Katie flagged this yesterday, and I'm almost hesitant to subject anyone to it again, but there are a few observations I'd like to make. So, apologies. Democrats and leftists held one of their big tantrums outside the Supreme Court yesterday, as the justices heard oral arguments in what should be an open-and-shut case regarding President Biden's illegal student loan bailout scheme. Nancy Pelosi admitted it was unlawful. The administration never expected to win this case. They farted out the policy as a pre-election vote-buying scheme aimed at a core piece of their coalition, hoping that their friends in the media would paper over the regressive, inflationary, and profoundly unfair policy implications of the move. They knew they'd lose and planned all along to use the occasion to assail the Court for making the obviously correct legal ruling.
If it were a GOP president making this exact same cynical calculation, including a politically-motivated plot to undermine faith in a major governmental institution, it would be widely denounced as an "attack on our democracy," or even a potential "constitutional crisis." But it's the Democrats and the Left playing the dangerous games, so that's broadly permissible in the eyes of the tribe. During the organized tantrum, full-time professional Democratic operative Randi Weingarten, a notorious anti-science and anti-child extremist, took to the microphone and bellowed out a number of objections (content warning -- voice):
AFT President Randi Weingarten was at the Supreme Court earlier screaming in support of illegally canceling $400 billion in student loan debt.
— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) February 28, 2023
Imagine if Randi and teachers unions were this passionate about allowing kids to go to school during the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/zESoB2LQ2u
(1) The point about misplaced passion from this "champion" of "education" makes itself. This contemptible hack did everything within her power, wielding her deep-pocketed political clout, to delay the return of normalcy in American schools for as long as possible. This wreaked immeasurable harm on children. She used her power to alter the official "Science" for selfish, political ends, sacrificing the well being and even lives of kids in the process. She shouldn't be able to show her face in public, given what she did. But she's an ally in good standing on the professional Left, even getting invited to swanky White House events. This is who they are.
(2) Weingarten asserts, flippantly and in passing, that the Biden administration has the authority to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on debt "cancellation" on behalf of "our students." They very much lack that authority, which is the whole point of the case, which her side is widely expected to lose.
(3) What really 'pisses her off,' she says, is how businesses were helped financially during the pandemic, without any attempt at judicial intervention, but suddenly evil right-wingers have challenged spending on "our students." Even she is not this stupid. The federal government did, in fact, spend trillions of dollars to help businesses and individuals not totally collapse while the government was forcing them not to be in business, and to stay home from work. The need for this assistance, under extraordinary and extenuating circumstances was so obvious that it was passed overwhelmingly by Congress -- 419-6 in the House, and unanimously in the Senate -- then signed into law by the president. About $900 billion in additional emergency funding sailed through in late 2020, as well. After Biden took over, Democrats spent nearly $2 trillion more on 'COVID relief' in their wasteful "rescue plan" boondoggle, that even many Democratic economists admit fueled massive inflation.
These measures, whether they were the right or wrong things to have done, were not challenged in court because they went through the legislative process. Congress controls the purse strings, Congress acted, and consecutive presidents signed bills into law. If Congress had approved Biden's disgraceful student loan debt scheme, it would still be very bad policy. But it would be legal. But Congress was bypassed in this case, deliberately. So it's not legal. Weingarten is omitting this obvious distinction because she assumes, perhaps correctly, that many in her intended audience are ignorant. And perhaps they're ignorant because they were taught by people like...Randi Weingarten, who was a US government, history and political science teacher. She knows better. She's counting on others not knowing better, or not caring. Does any of this qualify as "misinformation"? Do tell, vaunted "experts."
(4) Weingarten is an excellent representative of the teachers union lobby. Conservatives and other pro-science, pro-child, pro-education Americans should hope that she remains the face of said lobby for the foreseeable future. The lobby deserves her. May she actively alienate, clumsily lie, and off-puttingly screech on their behalf for years to come. I'll leave you with this, which is worthwhile:
I wrote a quick post on why the legal arguments defending the substance of Biden's student loan forgiveness action are very weak and how the press is aiding Biden’s cynical plan to blame Republicans & SCOTUS for the potential failure of his illegal action: https://t.co/cTLuSk4QlI
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 1, 2023
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