Student Debt Forgiveness: Left-Populism Or Democrat Midterm Strategy?

As expected, today Joe Biden announced that he was cancelling (some) student loan debt.

His plan will forgive up to "$20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients," according to WhiteHouse.gov.

What Joe Biden failed to mention today though, is that his plan is almost certain to be legally-challenged, as it is undoubtedly unconstitutional, and it's unlikely that a conservative-leaning SCOTUS would allow this to go through.

But does Joe Biden really care? Either way, he's undoubtedly raked back in some support from younger voters, from whom his support was tumbling down to as low as 21%... up until yesterday.

Regardless of whether or not Biden's executive order will hold up, he's put himself and the Democratic Party in a much better position politically as the midterm elections come nigh.

In theory, it could put them in an even better political position if the conservative SCOTUS shoots it down - as the Democrats could then have an actual issue to run on in November - the fact that the Republicans "are so heartless" that they refused to join the Democrats in cancelling student debt.

This will easily rile up younger voters, progressives, and more social democratic voters, and in turn help the Democratic Party to gain some political traction heading into the midterm season. Anger is one of the most motivating emotions that drives voters to the polls.

The best part is (for Biden anyway), even if his executive order is struck down by SCOTUS, after the midterm elections, he wouldn't even have to reconsider it. He could dump his entire plan to cancel student loan debt, and suffer no real political consequences for it.... and trust us, his political consultants know this too, and have probably already informed him of this...