Quick Hits: Volume CCLXXXIX

 - When the President of the United States announced his plan to "cancel" student loan debt, it was pretty much assumed a legal challenge would be forthcoming. 

Sure enough....

President Joe Biden's plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt violates both federal law and the Constitution, according to a just-filed lawsuit from the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a libertarian law firm.

"This isn't how laws are supposed to be made," Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney for PLF, tells Reason. "Only Congress has the power to pass laws and spend money under the Constitution. The administration's actions here are flagrantly illegal."

This is the first serious challenge to Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, which he announced last month. The lawsuit's plaintiff is Frank Garrison, who's also an attorney at PLF. Garrison borrowed federal student loans to pay for law school, but according to him, Biden's debt forgiveness plan will actually subject him to a financial penalty in the form of a state tax. This gives him standing to sue the U.S. Education Department, his lawsuit argues.

"Despite the staggering scope of this regulatory action, it was taken with breathtaking informality and opacity," the lawsuit claims. "In the rush, the administration has created new problems for borrowers in at least six states that tax loan cancellation as income."

It's a simple matter that no fiscal policy can be made via Executive fiat. If this were to have any legitimacy, it had to be enacted through Congress. Biden's rationale for circumventing Congress was his citing of the HEROES Act, a law passed in 2003 giving the Executive branch authority to waive tuition or fees if citizens can't complete educational obligations in the aftermath of a national emergency (i.e. 9/11). Biden cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the justifiable emergency......less than a month before he declared the pandemic "over."

I have a feeling the Biden administration knows their "cancelation" plan may well get nuked, much like they surmised the unlawful extension of the eviction moratorium was going to be overturned by the judicial branch. The difference is, the student loan "cancelation" plan was a bigger loser politically. Hardly seemed worth it. 

- Somehow a link to this story found its way into my Facebook feed. 

I wonder if one of those enterprising CNN journalists are going to take a look into the healing process of kids forced to live in fear (i.e. donning facemasks and being isolated from friends & classmates) over a virus where a statistical chance of serious illness for their demographic was near zero. Or how about the kids whose parents' "religion" is climate and thus are being informed the planet will be uninhabitable in less than a generation? 

Heh. Sometimes I say crazy things.

- Reports of Republicans' demise in the 2022 midterms appear to have been greatly exaggerated. While the U.S. Senate remains a veritable toss-up, the GOP is going to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The only question is by how much. 

Among those living in congressional districts that are rated as at least somewhat competitive by ABC’s FiveThirtyEight (neither solid Republican nor solid Democratic), registered voters favor Republican candidates by a wide 55-34 percent — nearly as big as the Republican lead in solid GOP districts (+24 points). Democrats lead by 35 points in solid Democratic districts, pointing to a potential overvote where they’re most prevalent.

If Republicans really are leading in competitive districts by 21 percentage points, then this is indeed a red-wave election, and we should see some unexpected Democratic losses.

Now if only the Republicans put up someone more competent than Kevin McCarthy to be the new Speaker of the House. 

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