Biden's student loan forgiveness plan criticized by Republicans and a few Democrats:
Last week, President Biden unveiled his plan to forgive between $10,000 and $20,000 of student loan debt for debtors making under $125,000 a year. The White House says that by wiping billions of dollars of this debt, it will benefit up to 43 million Americans. This plan faces criticism from Republicans, economists, and even some among his own Democratic party. Senior administrative officials say that the resumption of loan repayments in January will offset any effects the loan forgiveness has on the economy, though this notion is opposed by those, such as Former top Obama economic official Jason Furman, who argue that, "Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless." The plan has also been criticized for benefiting high-earning college attendees rather than members of the working class who tend to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less than their counterparts. Most of all the plan has been criticized for failing to address the underlying problem of the high cost of attending college. The Center for a Responsible Budget, a non-profit organization, estimates that “the overall amount of outstanding federal student loan debt will return to $1.6 trillion (its current level) within five years." Matters are made worse as the president and Cardona are attempting to use the HEROES Act, a post 9/11 law which allows for debt cancellation when it's "in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency." This is problematic as the administration is attempting to use the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as the national emergency while simultaneously claiming that the US has undergone a strong economic recovery. Some attorneys doubt that legal justification will hold up in court and even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stated that she believes the president lacks the authority to unilaterally cancel student debt.
Takeaways from the unsealed Mar-a-Lago search affidavit:
Pages from the affidavit by the FBI in support of obtaining a search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate are photographed Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
On Friday, the Justice Department unsealed the FBI affidavit behind the unprecedented search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. While the document released is highly redacted, it includes new details about the sheer volume of sensitive and highly classified information believed to be stored at the former president’s Florida beachfront home. The affidavit notes that the residential suite and other areas at the club where documents were suspected to still be kept were not authorized locations for the storage of classified information. Despite this, the affidavit reveals that, of the batch of 15 boxes that the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved from Trump’s home in January, 14 contained documents marked as classified. The affidavit makes clear yet again that Trump had numerous opportunities to return the documents to the government, though Trump insists that he fully cooperated with officials. The document goes on to say investigators had “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction” would be found. Trump’s lawyer argues that presidents have “absolute” authority to declassify documents while the man himself continues to insist that he did nothing wrong.
Powell warns of ‘some pain’ ahead as the Fed fights to bring down inflation:
On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated his commitment to opposing inflation. To this end the central bank will continue to raise interest rates even though it will cause “some pain” to the U.S. economy. A series of four consecutive interest rate increases totals 2.25 percentage points, though Powell said this is “no place to stop or pause” even though benchmark rates are probably around an area considered neither stimulative nor restrictive to growth. These remarks come among signs of inflation potentially peaking, though decline is not evident. Powell has stated his intent to have the Fed continue pushing ahead until inflation moves down closer to its 2% long-range goal. Though the economy is coming off consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, a commonly held definition of a recession, Powell and other economists continue to insist that the economy is strong if slowing.
Sources:
Biden's student loan forgiveness plan criticized by Republicans and a few Democrats - CBS News
Takeaways from the unsealed Mar-a-Lago search affidavit | AP News
Powell warns of 'some pain' ahead as the Fed fights to bring down inflation