Davis calls canceling student debt ‘morally wrong’

Congressman Rodney Davis (R-IL) says eliminating student loan debt is “morally wrong” and is supporting legislation to block President Joe Biden from permanently extending student loan forbearance that has been in place since almost the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The debt isn’t just magically eliminated with the stroke of a pen,” Davis said. “It means working- and middle-class taxpayers are on the hook for something that benefits overwhelmingly wealthy, highly educated elites. Those who never took out student loans or paid their loan off shouldn’t be footing the bill for everyone else. President Biden should stop catering to the Radical Left, and instead pursue responsible solutions that are fair to taxpayers and already in law.”

When the topic came up Monday with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the president indicated he was currently looking to provide some form of student debt cancellation, according to multiple reports, although Biden has never publicly said he is considering a 100 percent elimination of all student debt.

Democrats and advocates have put pressure on the president to act ahead of the midterms, pointing out that student debt cancellation is a campaign promise he can deliver on without Congress, although it’s still a debate among some lawyers whether the president has the authority to forgive debt through executive action.

Davis is supporting H.R. 7058, the Federal Student Loan Integrity Act, which would prohibit the Biden administration or any future administration from carrying out widespread student loan forbearance and other waivers of interest or significant loan changes for more than thirty days at a time.

“This approach recognizes that there may be times of national emergency where fast temporary relief may be warranted but limits the ability of the executive branch to unilaterally institute long-term student loan forbearance through executive fiat,” Davis said in a news release.

Davis was a sponsor of the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, which allows employers to offer tax-free student loan repayment benefits to their employees, up to $5,250 per year, through 2025.

The country’s outstanding education debt balance exceeded $1.7 trillion, which is more than credit card or auto debt. Roughly a quarter of student loan borrowers — or 10 million people — were estimated to be in delinquency or default before the forbearance was put in place.