ABC News Today

Joe Biden’s midterm victory lap didn’t last long. On Thursday, a federal judge in Texas struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ruled that it was “an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’ legislative power and should be vacated.”

It seems like just yesterday that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was at the podium proudly reading reviews of the student debt reassignment website.

So many happy customers had nothing but great things to say about their experience. Jean-Pierre quoted one student’s review as follows: “I just filled out the student loan forgiveness form in about a minute on my phone in my pajamas. It’s possible that the government actually made a form easy and simple.”

Well, I hope Pajama Class didn’t get too excited.

Many people warned the Biden administration that this bold initiative could face legal challenges. Still, this decision must come as a real shock to Biden. After all, during an interview in October, the president bragged to a group of activists that he signed a law that offers the cancellation of up to $20,000 in federal student loans for recipients from the Pell Grant and $10,000 for other borrowers. He then took it a step further, telling the group that “I passed it by one or two votes and it’s in effect.”

Of course, like much of Biden’s telling of the story, from his arrest when he tried to visit the late South African president Nelson Mandela to the 17,000 miles he has traveled with Xi Jinping, Biden’s claim that he getting student loan forgiveness was passed by law. big fat lie He bypassed the legislature and used executive action to transfer debts from one group of people, graduates, to another group of people, taxpayers.

With Joe’s pamphlet hitting a roadblock, where does that leave potential recipients of the student loan cancellation initiative?

CNBC reported this week on a recent survey that found 73 percent of recipients planned to spend the money they no longer have to put toward loan payments on things like travel, dining out and new technology. Does the Texas judge expect them to put their tapas reservations and Bali trips on hold simply because the initiative is unconstitutional? Hogwash!

Is there anything that can infuriate scorned graduates more than canceling their Instagram-worthy travel plans or pulling that new iPad out of their Amazon cart? As frustrated as they are now, they will be even angrier if Biden drops out of this fight.

Of course, the Biden administration is appealing Pittman’s decision. But how far will they take this legal battle? It’s hard to ignore the fact that the timing of this decision couldn’t be better for Joe. The White House got what it wanted out of this $300 billion boondogg and might not even have to live up to its end of the deal.

It’s hard to know whether student loan forgiveness played a role in the middle parts. But Biden certainly promoted it well before Election Day. Now that he’s avoided the November 8 red wave, the president may not be so motivated to deliver on his pie-in-the-sky promise.

Rest assured, however, that doesn’t mean the fight for debt forgiveness is over!

Perhaps instead of looking to taxpayers to foot the bill for the higher education of millions of Americans, we should start focusing on the institutions of higher education themselves. Many schools in the United States have massive endowments. Harvard is somewhere in the $50 billion range. This won’t cover the entire tab, but it would certainly be a start.

And in addition to a generous donation, these posh universities and colleges might consider lowering the cost of tuition. If Biden was serious about helping students, he would focus his attention here, not on an unconstitutional issue in his base. After all, the best way to help students with debt is to not burden them in the first place.