 A few weeks ago, we learned that Republicans were trying to find some way to create legal hurdles for Joe Biden's student debt cancellation policy, and the problem was finding somebody who had standing to actually sue the administration to block his cancellation of student debt. Well, it turns out they found someone who seemingly will have standing. The problem is that this lawsuit is still probably a long shot. As Common Dreams explains, Frank Garrison, a lawyer at the right-wing Pacific Legal Foundation, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, arguing that Biden's debt cancellation plan will have untold economic impacts on Americans like him and claiming he will now be forced to have his student debt canceled and then taxed. Garrison lives in Indiana, one of seven states that have said that they may tax cancel student debt. The lawyer had planned to have his student debt wiped out through a program that benefits public service employees, in which case the debt would not have been taxed as income. While Biden's plan may automatically cancel the debt up to 8 million borrowers, the White House pointed out Tuesday that no one, including Garrison, will be forced into the program. Now that last paragraph there is key, but we'll come back to that. Now he asked for an injunction to block this while the lawsuit goes forward, so he's literally trying to block student debt cancellation for everyone. Knowing perhaps maybe that this might not go through, because understand that he filed this lawsuit before Indiana even made it official that they're going to tax student debt cancellation. So this lawsuit is a little bit too early, so I think that they know that they don't have much of a legal leg to stand on, but just understand what they're trying to do here. They're trying to block student debt cancellation for all of us, because this one selfish prick thinks that it's going to negatively affect him, and I don't even know if he believes that. This is a right-wing individual who's an opportunist who's trying to just get Biden, I guess. But what I love about this story is that the law firm that he works at is even admitting that if he's not forced to have his debt cancel, then it's going to be more difficult to argue. As the New York Times explains, if borrowers can opt out, Mr. Garrison's claim will be a harder case for us said Steve Simpson, a senior attorney at Pacific Legal, which is representing Mr. Garrison. It would be harder to argue that he's harmed anymore. Yeah, and that's a really important admission there, because understand that this is all means tested. This is a means tested policy, meaning that there are people who are excluded. There are people who may not actually get it, even if they qualify, because again, the Department of Education does not have tax information. They don't have income data for all student loan borrowers. So there are some individuals who may qualify for debt forgiveness, but may not actually get it. And this is because Biden chose the means tested. So because he decided to implement this policy in that way, well, the argument for Mr. Garrison is moot. And again, he may not have standing, we don't necessarily know, we'll have to wait and see. But what I love is that the law firm itself is admitting that it's going to be difficult to argue this case. But yet you have biased media outlets like CNN claiming that actually maybe he has a point like just watch the way that this case was talked about on Jake Tapper's program. As you pointed out, at the center of the lawsuit is that lawyer, his name is Frank Garrison from Indiana. He says that as part of Biden's student loan forgiveness program, his student loan debt will be automatically wiped and he doesn't want it to be. So we know that 8 million borrowers will have their student debt forgiveness automatically wiped. And he says that is part of the problem. It's going to leave him with a tax bill that will ultimately leave him worse off than if he continued hard to believe. But the lawyers behind the lawsuit say that this will also impact others in at least six other states. When the White House was asked about this lawsuit earlier, Jake, the White House said that the claims are baseless and that no one will be forced. But when I talked to one of the lawyers behind the suit just a short time ago, they said that is not true. There is no process at this point to opt out. And that is part of the problem. That details are still very limited. We get the lawsuit, Jake, on the same day that we get another look at how much this program could cost this projection coming from the Congressional Budget Office at the price tag now looking to be about $400 billion, according to projections today, put another way in 2023. For example, CBO estimates that cash flows to the Treasury will be reduced by about 0.2%. Oh, no, the Treasury will receive 0.2% less in revenue, which they already haven't been receiving because student debt payments have been on hold for the last two years because of the pandemic. But whatever will they do without the 0.2% in revenue that they're getting from students who were victims of a predatory college industry? I mean, this is the way that media talks about student debt cancellation. But when it comes to the military budget that increases frequently, they have nothing to say. And notice how they just take Frank Garrison, the right-wing attorney who's suing the White House over this at his word. They say, oh, well, there's no process at this point to opt out and he's going to have his student debt automatically wiped, except you don't know what the process is. CNN does not know what the process is because the administration has not announced what the process is. This hasn't even gone into effect yet. People who do qualify don't know how they actually will get their loans wiped out. Is it going to be automatic? Will we have to opt in? We don't know. Will we have to provide proof of income to get our debt canceled? We don't know. So for them to just report this at face value and not challenge it, I mean, it's really disingenuous because the news is supposed to be objective, but they're very clearly speaking about this from the position of, well, maybe this is bad, because if they weren't, then they would admit that the 0.2% revenue that the government would lose if 10 to $20,000 worth of student debt is canceled, that already hasn't been revenue that the government has been getting. They would juxtapose how much it costs to cancel student debt with the cost of aid that we send to human rights abusers. Military budget increases, tax cuts for the wealthy, but they never do that. And that's because they are biased. But at the end of the day, we don't know what's going to happen, what the result will be. We'll just have to wait and see, but I hope that Biden's administration is going to fight this tooth and nail. My problem is that, and this is a very cynical take, so bear with me. I don't necessarily think that Biden is going to fight this aggressively enough. I think that he wants the political credit for canceling student debt knowing that it's popular, but at the same time, if this doesn't go through, if this Republican can successfully block him from canceling debt for everyone, then I think that Biden is just going to be like, oh, well, shocks. Yeah, I don't know. I hope that that's not the case, but I hope that legally they defend this position because it's good policy. And I hope that it's not just window dressing. I hope that he is in for the long haul to fight this, but we'll have to wait and see. Either way, fuck Mr. Garrison, fuck the Republicans who are going after this. The one time that Democrats actually deliver in a real concrete material way, they start screeching at the top of their lungs. It just shows you who they are, that they don't care about working class people. They don't care about people who this is going to affect, which by the way, the overwhelming majority of student debt cancellation is going to go to people who make less than $75,000 per year. These are working class people. Republicans, they can't handle essentially a tax cut going to anyone other than their rich donors. So this is what we have to deal with.