Thanks, Un.
Like the NYT and the now-infamous headline about how investigating him, FBI sees no clear ties to Russia. Give me a break; guy's been a Russian tool for decades. And they're still pushing the BS about a 2024 run, ect....SHUT UP about him. Stop trying to present him as a viable candidate and treat him like the joke and traitor he is.
So President Biden has many achievements to his name and I was wondering what people think, feel, sense, on the element of him canceling student debt for many/all/most people in America. He has till the end of this month to either extend or cancel or announce its back as it was.
Also, talking about the great turning, I think this is totally a major feature of that -
So far he has only cancelled student debts in a very targeted way, mostly for those students who took loans to pay for for-profit colleges (predatory colleges, in other words). To date he has not mentioned that there will be any student loan forgiveness for anyone else, especially those who paid for public colleges.
I've mentioned before that of the things I can do, I've spent a great deal of time trying to influence two voters in particular - one of whom (my mother) is pretty much a lost cause to me. I've doubled up on my brother however and may have had a breakthrough today.
My brother is a high level executive in the medical industry and pulls about 3 times what my wife and I make combined. He's single, never married, never will marry (he is high maintenance!) and has spent most of his adult life as the sole Republican in our family, at least until the Trump years. (My half-sister was always Christian Evangelical but the rest of the family was solidly D until Trump) He did recognize 1/6 for what it was and being in the medical industry - spent the better part of the last 2 years being vilified much like I have been as an educator most of my adult life by these people. He now considers himself what I was prior to the Trump years, a moderate independent.
He has read the science on climate change and has actually spent a great deal of money going green. He's put solar panels at his house and barn property. He has, as I have been doing, replaced most of his outdoor power equipment with EV versions of things. And - he's been on the waitlist for a Nissan EV as his primary vehicle for some time.
Today's text exchange back and forth was irate about the Inflation Reduction Act - primarily because of the income caps. Basically, he's not eligible for any more tax credits for additional solar panels, or for EVs because he's over the income threshold. He was exceptionally irate about this and one of his texts this morning read: "Well - I have created quite a paper trail on my EV per the IRS guidance on IRA - and if President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. tries to f### me on my rightfully due $7,500 tax credit with his 87,000 new IRS auditors, the government is not going to enjoy the ride…"
This was quite the unexpected thing to wake up to today so I waited a bit but we had some back and forth whereby he continued to pontificate about how he holds grudges and wouldn't vote D again if he doesn't get his tax rebate.
I finally shifted the narrative a bit. I explained that I was for student loan forgiveness even though I probably wouldn't see a penny of it because of my own income threshold (PSLF wont be an option for me because I can't afford to pay the Income Driven plans and the graduated plan I'm on doesn't count on PSLF - sure I can get credit right now for what I did pay, but future years wouldn't count) - that I was for it because of how many people it could help, and at the end of the day that's better for the country overall.
I then stuck to one response - that I'm a single issue voter from now on. I told him I'll do the same amount of mental gymnastics our sister has done her entire life claiming to be a caring Christian who ignores the bible entirely to contort herself in circles to vote for people like Trump. My single issue is simple. I will not vote for a fascist because that's not what I want my daughters to grow up living. I reiterated it's really easy to identify who the fascists are right now because they all have an (R) by their name. Another rip on taxes, another reply from me about how - for the sake of his nieces, I would not vote for a fasicst - and that if he didn't like his tax rate now, he'd hate it under fascism.
After about an hour of back and forth on this we actually hit a patch of common ground that I built from and the conversation ended in a much better place.
Framing it from the "Yeah, I'm uncomfortable about X, Y, and Z too - but the big picture is the type of country I want my daughters - your nieces - to live in" and it suddenly seemed to work.
That said, if an IRS agent goes after him I pity the fool lol. But today I made some progress toward bringing my brother a little further up the spiral. Our mom and our half sister are lost causes, but my brother might just join us yet!
So President Biden has many achievements to his name and I was wondering what people think, feel, sense, on the element of him canceling student debt for many/all/most people in America
I don't see a stroke of a pen canceling it for everyone via E.O.
But I don't "not" see him signing bills passed by congress into law if we can build our majority in the Senate.
Guys - believe this social studies educator who has spent a lifetime studying and teaching the Constitution and U.S. History and politics to students and adults. The power to cancel everyone's debt via E.O. is an overreach of the executive branch, will be challenged in court, and would not be upheld even if we had not had 3 supreme court seats stolen from us.
The EB's duty is to enforce the laws - he's right to steer clear of the issue, no matter how much Senators Schumer, Sanders and Warren want him to do it for them. The E.O.s that have paused payments exist because of ongoing international emergencies and he'd be right to extend it further. And the cancelations that have happened fall under policies put in place by several other administrations all of which exist for specific reasons (predatory for-profit colleges, Title violations, etc)
Congress on the other hand can legally pass this in a number of ways. Those ways would still be challenged, but the likelihood of them being held up in higher courts is much, much higher.
The gray area is a $10K reduction. Possible? Yes. Likely? Honestly don't know. Legal under powers of the executive branch? Less concrete.
@dannyboy Yeah I noticed that as of now all his cancelations have been in the clear cut cases of fraud or corruption or issues. Its been a lot of money and for a lot of people, but its not blanket.
I can see him continuing the extension while working to find more hanging fruits that he can pluck in ways that don't cause problems. He has been very careful to do things that don't cry overreach. Everything he has done has been strategic and I see this as that as well.
I could also see them finding a way to put it in the government spending bill. They work that way too - putting parts of things in other things that won't cause issues.
@Herukane And I'll add one thing to my last post re: Student Loans.
If we end up with a new "Manchin and Sinema proof" majority in the Senate by picking up enough seats to moot them, there are about 100 things that need to be passed the second the filibuster is demolished, and not one of them is student loan cancelation.
In fact, no one use the bathroom until voting rights pass the senate. And women's reproductive freedom.
My single issue is simple. I will not vote for a fascist
i love you, Dannyboy.
and i had totally forgotten that President Joe's middle name is Robinette- gotta keep that in mind next time i get a new cat, or start a new band
Bravo on the work with your brother and family. Well done. Keep it up!
Thanks for fleshing out further details on student loan forgiveness, that is my understanding as well.
Putting student loan forgiveness into budget reconciliation might work BUT the Senate Parliamentarian has been striking down other things as "not being relevant to the actual budget" and therefore the bills are not even allowed to be rewritten.
Parliamentarian has way too much power lately. @dannyboy - your insights into why none of us heard of this office/person until recently would be appreciated.
@laura-f The Parliamentarian is an interesting role in that it actually isn't super interesting to the layperson and is one of those things that most of us don't really know we actually do know about. (Like - the House has one too!)
There are so many rules and precedents, and it's the role of the Parliamentarian to know, study and advise on these. We've only had them for about 100 years and the current one in the senate is the sixth one. Have a question on precedent? They know the answer. Have a question on procedures? They've got your back. Want to know if this new rule you want to impose contradicts something still on the books from the 18th century? They know. Want James Madison's recipe for unleavened bread? It's somewhere and they'll find it for you. I may have made that last one up.
One thing to note - they can be fired (and have been in the past) and they can be overruled (and have been in the past) but that's one of those things that is very rare. Their knowledge is rooted in the history of their chamber and if they're telling you something won't fly - it's best to trust that. These are the history nerds that history nerds want to grow up and become. They know what they're talking about.
This is old (in the scheme of things, January 15, 2020, feels like two decades ago) but gives a great, easy to read and concise overview: https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/blog/who-is-the-senate-parliamentarian-and-what-does-she-do