I & I Editorial BoardThe Supreme Court told President Joe Biden that he didn’t have the authority to forgive student loan debt. But he did anyway, bragging that the Court “didn’t stop me.” So why do we even have a legislative branch and a high court if the president is going to make law as if he were a king?
It’s Biden’s party, and its activist media, that has been carping for years about losing “our democracy.” Yet when a Democratic president bypasses the checks and balances that are the backbone of our republic, the three co-equal branches framework of government that is intended to guard against descending into a dictatorship, they celebrate rather than condemn.
Maybe it’s because they care about the integrity of our system of government only when it’s making policies they want.
In June 2023, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down the Biden administration’s plan to cancel up to $400 billion in student loans, which it had announced in August 2022. In her concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett noted that “when it comes to” national policy, “the Constitution gives Congress the reins — a point of context that no reasonable interpreter could ignore.”
But high court rulings apparently don’t apply when a Democratic president decides they don’t. Last week, the White House played the role of unreasonable interpreter and announced “$1.2 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 153,000 borrowers.”
“The Biden-Harris administration has now approved nearly $138 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 3.9 million borrowers through more than two dozen executive actions,” according to a White House fact sheet.
Biden acknowledged last week that “my MAGA Republican friends in the Congress, elected officials, and special interests stepped in and sued us,” and that “the Supreme Court blocked it.”
“But that didn’t stop me,” he continued. “I announced we were going to pursue alternative paths for student debt relief for as many borrowers as possible. And that’s the effort that’s been underway the last two years.”
If the president can capriciously set policy, not waiting for Congress to act and ignoring Supreme Court rulings, then the executive branch is no longer one of the separate but equal branches of government. It becomes a separate but predominant branch.
“When the separation of powers becomes seriously distorted,” explains the Pacific Legal Foundation, “the checks and balances of the Constitution lose much of their force to limit government’s tendency toward tyranny.”
If any Republican president had so egregiously and brazenly ignored a Supreme Court ruling, in essence telling the Court it is inferior to the presidency, the Democrats and the media would be constantly shrieking about the dangerous emergence of a “constitutional crisis.” They’ve done it before. In 2018, John Kerry, a Democrat who’s been in Washington almost as long, it seems, as the Washington Monument, claimed that the “off the rails” Trump White House constituted “a genuine constitutional crisis.” It was a typical tale from a Democrat, full of sound and fury, signifying deception.
But what Biden has done is more serious. Keith E. Whittington, a Princeton University professor of politics, identifies three types of constitutional crises: a crisis of operation, a crisis of fidelity and a crisis of bad faith. Biden’s constitutional offense could be placed in either of the last two categories. He is “no longer willing to abide by existing constitutional arrangements” and is clearly a political actor who has refrained “from repudiating the inherited constitutional system but nonetheless” subverted “it by only giving lip service to constitutional requirements.”
Don’t believe that Biden is acting merely out of compassion. The Democrats want to erase constitutional limits on government power, and issuing executive orders that are popular in some corners is a pathway to eventually making law by presidential whim. The end game is a sweeping loss of freedom and consolidated power for a hard-left ruling class.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
I need only to refer you once again to Rule #1 of 21st Century American Politics:
It’s OK when a Democrat does it.
It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about passing legislation, appointing ambassadors, speaking to foreign leaders, rioting, street fighting, arson, appointing federal judges, raising campaign funds, running off with classified material, peddling influence, questioning election results, interrupting official proceedings, or anything else you can name.
If a Democrat did it, it’s OK.
If a Republican did it, it’s grounds for impeachment, jail time, federal dragnets, sweeping arrests, modifying election law, and rewriting basic foundational principles.
But if a Democrat did it, it’s OK.
I’ll bet every liberal cheering this on thought Trump was – somehow – a dictator.
That’s what irksome and whether the left is suppressing memories or consciously l cannot say…I’m guessing some of each.
We are told that Trump’s re-election will spell the end of democracy and of course when the left says “democracy” or “our democracy” they mean “people’s democracy.”
Trump was in office for four years. What did he actually do that might lead to a fair conclusion regarding dictatorship and quashing democracy? What did his administration do to suppress free speech, pressure the media, and so forth?
But we have this. We have Obama saying that if Congress didn’t do wht he wanted in areas where Congress has sole constitutional authority, “I have a pen and a phone.” And remember that he said frequently he wanted to do something regarding illegal immigration but the constitution wouldn’t allow it…and then he went ahead and did it…and so on.
As bad as it is for Biden to ignore the rules of law, it is even more egregious that he has used the judicial branch to attempt to imprison his opponent. Any American supporting this administration must either be ignorant or evil towards his fellow citizens.
useful idiots according to Lenin.
There’s no “Constitutional Crisis” because nobody challenges Biden (or any of his Democrat henchmen) when they ignore the courts.
Dem/ communists can do anything they want and get by with it they do it all the time but let anyone else try something like that and it hits the fan
Obviously, I agree.
However.. the question isn’t whether or not the Biden administration’s actions are reprehensible, it’s whether or not Americans are prepared to do anything about it – and the answer to that appears to be a resounding No!. I know, because two years ago I wrote a detailed prescription for action and the only the site willing to look at it was the much deprecated (by google et al) teaparty911 site. It’s still valid, and it would work while heading off the riots and violence so many expect to see this summer – so if you want to go beyond decrying the obvious do not publish this comment but do look at paul530 on substack.
This is similar to Barack Obama saying, “I’ve got a phone, and I’ve got a pen.” I see this as Joe Biden just following the method of his leader.
Related to this point: This is the main reason that most legislators are the worst people to elect as President. In their role of legislator, they generally realize that their most radical ideas will be moderated by others in the legislature if they ever make it into bills that pass either house of Congress. But when they become executives, they act dictatorially, as they think it’s harder to tame their radicalism.
“It becomes a separate but predominant branch.”
Which is how totalitarian(socialist, communist, marxist) regimes operate. They are just looking to buy votes with more taxpayer giveaways to “useful idiots”.