Biden says he is forgiving $5 billion in student debt for another 74,000 Americans
President Biden announced Friday that his administration is forgiving $5 billion in student debt for another 74,000 borrowers, marking the latest round of debt cancellation since the Supreme Court voided the president's student loan forgiveness program.
Mr. Biden said that of the borrowers who can receive relief, nearly 44,000 are teachers, nurses, firefighters and others who are eligible for forgiveness after working 10 years of public service. Almost 30,000 of those who will have their debt wiped clean have been repaying their loans for at least 20 years, but did not get the relief they earned through income-based plans, the president said.
With the latest round of student loan forgiveness, more than 3.7 million Americans have had their debt erased under the Biden administration, Mr. Biden said.
It's insane that they made 5b off of just 74k people in the first place
That's nearly 70k per person. For education. That's...that's greed on an evil level
Yeah, now that you mention it, that's fucking nuts. On average, $67,500 worth of outstanding balance for these people who went into public service. That doesn't even take into account what they've already paid in principal and interest over the years.
Edit: it's actually $72,892 per person being forgiven for people that have worked in public service for more than a decade.
That's just about exactly what my wife owes and she's 2 years away from PLSF freedom. fingers crossed
PS - I paid off my loans and I hope y'all get all yours forgiven.
I feel like education should be free for everyone, especially people in public service because that is usually challenging work and often well below market pay.
And that's the balance after paying it off for a decade or more.
Thanks, Reagan.
Careful, you might accidently summon him. No one knows the exact incantation to bring him back and frankly I'd rather add "reanimated corpse of Reagan appointed to state department" to the 2025 bingo card.
I thought you had to turn off the lights in the bathroom of a Better Business Bureau, hold a copy of The Wall Street Journal between your legs, and say his name backwards three times fast whilst flapping your arms like a chicken.
Or is that how you summon the ghost of Alan Greenspan? It all blends together after awhile.
What's insane is this is barely a drop in the bucket...
There's over 1,770 billion in student loans debt.
When people say 1.77 trillion, it might not be immediate how little a few billion is to the larger issue.
But it's only around 0.2% of total debt. Probably less because the 1.77 trillion is rounded, and at this scale that's what 5 billion is. A rounding error they don't even include that digit when talking about the total amount.
Let's do all of it, and put in place a solution for all future student loans. They are robbing us blind right now, and costing future generations a chance at a debt free life.
He did do a lot more! I mentioned it in another comment a week ago, but look into what his save plan does. Lowers costs, lowers interest, increases forgiveness, etc. etc.
Save plan lowered my effective interest rate to around 2%. I'll still have to pay a lot over the next 20 years, and if the tax bomb is not removed it will be another 100,000. However my cash flow is much improved and how much I pay total has decreased drastically.
Still fighting with my student loan servicer to set me up on the plan correctly, but that is a different can of worms. The servicers need to have their contracts nullified for how terrible they have been.
Definitely better than a kick in the teeth, but it’s a shame the Supreme Court nixed the bigger loan forgiveness plan. I’m glad to see Biden is still trying to live up to his promise as much as he can given the obstructionist Congress and Supreme Court.
Here in Australia, our student loans are given and managed by the Australian Tax Office, and while they technically don’t accrue interest they are “indexed” according to inflation (CPI specifically) once per year, every year. Our repayments just come out of or income like regular income taxes - that means that the repayments are tax-deductible too. We usually get indexed around 2-3% per year but last year it was almost 8% which hit really hard. Most degrees also fall under the Higher Education Commonwealth Support (HECS) program which drastically reduces their total cost too.
Yeah, but that's progressive...
We keep electing democrats that think fixing something at once would be too disruptive.
So they stretch the smallest amount of progress as long as they can, even if that doesn't make up for damage Republicans do.
Its been like 80 years since moderate Dems told FDR that it was too soon for universal healthcare and Americans had to wait a few more years to make sure it's a good idea.
And they're still fucking saying they need to look into it more. It'll never be time. Student Debt relief shows every indication that it's going to be the same thing.
This may be a shock to you, but there are other branches of government in the US. One of which is not elected and that's the one that recently struck down Biden's HEROS plan that would have eliminated $460B in student loan debt.
https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/supreme-court-strikes-down-student-loan-forgiveness-program
Good thing we elected a career politician who said his decades of Senate experience meant he could get Republicans in the Senate and house to vote for progressive legislation...
Oh, that's right...
I forgot Dems had the Senate, House, and presidency for 2 years....
But that highly experienced career politician told us trying to change even a single politicians mind (even if they were in his own party) was an impossible task so he wouldn't even try.
