Lessons about student debt forgiveness
The Sept. 8 editorial “Student debt forgiveness” failed to mention several relevant issues. First is that, contrary to the highway and property tax comparison, this forgiveness bypasses the legislative process. Until a few months ago, this was seen as making executive action on forgiveness unconstitutional, even by Democrats.
A second is that the highway taxes and property taxes are used to build and repair infrastructure and fund responsibilities of government, such as public safety and education (as opposed to a giveaway to individuals). A third is that student debt was totally taken over by the federal government as part of Obamacare and was supposed to provide $10 billion in surplus a year. It is currently providing a deficit of about $20 billion a year and, if the forgiveness program is followed, this will increase to somewhere around $50 billion a year, or possibly much more.
MARTIN WEISS
Potomac
