Progressive Dems protest every move President Trump makes, and then they file lawsuits with judges who were appointed by Obama and Biden. It will take months or even years to resolve this litigation, which is the whole point.
Is there anything Trump and the Democrats can agree on?
How about this? The Democrats and Republicans can join hands and amend the Bankruptcy Code to allow overburdened student debtors to discharge their college loans in bankruptcy like any other nonsecured student debt.
Under current law, students cannot escape their education loans in bankruptcy unless they prove that the debt creates an "undue hardship" for them. The Department of Education and the federal courts have interpreted "undue hardship" very harshly, making it virtually impossible for most student borrowers to free themselves from crushing college loans.
How can that problem be fixed?
Easy peasy. All Congress needs to do is remove two words from the Bankruptcy Code: undue hardship. It's that simple.
Surely, the aged and bleating bulls in the Democratic Party--Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, etc--can get behind this reform and get this simple change through Congress.
If not, President Trump can get the same result with a one-page executive order. Henceforth, the order would read, undue hardship is presumed when an insolvent student debtor files for bankruptcy. Thus, the burden of proving no undue hardship will fall on the US Department of Education and its debt collectors.
Of course, the Bankruptcy Code should include some safeguards to prevent scofflaws from getting a lucrative degree and immediately flushing their student loans away in the nearest bankruptcy court. College borrowers should be required to wait five or even seven years after completing their studies before accessing the bankruptcy remedy.
Progressives might argue that this sensible reform would undermine the student loan program as millions and even billions of dollars in student debt get wiped off the books. But hey--no one paid down their student debt for three years during the COVID crisis, and the progressives expressed no worries.
And let's remember that President Biden's revisions to the income-based repayment formula are so generous that most student loans will never be paid back anyway.
I predict that college leaders will oppose bankruptcy reform if it gets introduced. They like the status quo--an unending flow of federal student-aid dollars and no accountability for results.
And progressive Democrats will probably oppose it, too. They will suddenly develop a keen appreciation for financial discipline. They don't want anything good to happen for which Trump would get credit.
That's okay. President Trump can open the bankruptcy courts to financially strapped student debtors with a stroke of his pen. All he needs is a Sharpie.
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