Senate-approved debt ceiling bill terminates student loan pause

With a June 5 deadline fast approaching, debt ceiling deal heads to Biden’s desk

By James David Dickson | June 3, 2023

President Joe Biden has vowed to veto a bill terminating his student loan pause. But the pause will end anyway if Biden signs the debt ceiling bill that passed both the House and the Senate this week.

Michigan Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, voted yes. The Senate passed the bill 63-36, with one senator not voting.

Biden has incentive to act soon, given the June 5 deadline for a deal on the debt ceiling. That’s Monday.

House Resolution 3746 contains a provision that would terminate the student loan pause 60 days after June 30, which falls in late August.

That provision is at the heart of House Joint Resolution 45, which disapproves and terminates the student loan pause. Biden said he would veto that bill, which also passed both the House and the Senate.

Read it for yourself: House Resolution 3746

The debt ceiling bill is not thought to be a candidate for veto because of its importance. For months, elected Democrats and Republicans have stressed the need to avoid a default.

Having passed both chambers, the debt ceiling bill now heads to Biden’s desk.

The Mackinac Center has sued the Biden Department of Education over the student loan pause.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

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Whitmer asks for ideas to grow Michigan

Governor’s new Chief Growth Officer has a heavy task: Only Washington, D.C., has grown more slowly than Michigan

By James David Dickson | June 2, 2023

Why does Michigan continue to shrink, and what needs to change to make it grow? Those questions will be the basis of a new commission announced Thursday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which will study and recommend ways the Pleasant Peninsula can reverse a decades-long trend of shrinkage.

Whitmer also announced Thursday the hiring of Hilary Doe as Michigan’s first Chief Growth Officer. The Growing Michigan Together Council was created by Executive Order 2023-4.

“For much of the 20th century, people came to Michigan seeking opportunity,” reads Whitmer’s order. “Our population and incomes grew faster than the rest of the country, supporting strong schools, world-class infrastructure, and vibrant communities.

“Michigan’s population growth began to slow in the 1970s, and in the 21st century, Michigan grew more slowly than all but one state.”

Michigan has the same number of representatives in the U.S. House, 13, as it did a century ago, per the U.S. Census Bureau. Michigan’s peak of power in Washington came in the 1960s and 1970s, when the state had 19 members in the U.S. House. Every state has two senators.

For the last two years, more people have died in Michigan than were born. And for two decades now, governors have groaned about the brain drain, as Michigan’s college graduates find their futures elsewhere.

Nothing the state has tried has reversed the outflow of young, educated people. Not Cool Cities, not film incentives, not Pure Michigan commercials.

The growth council will seat 28 members. Governor’s advisory councils can be created through executive action, as happened Thursday.

John Rakolta, a Republican donor and chairman of Walbridge, will co-chair the commission alongside Shirley Stancato, a Democrat. Rakolta painted a bleak picture in remarks quoted by The Detroit News.

"Our state has been stagnant for over 30 years in terms of population," Rakolta told reporters at the Mackinac Policy Conference. “Our demography is stagnant. We are 50th out of 51 states and Washington D.C. in terms of population growth, and that has to change."