GOP hypocrites are now fine with changing student loan rules

Two lawsuits were just filed over President Donald Trump’s arbitrary modification of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which made public service employers subject to the whims of the Trump administration. One lawsuit was brought by a coalition of nonprofits that could be affected by Trump’s Brave New Rule, and the other was brought by the attorneys general of 21 states. If you want to guess just how ballistic Trump will be over this, know that New York Attorney General Letitia James is right there at the top of the signatories. You might be wondering what’s going on here, since just two years ago, when former President Joe Biden wanted to expand loan forgiveness, the conservative Supreme Court justices had what can only be called a full-blown freakout. Writing for the conservative majority, Chief Justice John Roberts literally said that Biden’s modifications to student loan repayments “modified the cited provisions only in the same sense that the French Revolution modified the status of the French nobility.” Yes, that’s right. Roberts compared Biden’s attempts to make student loan debt marginally less crushing to French royalty getting beheaded. Biden’s changes, Roberts said, created a “novel and fundamentally different loan forgiveness program.” But Roberts is probably going to have to figure out—quite soon—how to say that it’s totally fine when Trump wants to “modify” loan forgiveness by arbitrarily wiping out the eligibility of public service employers he doesn’t like. Also, we must totally defer to Trump’s rancid feelings no matter how much they’re divorced from reality. To recap: Biden making loan repayment slightly less onerous is basically the same as getting guillotined. But when Trump wants to make loan repayment vastly more onerous, dollars-to-donuts Roberts will suddenly realize that the Supreme Court justices are just a bunch of widdle guys who can’t tell Trump what to do. On Oct. 31, the Department of Education published a final rule that goes on and on and on, but what it boils down to is this: Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon get to decide if a public service employer is suitable enough for Trump. What would be unsuitable? If Trump or McMahon thinks your employer is “aiding and abetting violations of federal immigration laws, supporting terrorism or engaging in violence for the purpose of obstructing or influencing federal government policy,” or “engaging in a pattern of aiding and abetting illegal discrimination, and engaging in a pattern of violating state laws,” they can just remove the employer from the eligibility list. This is vague as hell, but deliberately so, as it gives Trump the ability to attack any nonprofit he hates. Trump has made it amply clear that he thinks public service employers who have diversity initiatives are engaging in “illegal discrimination”—despite there having never been a case or statute saying that. What about organizations that engage in protest activities? Well, that’s a pattern of breaking state laws, don’t you know? And, of course, the administration has already designated antifa—which is not an organization—as a domestic terrorist organization—a concept that doesn’t even exist in U.S. law. So you can pretty much guess what type of groups will be targeted next. Per the Education Department, this radical change in employer eligibility isn’t a change at all; it just “establishes consequences for breaking the law.” Sure, if by “breaking the law” you mean, “Trump issued a random executive order that the administration hustled to implement because Trump is a king who gets to decide what constitutes breaking the law.” Theoretically, McMahon is the one who would get to decide if your employer has too many communist transgender terrorists, but we know that Trump will be pulling the strings here. And if McMahon, in her infinite wisdom, decides to throw your employer out, you as a borrower cannot appeal. Trump tried to walk back PSLF during his first term, denying 99% of applicants. But this time around, why bother with that small fry stuff? There is one group, however, that is sure to get showered with sweet, sweet loan relief: the wannabe Nazis who join ICE, where they’re promised $60,000 in student loan repayment. Roberts better get a move on to figure out how to thread this needle, because there’s no way that the Supreme Court is going to tell Trump he can’t do this. He’ll just have to work overtime to figure out how to say, “Biden bad, Trump good.” But, you know, all legal-like. Good luck to him.