Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is no expert in executive action.
President Obama took another step forward in his so-called “year of action” Monday, signing an executive order aimed at easing student loan debt. Duncan was discussing it today in a press conference when he took heat on the legality of the executive order.
“How can you pay for something like this in an executive action without getting Congress to codify it?” Chuck Todd of NBC News asked.
“We will work that through as we go forward. Don’t know the cost yet,” said Duncan. “We just think for the economy this is such an important thing to do.”
Todd didn’t bite.
“But you’re confident this is constitutional, this is legal for you guys to do this?” he followed up.
“Well I’m not a Constitutional scholar,” a smirking Duncan replied.
“But you’ve gotten legal advice to say, you can do this above and beyond?” Todd asked.
“Yes, we have, and again we’ve done it in the past, to be very clear,” Duncan continued.
