• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    Biden Administration hasn’t been working hard to cut through the bullshit red tape those previous administrations

    In several cases, he’s been contributing to it. Biden has routinely promised reform through paths he knew in advance to be dead-ends - fighting pitched battles in court and advocating hopeless charges through the legislature. Meanwhile, he left more straightforward paths to debt forgiveness underutilized. Specifically, the provisions within the 1965 Higher Education Act grants a presidential administration, via the Education Secretary, authority to “enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release” government-held federal student loans. The Higher Education Act provided the authority for President Donald Trump and Biden to pause student loan debt payments during the coronavirus pandemic.

    They took it to the goddamn Supreme Court.

    They could have simply struck the debt from the record and allowed Republicans to try and reinstate it. Instead, Biden’s bureaucrats dragged their heels, allowing the Fifth Circuit to predictably hold up the decision and the six-vote SCOTUS to quash their efforts.

    And then to blame Biden for the votes of two no name reps?

    Two committee chairmen. One of whom was the head of the Ways and Means Committee, second only to Appropriations as the most influential committee in the House.