Wisconsin Conservative Group Is Trying To Stop Biden’s Student Loan Plan--And You Can Guess the Reason Why

Murjani Rawls
·2 min read
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Activists hold cancel student debt signs as they gather to rally in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 25, 2022. - Biden announced on August 24, 2022, that most US university graduates still trying to pay off student loans will get $10,000 of relief to address a decades-old headache of massive educational debt across the country.
Activists hold cancel student debt signs as they gather to rally in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 25, 2022. - Biden announced on August 24, 2022, that most US university graduates still trying to pay off student loans will get $10,000 of relief to address a decades-old headache of massive educational debt across the country.
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The Root previously wrote about the efforts Republican legislatures are using to stop President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. However, a conservative legal group is mad about this plan for another reason. On behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed a lawsuit on Tuesday claiming executive overreach. Biden’s plan violates federal law, they say, by intentionally seeking to narrow the racial wealth gap and help Black borrowers, according to the Washington Post.

Previous lawsuits claim Biden doesn’t have the executive power to do broad debt cancelation. The Wisconsin suit also says this, but is the first to make a challenge based on race.

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From The Washington Post:

“The White House has indicated that one reason to do this is that they believe it would disproportionately benefit certain racial groups,” said Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. “The racial motivation supports these taxpayers standing to challenge [the policy] and informs yet another constitutional difficulty with the program.”

Within Biden’s Student Loan forgiveness plan, those lower-income students who received Pell Grants could see up to $20,000 of debt forgiven. 60% of Black students in America receive Pell Grant assistance to attend college. God forbid a policy reduces the vast wealth gap between Black people and the rest of Americans. The Biden administration has been adamant that this plan would help those who need it. It just so happens that the struggling population is comprised of Black people and people of color.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wasn’t having this debate with some comments she made at a briefing on Tuesday.

“It’s a shame that you have Republican groups, Republican states that are trying to stop Americans from getting a little bit of breathing room, a little bit of a break,” Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing. “It is shameful that they are siding with the special interests. It is shameful they are not siding with the American people. This is one of the ways the president is going to continue to work for the American people.”