(CNSNews.com) -- When asked whether the Supreme Court should stop or allow President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “Stop. It is totally illegal.”
On Mar. 1 at the U.S. Capitol, CNS News asked Sen. Hawley, “Should the Supreme Court stop or allow President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan?”
Sen. Hawley responded, “Stop. It is totally illegal. He doesn’t have the authority to do it, that’s the big thing. Also, it is a classic take from the poor to give to the rich. I mean he’s taking money, tax money, from working people and he is giving it to wealthy people.”
“Most of the beneficiaries over time in this forgiveness are upper-income earners, you know, but good for them,” said Hawley. “They don’t need money from working people in order to pay off their debts. So I’m against it.”
Citing the COVID pandemic as a major reason, President Biden and his administration announced in 2022 that the “Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients.”
The action of student loan forgiveness has been challenged by many Republican lawmakers, and questions have arisen on whether the president has the power to cancel debts. The Biden proposal is being challenged at the Supreme Court by six states and two borrowers. The court heard oral arguments in the case on Tuesday.
At the court, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Along comes the government and tells that person: You don’t have to pay your loan. Nobody’s telling the person who is trying to set up the lawn service business that he doesn’t have to pay his loan. He still does, even though his tax dollars are going to support the forgiveness of the loan for the college graduate, who’s now going to make a lot more than him over the course of his lifetime.”
Kayla Smith, 22, a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, attended the oral arguments. Smith’s mother reportedly had borrowed $20,000 in federal student loans to help her daughter attend college.
“It just seems kind of messed up that college is the expectation, higher education is the expectation, but then at the same time, people’s lives are being ruined,” Kayla Smith told the Associated Press.