrators contemplates capital plans and budgets, why should cost matter when Uncle Sam will ensure that every student can “afford” school irrespective of the price?
Make no mistake—the system is broken. But universities are the entities that must be held accountable for this, not the American People. They sold—and continue to sell—students a vicious series of lies related to the value of a degree.
College students are adults, and adults must be held to contractual obligations after they sign on the dotted line. While the Biden Regime can cherry pick stories of well-intentioned former students beset by debt, it remains painfully true that most former students in severe debt have gotten themselves there through bad decisions informed by bad actors in university administration.
Schools have no place tricking students into expensive, dead-end degrees like Gender Studies, Fashion Design, or Theater. If a student has a genuine passion for a subject, they may choose to study it, but they should do so fully aware of the real dollar financial implications in terms of income and opportunity cost.
Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy court as a court cannot seize or repossess a student’s degree. The very idea of getting bailed out or having loans canceled implicitly reveals an ugly truth for our most credentialed generation in history: they got tricked. Hoodwinked. Screwed over.
But sometimes life isn’t fair.
Rather than cancel debt, the Biden Regime ought to cut off the schools. Stop the problem in its tracks. Make them cut their payrolls—there is no need for a DIE (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity) team to exist at any university, so fire them and reduce costs. Stop investing in water slides and ugly modern buildings. Refocus on education and prioritize training for jobs that will contribute to the American economy.
But Biden doesn’t really care about that. He doesn’t mind that the student loan debt levels will reach today’s levels in only four years. He just wants the short-term boost from polling, and he isn’t worried about the unfairness of it all. The American People who foot the bill just don’t matter to him.
In the meantime, Biden has managed to upset the Left by not canceling enough debt and not favoring blacks or other assorted special-interest groups. While these people have a ridiculous position, it is telling that the Biden Regime’s strategic geniuses flubbed this so badly. (“Centrist” Democrats are upset by it, too.)
The Biden Regime knows that its power is illegitimate and under question. They are desperate for quick wins to whitewash their dismal record, and every day that Democrats retain power brings us closer to another ill-reasoned and capricious e we exercise of authority.