Welp, at least we're not running him again since the whole reason he said he was the man for the job turned out to be something he was lying about...
That would seem like a terrible plan
He said he could work with Republicans to get bipartisan legislation passed. And he has, including the Electoral Count Reform Act.
In addition to bipartisan legislation he has also passed progressive legislation, but as everyone expected that was along party lines.
How does having the House and the Senate for 2 years affect the Supreme Court's decision?
During those 2 years Manchin and Sinema weren't actually Dems and voted against most major progressive legislation, only voting for minor stuff if progressive.
I'm not a fan of him either. Though he hasn't done much of what I've wanted, he's been more progressive than I expected. Tbh it sounds like he would have been better off politically if he hadn't touched student loans. Im finding other progressives aren't realistic on this issue and do not seem to want to encourage behavior they want from politicians. Way to encourage other politicians not to make attempts like this. Biden would be getting raked over the coals less if he had done nothing. That doesn't mean dont be critical when its warranted, but don't expect anybody to take you seriously when you claim he didn't try. Were you a fly on the wall listening in? You not being there doesn't mean conversations didnt happen. Its an unfounded claim that doesn't acknowledge the good changes he HAS accomplished. You just don't care about those because you weren't personally impacted. No different than every other selfish voter who gave us Trump.
You are foolish if you think individual politicians can make more progressive shit happen on their own. So many "progressives" only care about the end results and how they are personally helped. That makes you no different than any other voter and its also why we will never make progress until people like you cut the crap and grow up. Incremental progress is still progress. The only time it is not is when its something like setting up a healthcare program and underfunding it so bad it makes the masses hate it. In cases where shit is already fucked, making it slightly less fucked is a good thing.
Personally I actually want politicians to move left. So I celebrate when they make steps in that direction. You are playing into exactly what the Supreme Court was trying to accomplish with its bs decision. The point was to hurt him politically. If you do not reward politicians for moving left and are extra critical of any who make attempts to do what you want, you are only telling them not to bother.
He wasn't my choice but he's what we have. We may as well try to use him instead of throwing a tantrum about what could have been. Most neolibs wouldn't have done anything and he surprised me when he did. The primaries are the place for idealism. The general is the place for realism.
Biden has passed a lot of bipartisan laws. This is a dumb comment.
Oh, but what more could you ask of him? He tried once and the Supreme Court said no, and that's all he can do. Sure, when Trump wanted to ban Muslims from the country and the Supreme Court told him no he just changed one or two small details and issued the same order again and again and again until the Court gave up, but Biden couldn't possibly do something like that here because it wouldn't be very polite. You don't want a rude president, do you?
/s
LOL, That's quite literally what Biden is doing now in bits in pieces while keeping SCotUS out of it entirely.
But no, you want what you want & you want it NOW.
Either you are lying & hoping no one would notice or you are even more politically ignorant than I first realized.
lol indeed
I’m not sure why this comment is so controversial. It’s exactly what’s happening. We’ve been talking about this now for forever and almost nothing is happening. It’s wonderful that 74,000 people get some relief but that’s a drop in the ocean. I want it badly but I’ve almost accepted the fact that it’s probably not going to happen.
74,000 in addition to the 3.4 million people who already had student loans forgiven. That's not nothing.
Including me under the TEPSLF. I was on track to hopefully finish paying off my loans at age 63, but with the TEPSLF it counted the ten years I had already done so they were forgiven after the ten years of public service work I did.
Thank you House/Senate Dems and president Biden!
Sure, I agree the extra 3.4 million people have gotten relief or forgiveness is not nothing, but out of the 45.3 million people (quick Google search) with student loan debt that’s only 13%. It’s great, we’re on the path, but 87% of people still haven’t seen any kind of help, and were drug along being promised help for the last 3 years.
"It's only 13% and not 100%, so it doesn't count!"
The Supreme Court blocked his attempt last year to forgive debt for another 43 million people, which was set to take effect before repayments started back up. He's trying to help but is being blocked by conservatives who want him to fail so Trump can be reelected.
The supreme court stopped them forgiving 460 billion a wide acope. Instead, his admin has forgiven 141 billion in a narrower, but still huge, scope. Its far, far more than any other admin has ever forgiven, and still going.
If 30% of "an ocean" is just "a drop," thats one hell of an drop.
Hell, if he had just promised to forgive the equivalent of 10k like he intended on the campaign trail, his admin would be more than half way there, and climbing.
3.4 million people total have had their debts forgiven (so far) out of a potential 45.3 million. That’s around 7.5% of all people who held student loans.
