Democrats could still forgive student loans with this one trick

The Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s obviously unconstitutional attempt to forgive half a trillion in student loan debt. This should surprise nobody, given that virtually everyone admitted the president does not have the authority to do this. (Here is then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating as much.)

Democrats are going to freak out about this decision the same way they freak out about literally every single Supreme Court decision that doesn’t go their way. They will cry that this ruling makes the court “illegitimate,” and they will threaten the court with violence and with court-packing.

Stoking hatred toward the court is central to Democratic politics these days (even after assassination attempts aimed at altering outcomes). The question is whether forgiving student debt is actually part of the Democrats’ politics these days.

It might be! Student borrowers are disproportionately in the upper half of income earners and otherwise fit into Democratic constituencies. This would be a major transfer of wealth into the hands of Democrats, at the expense of everyone else (because it would accelerate inflation and add to the taxpayers' federal debt).

But because it would accelerate inflation to inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy out of nowhere, it’s unlikely the Democrats actually want to do this ahead of an election in which inflation, and the cost of living for the average family, is Biden’s biggest weakness.