WND
‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste’
By Matt Weidinger & Tim Sprunt
Real Clear Wire
Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff to President-elect Barack Obama, famously issued what has come to be known as Rahm’s rule: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”
Emanuel argued that the 2008 financial crisis afforded the new Obama-Biden administration the opportunity to “do things” they couldn’t otherwise. Trillions of dollars in higher spending later, President Biden recently dusted off Rahm’s Rule for yet another purpose — justifying his administration’s college debt cancellation plan.
The plan is controversial. Experts estimate it will cost taxpayers between $500 billion and $1 trillion over the coming decade, all added to the federal debt. The Wall Street Journal suggests “there has never been an executive action of this costly magnitude in peacetime….Nothing comes close to this half-trillion-dollar or more executive coup.” Vulnerable Democratic candidates are rejecting the proposal, and economists Larry Summers and Jason Furman warn of serious inflationary effects from cancelling loans for 43 million Americans.
