WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Today, Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03) released the following statement regarding the Biden Administration announcement on student loan forgiveness at the expense of the American taxpayer. 

“During the Obama Administration, the General Counsel for the Department of Education was quoted saying, ‘if the issue is litigated, the more persuasive analyses tend to support the conclusion that the Executive Branch likely does not have the unilateral authority to engage in mass student debt cancellation,’ meaning he and President Obama knew a judge would overturn an effort to forgive student loans without a law passed by Congress. Nancy Pelosi said the same thing last year. Regarding our current inflation crisis, the top economic advisor for the Obama-Biden Administration, Larry Summers, said, ‘Student loan relief is not free. It would be paid for. Part of it would be paid for by the 87 percent of Americans who do not benefit but lose out from inflation.’

“President Biden knows full-well that this $300 billion giveaway – predominantly to wealthy families on the coasts – will make inflation even worse and will probably be overturned in court. So why is he doing this now? The election. It is likely that the court’s final decision won’t come down until after November’s election, and he proved earlier this month with his disastrous tax hike bill that he neither understands nor cares about inflation. Today’s announcement was simply an attempt to buy votes with absolutely no regard for the millions of student borrowers who will be stuck in limbo and the millions of American families who will fall even further behind in Biden’s economy.”