Biden made a commitment to canceling student load debt. Then the Supreme Court (which Trump built) cancelled his major policy.
But Biden is a political genius with decades of experience figuring out how to do hard things.
And he has done just that. He has Found all kinds of paths to cancelling debt
using anti-fraud and consumer protection regulations, the administration has forgiven $22.5 billion for more than 1.3 million borrowers who claim they were cheated by their schools or that their schools closed.
and this:
More than six months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s ambitious program to erase $430 billion in student loan debt, the White House has been rolling out smaller, more targeted relief programs that it says have now canceled $132 billion in debt for more than 3.6 million Americans.
And that doesn’t include this new SAVE plan:
Early Student Debt Cancellation
Starting next month, borrowers enrolled in SAVE who took out less than $12,000 in loans and have been in repayment for 10 years will get their remaining student debt cancelled immediately. This action will particularly help community college borrowers, low-income borrowers, and those struggling to repay their loans. And, it’s part of our ongoing efforts to act as quickly as possible to give more borrowers breathing room so they can get out from under the burden of student loan debt, move on with their lives and pursue their dreams.
Today’s announcement builds on all we’ve been able to achieve for students and student loan borrowers in the past few years. This includes: fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program so that borrowers who go into public service get the debt relief they’re entitled to under the law; achieving the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; and holding colleges accountable for leaving students with unaffordable debts. And, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on our student debt relief plan, we are continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. I won’t back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams.
Will this affect many people?
Most low-income borrowers will pay less. For example, a borrower making $38,000 a year with $25,000 in public student loans would see their payment drop from $134 to $43 a month, according to the Department of Education.
The White House said almost seven million borrowers have signed up for SAVE.
How big a deal is this? Well, according to Washington Monthly → Psst: Joe Biden Has Solved the Student Debt Crisis
The president’s new student loan program, SAVE, will slash monthly payments for borrowers like me. It’s the large-scale debt relief activists have spent years fighting for
After digging deeper into SAVE’s details, I learned that the plan is more than an extra-lenient repayment program—it’s President Joe Biden’s vehicle for delivering billions in forgiveness after the Supreme Court defeated his $430 billion debt cancellation plan this summer.
Under other repayment plans, the average borrower ends up paying more than the original amount they borrowed because interest accumulates. But the average undergraduate borrower who uses SAVE will repay only 60 cents on every dollar they borrowed. For low-income borrowers, the entire balance will be forgiven.
There’s never been a program like it. For millions of Americans, SAVE will be debt cancellation in the form of debt repayment. In other words, the large-scale debt relief activists have spent years fighting for is finally here—it just didn’t arrive in the packaging anyone expected.
Read that again → For millions of Americans, SAVE will be debt cancellation in the form of debt repayment. In other words, the large-scale debt relief activists have spent years fighting for is finally here—it just didn’t arrive in the packaging anyone expected.
Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden did more than many people guessed could be done. And he deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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This is an entry in my ongoing series Boosting Biden.
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