Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt Celebrates Student Loan Victory: We Saved Taxpayers a ‘Half Trillion Dollars’

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), former attorney general of the state, celebrated the conservative Supreme Court victory after the Supreme Court formally knocked down the Biden administration’s student loan debt transfer plan, touting that their lawsuit successfully saved taxpayers a “half trillion dollars.”

“BREAKING: Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s unlawful student loan debt forgiveness scam. I’m proud to have brought this case as Missouri’s Attorney General and save taxpayers a half trillion dollars,” Schmitt said in a social media post following the ruling.

“This was fundamentally unfair, unlawful and a cynical election ploy by Joe Biden. Working folks who paid off their loans or took another path shouldn’t have to pay for the unpaid loans of the tenured college professor,” he continued:

This was fundamentally unfair, unlawful and a cynical election ploy by Joe Biden.

Working folks who paid off their loans or took another path shouldn’t have to pay for the unpaid loans of the tenured college professor.

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) June 30, 2023

Indeed, Schmitt joined five other states in September 2022 — Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, and South Carolina — in challenging President Biden’s mass student loan debt transfer proposal, which the president announced last August, prior to the midterm elections. Schmitt, at the time, deemed the executive action “unconstitutional” and unfair to working class families. He also warned that it would “worsen inflation at a time when many Americans are struggling to get by.”

The lawsuit itself added that the debt cancellation scheme was “yet another example in a long line of unlawful regulatory actions.”

Under the original plan, those making less than $125,000 annually would be eligible to have $20,000 forgiven if they went to college on Pell Grants. Those who did not go to college on Pell Grants would be eligible to receive up to $10,000 in loan forgiveness, as Breitbart News detailed at the time:

In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023.

I'll have more details this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/kuZNqoMe4I

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 24, 2022

The announcement was met with countless challengers, and in November, the Department of Education removed the student debt relief application from its website–an action that occurred after a federal judge deemed the student loan debt transfer unlawful.

“Courts have issued orders blocking our student debt relief program. As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders,” the website read at the time.

The Supreme Court ultimately struck down the entire case in a 6-3 decision, effectively ending the $430 billion action. Chief Justice John Roberts penned the majority opinion and actually quoted former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who at one time asserted Biden did not have the authority to unilaterally cancel student loan debt.