NOAA estimates that the oceans hold around 1.335 billion cubic kilometres of water, which is around 1.335 sextillion litres (1.335e18 litres) or 353 quintillion gallons (3.53e17 gallons). Estimates put annual human water usage at around 4 trillion m^2 per year (4 quadrillion litres or 1.057 quadrillion gallons).
If the student loans forgiven were merely ‘a drop in the ocean’, that ‘drop’ would contain 100 quintillion litres or 26.4 quintillion gallons. That ‘drop’ would weigh 100 quadrillion tonnes and would be twenty-five times the amount of water all human being use globally every year. Dumped over the contiguous United States, that would form a layer of water 12.5km (7.8miles) deep.
That’s a hell of a drop.
Sources:
This burn is so wet, I'm literally drowning just seeing it.
Lots of moderates want to keep copying the Republican party, even the part where no one is allowed to question any politician who has the right letter next to their name.
They think it's better to live with the problems and not talk about them let alone solve them.
Which is pretty much the whole problem.
You're allowed to ask questions. You just don't like the answers.
In this case, the answer is that debt forgiveness is happening, but you weren't paying attention.
There's 1.77 trillion in student loan debt...
https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/student-loans/average-student-loan-debt-statistics/
Do you think enough is being done?
Especially when every year a shit ton of students enter college into the same shit show?
I couldn't find a source for how much total Biden has forgiven, but I'd be shocked if the percentage doesn't start with a decimal point.
It's north of $136B in total. If you couldn't find that, you may not have looked today, as it's definitely been reported. I'll let you work out the percentage, but it certainly doesn't begin with a decimal point.
Before you can forgive $1.77 trillion, you need to forgive $136 billion.
80 years ago moderates said before we could all have universal healthcare, we should settle for orphans, widows, and those with disabilities.
And that in a few years we might get it for everyone else after they looked into it.
Couple generations later and moderates are still saying they're looking into it...
Why do you think Student Loan debt will be different?
Medicare covers everyone over 65, not just orphans, widows, and people with disabilities.
The reason we didn't have universal health care 80 years ago is that it wasn't popular 80 years ago. Even today, support for single payer is shaky, depending on the details.
Yeah, ok...
People kept voting FDR into office so often we had to put a limit on how many times a person could be president because his main campaign issue was unpopular....
Medicare was popular because it was specifically aimed at retired people.
It also did not pass under FDR. In fact, FDR thought health care was too controversial to include in his Social Security proposal.
Medicare had to wait until 1965, when it was signed by Lyndon Johnson.
Are you serious? There's a big difference. Anything related to student loans already has a big hurdle in that it effects a segment of the population and not the entire population. For that reason, its not going to be the #1 issue for many voters. In situations like that, incremental progress is good because its not a prioritized issue simply due to numbers. It sucks but its true. The list of things we need to fix is huge. Things fewer people prioritize need any help they can get. Same reason enshrining abortion rights wasn't a priority. People thought it was already settled law and were less likely to prioritize it if they weren't personally effected.
In the case of healthcare it artifically created a similar problem, which was probably the intent. Giving some people healthcare makes them prioritize it less, which is why there hasn't been much movement (though pretending nothing has changed is disingenuous, even requiring insurance companies to cover pre existing conditions is a big deal). It isn't even a matter of individual voters being against giving other people healthcare despite having their own, though theres certainly some of that. Its about the fact that a voter is not likely to find a politician they agree with on every position. Let alone several for various offices. The things they are willing to compromise on disagreeing about will be things they prioritize less.
Prepare to be shocked. It's close to 8%.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/19/biden-to-forgive-4point9-billion-in-student-debt-for-73600-borrowers.html
Also, if you couldn't find a source then you either didn't actually try to find a source, or you aren't smart enough to google "how much student loan debt Biden has forgiven." The answer was in the first result.
Forgiving 5B in student debt VS inciting riot to overthrow our government...
bOtH sIdEs aRe tHe sAmE!!!
well one side didn't go to college so this is basically a nothing burger to them
BUT IF I DID AND I ALREADY HAD PAID IT ID BE JUST AS PISSED AS I AM NOW THAT I CANT DRAG ANYONE ELSE DOWN
Right. It's like saying my dad died of cancer, so your dad should also die of cancer.
No, let's improve shit for everyone. Fuck that outdated mentality.
One of them has a long history of ruining pretty much everything he touches.
neither is good.
democrat - joe biden is funding a genocide
republican - trump is trying to overthrow the government
trump is more like "we have genocide at home"
My lender has been sitting on my application for PAYE since September. And I doubt it ever gets processed as it won't help their bottom line.
Biden should have left the debt pause indefinitely and fight judges who ruled against himself. The courts allow delays. This would gain him back a lot of support and it would cost him zero political capital.
