Biden should work with GOP House on student loan program.
President Joe Biden beat the expectation game on Tuesday, but Democrats still lost control of the House. It’s worth noting that both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton presided over congressional gains during midterm elections.
Mr. Biden insisted after the balloting that he’ll do “nothing” differently during the next two years. That’s not very realistic given that his party no longer has a majority in both houses of Congress. He’ll also have to deal with a judiciary likely to be increasingly skeptical of presidential overreach.
On Thursday, one such judge shot down a signature White House achievement, ruling that the president didn’t have the constitutional authority to unilaterally forgive billions in student loan debt. “In this country,” wrote Judge Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, “we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone.”
It was the administration’s second setback on the issue in a month. A federal appeals court had previously stayed Mr. Biden’s directive — which would have canceled up to $10,000 in debt for traditional borrowers, up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients — until it could consider the case.
