On August 24th, the White House announced a plan to forgive $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who received Pell Grants, and $10,000 for other borrowers—all of whom must meet certain income qualifications. The Biden administration says the plan falls under The HEROES Act of 2003. Those in opposition of the plan say it’s presidential overreach, and unfair to those who didn’t go to college or already paid back their loans. Fred Lawrence of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and Charles C. W. Cooke of the National Review join host Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the legal issues on all sides of the loan forgiveness plan.
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This episode was produced by Melody Rowell and engineered by Dave Stotz. Research was provided by Sam Desai, Samuel Turner, Sophia Gardell, and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
Fred Lawrence is the 10th Secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and a distinguished lecturer at the Georgetown Law Center. He has previously served as president of Brandeis University, dean of the George Washington University Law School, and visiting professor and senior research scholar at Yale Law School. Lawrence is the author of Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes Under American Law and frequently contributes op-eds to various news sources.
Charles C. W. Cooke is senior writer for National Review and the former editor of National Review Online. After studying modern history and politics at the University of Oxford, his work has mainly focused on Anglo-American history, British liberty, free speech, the Second Amendment, and American exceptionalism. He is the co-host of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen podcast, and is a regular guest on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- • Read the White House’s announcement of the student loan forgiveness plan
• Read the Department of Justice memorandum on invoking the HEROES Act as the basis for the student loan forgiveness plan
• Watch Fred Lawrence on Fox 5 WTTG discussing the plan
• Read “Joe Biden’s Legal Argument for Student-Loan Transference Is Cynical and Ludicrous,” by Charles C. W. Cooke for National Review
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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