There are many arguments — both legal and policy-related — to be had about President Trump’s efforts to rein in the federal workforce by mandating in-person work and offering modified buyouts to those willing to resign. Noah wrote about some of them yesterday. But in terms of the politics, this fight strikes me as a shrewd, and in terms of how it is likely to play out demographically, is the opposite of the politics of Joe Biden’s student loan bailout efforts.
Biden bypassed Congress to attempt to wipe away the student loan debts of tens of millions of people. He knew that it was likely to be struck down as illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court, which it ultimately was, but he felt that it was a fight worth having because it was supported by core Democratic constituencies of young voters as well as those with significant student loan debt. Even after his most sweeping student loan plan was nixed by the Court, he moved on to make a series of efforts to wipe out the debt that targeted specific groups and that were less vulnerable to legal challenge.
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