Biden’s $430B Student Loan Giveaway Plan Had No Fraud Protection: Feds; Biden Makes Hundreds of Billions In Student Loan Debt Disappear

Biden’s $430B student loan giveaway plan had no fraud protection: feds:

President Biden’s plan to unilaterally forgive $430 billion in student loan debt, which was blocked earlier this year by the Supreme Court, failed to safeguard against potential fraud, a new government report released Thursday shows.

Biden’s Department of Education sought to approve between $10,000 and $20,000 in student loan relief for up to 31 million borrowers as part of the plan — but did not properly vet whether those students’ incomes necessitated the debt forgiveness, according to the Government Accountability Office.

“Fraud poses a significant threat to the integrity of federal programs and erodes public trust in government,” the watchdog noted.

“We have previously reported that the public health crisis, economic instability, and increased flow of federal funds associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have expanded opportunities for fraud.”

More than 26 million students had applied or been automatically deemed eligible for debt relief by November 2022, when lower court orders halted the program.

The report shows the Education Department approved more than 12 million applicants’ requests without having ever “collected or reviewed any income documentation” from borrowers. 

Instead, the agency relied on applicants’ self-reported income and data on post-enrollment earnings and aggregate income to estimate eligibility.

Under the program, federal Pell Grant recipients were eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief.

Recipients without Pell Grants were eligible for up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness if their adjusted gross income in 2020 or 2021 was under $125,000 for individuals and under $250,000 for married couples who file jointly. —>READ MORE HERE

Biden makes hundreds of billions in student loan debt disappear:

President Biden is unrivaled when it comes to making money disappear. With the issuing of a press release, the Big Guy put taxpayers on the hook for spending as much money as the State Department’s entire budget.

It fell to the Department of Education to find a way to implement the administration’s scheme to eliminate $127 billion in debt owed by 3.6 million college students — a rather imposing task considering that over the summer, the Supreme Court blocked Mr. Biden’s previous attempt to accomplish the same goal. The only difference is that back then, the president’s more ambitious gambit sought to erase $430 billion in liabilities.

In the 6-3 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts cleverly cited then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to explain the court’s reasoning.

“People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness,” the California Democrat said. “He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power.”

Congress reiterated the point, with the Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate in June voting to undo the White House’s first attempt to use the public treasure to woo college-age voters. While Mr. Biden vetoed the legislation, its passage leaves no doubt the president is acting without legal sanction.

Mr. Biden talks a lot about his opponents “undermining democracy,” but there’s no clearer example of an action that undermines our system of government than the use of executive fiat to implement extreme policies that lack the support of the people’s elected representatives. —>READ MORE HERE

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