The Biden administration is canceling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers through a combination of existing programs.
The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellation on Wednesday, saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said it has canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs.
…
The latest relief will go to borrowers in three categories who hit certain milestones that make them eligible for cancellation. It will go to 54,000 borrowers who are enrolled in Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan, along with 39,000 enrolled in earlier income-driven plans, and about 67,000 who are eligible through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Education should be free. This is at least a better situation.
Without some sort of long term strategy, it may not be.
I’ve always said this would be good if also paired with some moves to improve things longer term, because random infusions of lots of free money without any checks on the university side has already worked to make the education more outrageously expensive. Continuing the strategy without any sort of price management will make things work.
Same could be said of healthcare, if as much money as they ask for is provided to the pharmas and hospitals, they will ask for more and more. Relief must be paired with some sort of plan to mitigate that.
But it is paired with other measures? The original full package would not charge interest for anyone making payments, for example.
I was thinking more on the university side, some sort of strings attached to have universities a bit more mindful on expense. Waving interest is again a good thing for the borrowers, but it’s still a relatively blank check for the universities.
This is why I am seriously considering studying overseas.
BoTh SiDeS!!1!
One small good deed doesn’t not redeem that little fucker from genocide support.
Which democrat or republican with significant support from the political parties would you recommend as a replacement?
I don’t know, it’s YOUR country, YOU figure it out!
Weird, this doesn’t sound like a thread you should be in then.
All major political parties and private organizations seem to be solidly on the side of supporting israel despite the atrocity. Only students and activitists outside the halls of power are very vocal about it. Normal people seem to think the gaza strip invasion is horrible but we have no more say on what the politicians and wealthy do than a foreigner does.
Since you’re a foreigner i’ll assume you are ignorant about this, but the US President effectively has no say on aid or penalties for foreign parties. Only the members of senate and congress can vote on bills funding the war effort… or removing said funding.
What would it cost him to cancel the genocide too, right?
As if he’s the president of Israel. Where have you people been while Yemen, Myanmar, Sudan, etc. all experience genocide?
I honestly care about high income inequality and campaign finance reform. Can we talk about those instead of what you care about?
No, this is actually a really effective way of communicating with other people and convincing them what I have to say is worth listening to. This absolutely does not alienate people or make me come off as an insensitive bot that doesn’t know hot treat people like humans before I unload my personal interests on them
Free Palestine, btw! 🍉
⚠️ Warning Comment May Contain Satire ⚠️
Satire
How can you support Palestine while at the same time not making it your sole priority by doing nothing but being shitty online!?!
bahahahha
We made it in one reply. Perfect.
I man the comment they were replying to was obviously baiting for a fight.
Obviously.
A good decision from Biden.
It seems like government investment in education is one of the best possible ways to allocate funds, even if not every person is directly impacted by being offered more schooing or degrees.
Think about it. More educated people around you is always better than fewer educated people.
Unfortunately our politicians view education as a zero sum game. Educated people generally have a left bias, which gives detractors incentive to cut funding and shoot down improvement initiatives.
Great bandaid. Now stop all federal student loans otherwise this problem is just going to continue. The idea of the government cyclically giving out loans and then cancelling them is the stupidest shit I keep reading as a valid solution.
Only 160k? Damn, I hope for democracy’s sake he tries a little harder to win back the voters he lost over Gaza.
160,000 borrowers have earned $7.7 billion of loan forgiveness under a federal program put in place under the obama administration.
This headline is incredibly misleading. Biden had little to do with this.
You realize Obama hasn’t been president for over 7 years? Trump and Republicans weren’t going to do this.
Sad for those who worked hard and repaid their loans and now get to watch as everyone else gets theirs written off
I graduated 70k in debt. Paid it all off myself. I’m fine with this.
Next do mortgages
The problem with this debt forgiveness by a thousand cuts is spending hours researching it then finding out you arbitrarily don’t qualify because some highly technical reason.
This technocrated BS isn’t helping any but the lucky few that end up qualifying.
The problem with this debt forgiveness by a thousand cuts is spending hours researching it then finding out you arbitrarily don’t qualify because some highly technical reason.
Are you saying because this doesn’t help everybody then it shouldn’t be allowed to help anybody?
I hate that logic so much, it’s taking over this whole platform
Are you defending a politician’s fix to a broken system with dozens of highly specific and hard to understand reforms?
If Biden had the choice between one broad fix that was easily communicated vs dozens of micro reforms; I’d prefer the broad reform even if I didn’t personally qualify. Democrats are our only hope and if they stop tripping over their own feet it will be better for everyone.
Are you defending a politician’s fix to a broken system with dozens of highly specific and hard to understand reforms?
Are you not informed about the political realities and the limits of power of the Executive branch?
If Biden had the choice between one broad fix that was easily communicated vs dozens of micro reforms; I’d prefer the broad reform even if I didn’t personally qualify.
I think we all would, and Biden tried the big broad fix. The Supreme Court shot it down in June of last year:
Supreme Court strikes down Biden student-loan forgiveness program
“By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority last year when it announced that it would cancel up to $400 billion in student loans. The Biden administration had said that as many as 43 million Americans would have benefitted from the loan forgiveness program; almost half of those borrowers would have had all of their student loans forgiven.”
So instead of doing nothing, Biden is working within the limits of the power he does have to provide student loan forgiveness. Yes its patchwork, yes we’d like a broader application of student loan forgiveness. He tried. Its not in his power.
The president is the most powerful person in this country. He is explicitly empowered by Congress to forgive student debt. The only actor here that is limited in power is our SCOTUS who constantly over step their bounds, make up judicial theory out of whole cloth, or ignore their own rules.
