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President Biden vetoed a bill that would have cancelled his plan for student debt forgiveness. Even so this plan remains in peril from a possible negative Supreme Court ruling. And this Court is so conservative that I won’t be surprised if they rule democracy itself unconstitutional.
That being said, when I read about the veto I realized I hadn’t heard anythig about the bill’s passage. So, being curious I wondered how did a bill to screw student debtors get to Biden’s desk in the first place. Dem’s hold the Senate after all. And isn’t there a 60 vote filibuster?
So I did the research, as I do dear readers so you don’t have to, and it turns out, as it usually does, when you need a Democratic senator (or one who used to be a Dem and still caucuses with them) to do some Republican dirty work, there is Manchin and Synema. Just as they stood in opposition to Biden’s Build Back Better bills, and similar to how Synema curtsied her way against the 15 dollar minimum wage, both Manchin and Synema, joined by John Tester of Montana voted to cancel Biden’s student debt relief before the Supreme Court can get to it.
The bill didn’t need to overcome a filibuster because the Biden whitehouse said it was subject to the Congressional Review Act. Why Dems haven’t used this endrun around the filibuster in 2021 and…