[U] Let Us, Over The Fourth, Reflect Back To President Johnson's "Great Society" Congressional Victories, In 1965... This Too, Is What Patriotism Looks Like.

Updated @ 6 pm EDT -- Mr. Biden is already underway on exactly the plan I mentioned below, as proposed to and then by, Sen. Warren. Flawless. And he's added another year of no payments, effective immediately for people of limited means. End update.

So -- as promised -- the work-around, from when most of America felt we all have/had a duty to lift one another up.

Please do go read the Higher Education Act of 1965, as signed by President Johnson. It would also pretty plainly allow Mr. Biden to simply re-issue his student loans forgiveness executive order, relying on that older, and never before challenged statute.

I will quote just a bit from a Harvard Law memo, to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, here:

. . .Amongst the general powers conferred by Congress to the Secretary in the HEA is the power to “enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand, however acquired, including any equity or any right of redemption.” 20 U.S.C. § 1082(a)(6) (emphasis added). This compromise authority was contained in the HEA from its initial enactment. Any exercise of this compromise authority “shall be final and conclusive upon all accounting and other officers of the Government.” 20 U.S.C. § 1082(b). The only statutory limitation on this authority is the requirement that the Secretary “may not enter into any settlement of any claim under [Title IV] that exceeds $1,000,000” without requesting “a review of the proposed settlement of such claim by the Attorney General,” 20 U.S.C. § 1082(b).

In 1988, the Secretary finalized a regulation, 34 C.F.R. § 30.70, which explains how the Secretary exercises discretion to compromise a debt. . . .

The Secretary has the authority to modify a loan to zero, and exercise this authority even in the absence of any implementing regulations.

Such modification (and, likewise, any act to compromise existing student loans), is permissible under the budgetary standards that govern Title IV programs. . . .

Again, these six Supremes were just offering political fund-raising theater to the GOP this morning. This work-around is well within existing federal statutory authority -- stretching back over 60 years, now. To a more optimistic time -- in our Nation. Be excellent to one another.

I'm. . . off for a mountain bike ride, by the cool lake waters [knowing I'm taking a risk -- one akin to smoking a pack of cigarettes, today (so not me -- smoking?! never.) with the skies so gray from the smoke plumes]. Just getting a lil' stir crazy, indoors. . . all week. Smile.

नमस्ते