Biden cancels nearly $6 billion in student debt for 78K public service workers
The White House has approved nearly $144 billion in federal loan forgiveness for about 4 million borrowers in total, according to the administration.
President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the White Househas approved the cancellation of nearly $6 billion in federal student debt for thousands of public service workers.
The 78,000 eligible public service workers include teachers, nurses and firefighters, according to the White House.
…
It's the latest student debt cancellation move through Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs, which allow eligible borrowers to have their remaining debt forgiven if they have made a certain number of payments and are working for approved employers.
…
Last year, the Supreme Court invalidated Biden's more far-reaching student loan debt relief plan, arguing that it was unlawful because Congress did not explicitly approve the move.
John Oliver just had a good show student loans that talked about this program...
Something like 95% of people are denied for this program, and one woman had her servicer under charge her by $0.01 a month, and said none of those counted towards forgiveness. Another person had the same thing, challenged, and waited 3 years before her case was looked at. She had to keep making payments the whole time. But they fuck up so much, there's an insane backlog.
So it's good some people are getting forgiveness from this, but most of the people getting it now, were supposed to have already gotten it years ago. After years of having to keep making payments they likely don't get refunded.
And it's still barely even a rounding error in the total of 1.77 trillion.
There's nothing wrong with being happy about this, but it's nowhere near enough and it took a shit ton of noise for Biden to come this far. We can't stop pushing or they'll go back to ignoring it.
From personal experience, refunds aren't off the table. My wife has been a nurse for over 10 years. She just got a refund check from the Treasury stating that she over paid on her student loans. It wasn't an insignificant amount.
So she got forgiveness, and then got the refund?
Yeah, I figured with the forgiveness aspect they'd just be canceling the remaining
That's awesome they're making it right if that's the case
My issue is that these are years overdue, how does this man have a press conference every month about student loans, and every time its loans that would have been cancelled without him or should have been cancelled years ago. Which begs the next question, is it a win that it took three years in office to fix this? And next month when a new student loan press release comes out, what will be different?
Edited to Add because I already see downvotes and people think I am being excessive: March: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/21/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-nearly-6-billion-in-student-debt-cancellation-for-78000-public-service-workers/
Feb: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/21/fact-sheet-president-biden-cancels-student-debt-for-more-than-150000-student-loan-borrowers-ahead-of-schedule/
Jan: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/19/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-nearly-5-billion-in-additional-student-debt-cancellation-for-74000-borrowers/
Dec: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/12/06/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-another-nearly-5-billion-in-debt-relief-for-over-80000-student-loan-borrowers/
No comment for November, I guess to avoid reminding people their loan repayments started.
Oct: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/04/president-biden-announces-an-additional-9-billion-in-student-debt-relief-for-125000-americans/
Sep: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/09/what-they-are-reading-in-the-states-more-than-4-million-student-loan-borrowers-enrolled-in-new-biden-harris-administration-save-plan/
Aug: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/22/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administration-launches-the-save-plan-the-most-affordable-student-loan-repayment-plan-ever-to-lower-monthly-payments-for-millions-of-borrowers/
Jul: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/14/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-new-student-debt-relief-actions/
Wait, are you seriously contending that making significant progress on repairing something that’s fundamentally broken and affects a large amount of people for an extended time isn’t a massively positive thing?
I was promised sweeping changes and got more of the same except with trumpets (press releases), the emperor has no clothes.
If it was so broken before that people who had earned it weren’t getting the benefit and now they are, that’s “more of the same”?
wanted chocolate and got strawberry
Lol and you’ll take slop because it has calories
Dude tried a big one-and-done executive order, but the GOP Supreme Court swatted it down. That was pretty big news. So now he has to do the slower process of auditing lots of little opportunities in programs, departments, and laws that were ignored by his predecessors. And that takes time.
And they need to make press releases every damn time because Americans are not good at understanding nuance and cumulative impact.
One thing to remember is the supreme Court blocked him from cancelling all student debt.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/30/politics/supreme-court-student-loan-forgiveness-biden/index.html
So the timeline (from my memory as I recall it):
Could you provide sources for points 2 and 3? The Trump admin actually tried to simplify all the programs into just two, standard and IBR (income based repayment like the SAVE plan) and allowed for processing of cancellations. That administration also managed to use their executive power to eliminate student loan debt for disabled veterans source. Since then Biden has managed to ignore legal advice and precedent to throw up his hands and say he can't do anything for student loans. The same individual says he will stop Israel by never stopping them, it's tiring to hear people still have any faith in his words when is whole history is talking out both sides of his mouth. He was cancelled from running for president in 1988 for being a liar NYT Video and yet if I say he is lying, everyone jumps down my throat.
Yes they should have been cancelled years ago, and every other administration that could, didn't, or did it slowly. He is. Paperwork takes time, so is likely running through backlog.
I'll give him this; previous presidents weren't getting it done. Even though it was law. So yeah on one hand, yay he's following the law... On the other hand this program has been cursed since Bush jr.
You’re getting downvotes bc the pro-fasch shltbots are out in full force , not bc anyone is mAkInG a LoGicAl aRGuMent.
Their work shifts got doubled when people came here from Reddit. Social media is choked with this opinion-influencing bs
Yeah, everything I'm seeing is we're catching up to where we should have been years ago.
Which is better than ignoring it for another decade.
But it's like being grateful some guy stopped kicking you in the nuts every five minutes and is only kicking the other 9 people in the nuts now.
Like, sure, I'd be happy it stopped. But still pissed it was happening to me and still happening to other people.
Plus it just feels like Biden is intentionally misrepresenting what is happening so he gets the best optics going into an election. He's doing pretty much the bare minimum of the right thing for the wrong reasons.
Which again, is better than nothing.
But it's not enough for him to be doing victory laps and calling himself the most progressive president ever.
All he did was stop kicking a few of us in the nuts every five minutes.