Kevin McCarthy made headlines today for threatening Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas with impeachment when the next Congress begins with Republicans in the House majority. Mayorkas has done a bad job, and poor border enforcement is certainly worthy of congressional investigation, but there’s a different cabinet secretary whose lawlessness was on display yet again today.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will be extending the supposedly pandemic-related pause on student-loan repayments until litigation is resolved or until June 30, whichever comes first. President Biden today said that extension was necessary due to the ongoing court challenges of the program.
That does not explain why borrowers with debt that will be unaffected by the program should not have to start paying back the money they borrowed. It does not explain why a pandemic-related pause can still be extended after even Biden said the pandemic is over. It does not explain why that pause’s total price tag, which could end up as high as $275 billion, is worthwhile. But at no point in the “forgiveness” program’s history have Biden or Cardona felt the need to make logically compelling or legally sound arguments for it.
Though Biden is cheerleading the flagrant constitutional abuse that this program represents, Cardona is the one actually executing it. It was Cardona’s office of general counsel that produced the specious legal opinion that said he had unilateral authority to forgive student debt in virtually unlimited amounts. Biden has not issued any executive orders concerning this program. It’s all being done by Cardona, who is clearly abusing his office as secretary of education and violating his oath to support and defend the Constitution.
I argued in the post-election issue of National Review that Republicans should impeach Cardona. You can read my full argument here. Today’s announcement of the repayment-pause extension is just another log on the fire.