How come I never hear the experts say they are limited power in these executive vs judicial debates?
The president is the most powerful person in this country.
The office is, yes. It still doesn’t mean he’s an all powerful king. We have power divided into 3rds to provide checks and balances. The Executive is only 1/3rd.
He is explicitly empowered by Congress to forgive student debt.
I’d like a citation on that claim.
The only actor here that is limited in power is our SCOTUS who constantly over step their bounds,
Then why are you complaining that Biden isn’t doing enough?
Funny you bring up a king. Biden is empowered by congress to forgive debt, people broadly support student debt relief. How is forgiving debt acting like a king in this circumstance?
I think you are confusing the actions of the unelected SCOTUS who routinely takes actions against the will of the people. If Biden wants to stop unilateral actions, he literally needs to fight against this far right SCOTUS.
Why are you arguing about student debt relief if you don’t know the law that empowers POTUS? It’s cited by Biden himself, but you can google yourself, you might learn something.
Biden is empowered by congress to forgive debt
I asked for a citation on this. Show me where you’re seeing that please.
It’s cited by Biden himself, but you can google yourself, you might learn something.
You make the claim, you’ve got to back it up.
I think you are confusing the actions of the unelected SCOTUS who routinely takes actions against the will of the people.
I’m not a fan of the current make up of the SCOTUS, but its never been their job to represent the “will of the people”. Their job is to interpret laws written by the Legislative Branch and signed into by the Executive.
I don’t think you have a good grasp of the basics of our system of government.
If Biden wants to stop unilateral actions, he literally needs to fight against this far right SCOTUS.
If you’re looking for insurrectionists, you’ll find them on the Conservative side.
So just stop paying 🤷 I have over 80k and I haven’t paid anything in over a decade. I just don’t care. They can cancel it, or not, makes no difference to me, I’ll never pay anything.
JOE BIDEN PLAYED a central role in the creation of the student debt crisis…
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/joe-biden-student-loans/
Edit, here is some more information if you would like to see more concrete examples:
https://bigthink.com/the-present/joe-biden-student-debt/
In 1978 he co-wrote a bill that introduced the first limit on how students could use bankruptcy law to reduce their debt burden.
In 1990 he helped author the Crime Control Act, which is famous for stepping up sentencing guidelines, included an entirely unrelated clause that further lengthened the time students had to wait before they could declare bankruptcy on their student loans.
In 1998 they introduced an “undue hardship” clause to federal student loan bankruptcy proceedings; making it even more difficult to declare bankruptcy on student debt.
To top all of this off, he supported adding the undue hardship clause to private student loans in 2005.
Imagine if someone took every mistake you ever made and magnified it as if you weren’t allowed to grow or change.
That’s you, that’s what you sound like
These are the things that he’s proud of. He’s not ashamed of these policies. Not one bit.
https://bigthink.com/the-present/joe-biden-student-debt/
In 1978 he co-wrote a bill that introduced the first limit on how students could use bankruptcy law to reduce their debt burden.
In 1990 he helped author the Crime Control Act, which is famous for stepping up sentencing guidelines, included an entirely unrelated clause that further lengthened the time students had to wait before they could declare bankruptcy on their student loans.
In 1998 they introduced an “undue hardship” clause to federal student loan bankruptcy proceedings; making it even more difficult to declare bankruptcy on student debt.
To top all of this off, he supported adding the undue hardship clause to private student loans in 2005.
1978 is reaching way back. Were you even alive then? Do you know what our society was like, what the options were? Have you changed at all over the last 46 years?
He didn’t vote on this, he co-wrote it. Wake up man…
In 1978 I stole a free battery from Radio Shack. Does that make me a lifelong thief?
He stole the battery in 1978, 1990, 1998 , 2005. If you can’t see the pattern, then I can’t help you.
You can’t say if he’s proud of it or not currently. All I know for sure is that actions speak louder than words and it’s the most action we’ve gotten a long time.
Is it the solution we need? No. However anytime he tries to do anything broader he’s blocked by Congress so I can’t hold too much at his feet.
Most people went to school before he was president
https://bigthink.com/the-present/joe-biden-student-debt/
In 1978 he co-wrote a bill that introduced the first limit on how students could use bankruptcy law to reduce their debt burden.
In 1990 he helped author the Crime Control Act, which is famous for stepping up sentencing guidelines, included an entirely unrelated clause that further lengthened the time students had to wait before they could declare bankruptcy on their student loans.
In 1998 they introduced an “undue hardship” clause to federal student loan bankruptcy proceedings; making it even more difficult to declare bankruptcy on student debt.
To top all of this off, he supported adding the undue hardship clause to private student loans in 2005.
Thank you for sharing all this.
While I’m under no illusions that Biden is my friend, in the current political climate, I can’t shake the feeling that he’s my friendliest enemy.
Can you shed any more light on that 1990 business?
While I have no familiarity with it, the circumstances suggest that it’s possible that the added clause was added as a bit of trade-off to other members of Congress to get the crime bill over the finish line. Not that that makes it any less bitter a pill for borrowers, but if that’s how it happened, that’s much less “Biden hates borrowers” and much more the political game in DC.
It’s not that Biden hates borrowers or students. The problem is, that even way back then, he owed too much favours, so he drafted legislation that “the big guys” (his quote) wanted.
Results from Cca 1990 being easier to criminalize young people, and young people with records could not wipe debt/much harder to do. (if I understood it correctly).
Damn
And now, he’s changed his stance in response to a changing society and pressure from voters.
Isn’t that a good thing? Don’t we want politicians who are demonstrably responsive to voters?
