Student Debt Plan Carves Bigger Hole in Congressional Fiscal Authority

In 2019, when Congress refused to pay for a wall on the Mexican border, then-President Donald Trump declared a national emergency and introduced he would construct the wall with cash earmarked for different functions. Democrats accused him of trampling on the Constitution’s separation of powers. The transfer “clearly…violates the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) declared. Some Republicans warned {that a} future Democratic president may use the identical tactic to fund his or her personal priorities.

They have been proper. Last week President Biden declared that below a 2003 legislation, a nationwide emergency—in this case Covid-19—empowers him to cancel student debt for as much as 27 million folks.