(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- The Biden administration announced its intention to cancel $500 billion in student loan debt in August, but even the president has expressed concern that his authority would be legally challenged, according to Fox News. But Biden and the Education Department reportedly found a “source of authority” in the Heroes Act of 2003, which was passed early on in the Iraq war that temporarily froze student loans held by service members and their families during war or national emergency.
Now, doing what the administration has previously tried to do with redefining “inflation,” they are extending the meaning of “emergency.”
Usually, as Fox reported, a presidential announcement of a new policy or program is followed by the executive agency engaging in the rulemaking process mandated by Congress. “This includes providing notice of the draft rule, giving the public time to comment on it, addressing concerns raised by public comments that sometimes require changes to the proposed rule, and, finally, publishing a final rule that binds the public,” the outlet reported.
With the student debt cancellation, however, the Biden administration has only released “press releases, a fact sheet, and two memos offering pretextual legal justifications.”
Despite the lack of a draft rule, the administration has affirmed to Congress and the public that student debt will begin to be cancelled as early as October. The Biden administration is also amending its plan on the fly as it confronts a series of legal challenges.
In one case, Pacific Legal Foundation filed suit on behalf of Frank Garrison, “an attorney reportedly enrolled in a preexisting loan forgiveness program that Congress created” who complained that he is facing a large state tax bill if his loans were automatically cancelled.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has come out to say that anyone could simply “opt out” of the program, despite the Education Department’s website stating otherwise.
President Biden’s latest bid to forgive student loans up to $20,000 will be taxed, according to Newsmax. Indiana became the latest among a slew of other states to confirm that they will tax the forgiven loans.
The Indiana Department of Revenue confirmed that those who qualify and decide to apply for the forgiveness will have to report the amount that they used toward their loans as taxable income, following Mississippi and North Carolina.
The current tax rate in Indiana is 3.23%, so those who qualify up to $10,000 will pay up to $323 in taxes, according to Natalie Rodriguez, the department’s communications manager. Pell grant recipients would likely pay double that at $646.
Not every student is eligible for the program. Only those who have federal student loans and not considered to be high-income earners will be able to qualify, according to CNN. Individual borrowers making less than $125,000 a year and married couples or heads of households making less than $250,000 annually may see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven, the outlet reported.
