Don’t look now, but there could be a bit of a power struggle going on among Democrat leadership.
I say “could be” because there may be something else afoot here.
With more and more Democrats putting pressure on Joe Biden to erase student loan debt, or at least a significant portion of it, House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) is slamming the brakes on the idea.
Pelosi flat-out stated that Biden does not have the authority to make such a move.
Hold On, Joe
Over the last few weeks, even months, some of the top powerbrokers in the Democrat Party have been imploring Biden to erase $50,000 in student debt loan across the board.
They are demanding that Biden issue an executive order to make it happen.
Pelosi, however, is saying that Joe can’t do that.
She stated, “People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness.
“He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.”
She continued, “That’s a policy discussion.
“But the president can’t do it, so that’s not even a discussion. Not everybody realizes that, but the president can only postpone, delay and not forgive.”
Pelosi also made a rather shocking statement regarding how student loan forgiveness would go over with the public.
She stated, “Suppose your child at this time does not want to go to college, but you’re paying taxes to forgive someone else’s obligation. You may not be happy about that.”
Did Joe Put Her Up to This?
I thought about this long and hard, and I truly think this could be Pelosi taking a direct hit for Biden on this one.
Biden has already pushed back on the $50,000 number, so I really do not think he wants to do loan forgiveness, at least not for that much.
However, if he pushes back too hard, he loses the support of the uber-leftists in the party.
Word on the street is that Pelosi wants to retire soon, so it really does not matter if she takes the hit.
So, is Pelosi openly pushing back on a freebie as well as an issue she has supported in the past to take some pressure off Biden on this front?
Think about the pressure this takes off Joe if she takes this issue right off his plate.
The other aspect of such a move is that Pelosi also puts pressure on Republicans by making it a congressional issue rather than a presidential issue.
If she puts this off long enough and Dems lose the House, she can flip the narrative and start attacking Republicans to try to build momentum for the 2024 election cycle.
It is no longer Democrats holding back the upcoming generation but rather Republicans that are sticking them with massive debt as they start their careers.
This, along with reparations, have been rallying cries for Democrats for years, decades even, so why lose that card now when you don’t really need to play it just yet.
After all, Democrats are already in power, so hold off until they lose it and need to get it back.
I think this could be more of a chess move on Pelosi’s part than actual pushback against Biden.
Source: New York Post
