GOP rep jabs education secretary: 'Are car loans next?' for debt forgiveness
A lawmaker from Michigan on Tuesday compared President Biden’s student loan forgiveness to auto loan forgiveness – in an effort to criticize the administration's debt relief policies.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., took issue with the Biden administration for forgiving billions in student loan debt against what she said was the will of the Supreme Court and Congress.
She pointedly asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona what class of debtor could be next on the administration's lien-cancellation agenda.
"Mr. Secretary, President Biden's Department of Education has canceled $153 billion in student loans, with plans to cancel $1.4 trillion. The House of Representatives said no – We actually passed legislation on that – The Senate said no. The Fifth Circuit Court said no. And the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, said no," she said.
"Yet you continue to march on. I would like to know what makes you qualified to ignore the majority of Congress and the Supreme Court."
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Cardona replied by offering that the administration believes the collegiate education system is "broken."
"[It] is not accessible, not affordable… and we are working within the law to provide debt relief."
In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Education Department did not have the authority to waive student loan debt. At the time, President Biden said the high bench "misinterpreted the Constitution" and blamed Republicans for blocking his student loan handout program.
Cardona claimed the Higher Education Act, a Lyndon Johnson-era law, provides him the authority to implement certain forgiveness programs, leading McClain to ask again whether he has more power than the high court or Congress, a charge the secretary denied.
Cardona pointed to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, implemented by Congress in 2007. He said that the law was poorly implemented and did not reach enough beneficiaries.
McClain went on to ask whether the idea of loan forgiveness for students unable to pay their debts should extend to people who similarly have to pay down long-term liens like those for home mortgages or automobiles.
"We have bad actors across the board. So, if you're a bad actor under that concept, I should forgive your loan? If a slippery car salesman sells me a car, and, gosh, I just got in a little bit over my head, we should forgive that? I mean, using that same principle… are we going to car loans next?" McClain asked.
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"The answer is ‘of course not.'"
In a statement on her exchange to Fox News Digital, McClain said Cardona cannot "seem to answer simple questions" at House Education & Workforce Committee hearings.
"All I wanted to know was what gave him the right to overpower Congress and the Supreme Court? He couldn’t give me an answer. I asked him if we forgive student loans, what’s next, your car loan and your mortgage? Once again, he refused to answer."
"The only thing he could muster up was that his department needs more money – which was a great answer to a question I didn’t ask. This pattern of ineptitude seems to run rampant in the Biden administration, and Secretary Cardona is the poster boy for it."
When asked for reaction, the Department of Education did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment for purposes of this story.