Erick Erickson expresses a concern that isn’t quite justified:
Barack Obama did not think he could cancel student loan debt. Joe Biden did not think he had the power to either. Nancy Pelosi said the President did not have that power. But here we are.
For all the talk about the Democrats being for democracy and the constitutional order, they were until they were not. They convinced a President who did not think he could do it, to use a law passed to help after 9/11 to outright cancel hundreds of billions of dollars of debt. It was an executive power grab hiding behind COVID as some sort of national emergency.
On first read, it seems reasonable, even when reading the full post. But here’s the problem:
President Biden isn’t the final arbiter when it comes to what powers are granted by the Constitution and law to the Executive.
And that’s important, isn’t it? We split the powers of government between the various branches because that makes for better, if sometimes slower, decision making. Why should Biden retreat at what appears to be a dubious case? If he deems it good for the Nation, and legislative is too bound up in petty power games to pay attention, then an Executive action should at least be attempted.
And if someone objects and files suit, good! Let’s have SCOTUS take a look at it.
Because that’s how the nation functions. Not such that Erickson has forebodings of doom, but such that governments’ checks and balances are exercised.