Yep. He told Republicans he would stop pausing it to pass funding for the government.
He should have lied like they would.
I mean, yes?
It's time to fucking play hardball with these creeps instead of this milquetoast turn the other cheek bullshit.
They want to play the game like that, so they are setting the ground rules. Acting like we have to keep one hand tied behind our back during a fight with them is fucking stupid. Get that arm out and throw sand in their fucking eyes.
Pocket sand!
The thing is, we don't need to stoop to make this even. Just start making the courts somewhat even again and arrest these clowns. We don't have to be peices of shit because they are.
In principle I agree. In practice idk.
Look out we got a tough guy
Not a bad move from Biden here.
It is according to Lemmy purists. If an action doesn't tick all their boxes and perfectly solve a complex problem then fuck you.
Interesting how the far left and far right agree on so much. Yeah yeah horseshoe theory it is still interesting to see. The far right wants student loan debt to be treated like child support or harsher the far left wants anything short of full debt annulment, but both agree that compromises are bad.
I would much rather Biden gets the wins he can get vs going after ones that he can't, failing, and nothing is done.
Good call, but we need to fix the underlying problem that is the ridiculous price for higher education. With every piece of information online I find it very hard to believe we can’t get average annual tuition down from 20k a year.
Averages out to be 67,567.56 per.
For a second I thought this said Biden is forgiving $5 and assumed this is the onion.
Cool, but will that solve anything? Greedy universities still win in this scenario.
Banks, thousands of other kinds of predatory businesses that prey on students: "Ha, yes, yes! 'Geeedy universities,' that's the ticket!"
It's the universities that charge these astronomical prices for tuition, not the banks. So yes, greedy fucking universities.
It's both. The loans are absurdly special status, so the lenders are incentivized to give out more and bigger ones, and the availability of more and bigger student loans means universities can charge more and take in more people
It's a very tangled system with all sorts of perverse incentives
It's a small measure but it's better than nothing. We need free public universities but that's outside of a presidents unilateral authority.
"It's not perfect, so we should do nothing". FFS...
recognizing an issue exists and taking some steps towards acknowledging it and helping people
"Right, but it doesn't solve everything so it's completely worthless."
Paying education loans even after 20 years of working in public service? Seems like a failure of the education system. I'm from Europe, also been to India a lot on business, and never have I seen anything of this magnitude. You can get a good education even in India for a very nominal tuition fee that middle-class parents are also able to cover without taking out loans. For poor families, it's virtually nothing in good state universities. The idea is that education will empower even the poor and they'll be able to get a good job and become tax paying citizens. Not like if you're poor, we're still gonna crush the heck out of you with more debt. The latter seems to be the strategy employed in the US. In most European countries, education is virtually free covered by taxes. Of course taxes are high but it benefits everyone in terms of healthcare and education. Is that really so bad? Isn't it the government's job to make sure EVERYONE has access to good healthcare and education? Then why does it feel that it is a money-oriented corporation running the country rather than a government?
Sorry, went on a rant there. Whenever I see something like this it just makes my blood boil. Teachers, firefighters, nurses still paying student loans after a decade or two, that's a failure of the education system right there.
Yeah, the US isn't a country, it's a business and it's people get shafted hard for this.
Wow, thx Joe!
Forgive it all or STFU
Remember when he did that and Nebraska Republicans sued and the supreme Court blocked the debt relief by 6 to 3 thanks to the 3 Justices Trump appointed.
fuck you biden for again putting a stipulation on your promises and only helping a select few
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/biden-promise-tracker/promise/1595/forgive-student-loan-debt-public-colleges-and-univ/
either forgive it all or just forget about it tired of my hopes going up every time a biden is living up to his campaign promises article comes
silent joe waited until election year to have anything to say
justice delayed is justice denied
That'll really cut down the 1.7 trillion dollar student loan problem.
So you'd rather he do nothing? I know it is a drop in the bucket but let's not let good be the enemy of perfect.
I'd rather he do more, but my expectations aren't high considering Biden was critical in creating this problem:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/02/joe-biden-student-loan-debt-2005-act-2020
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/joe-biden-student-loans/
Either way, don't expect me to cheer on a jackass who barely makes a dent in a problem he created.
Should just let it trickle down from the billionaires like usual smh
He want these younger votes so bad, lets see if this continues after he get elected second term.
He wants a second term, so he's... improving people's lives? Not sure what you're mad about. Trump wants a second term, so he's *talking up the culture-war nonsense, and saying he'll attack his political enemies...
So you work and start paying your loan for 10-20 years and you still didn't fully paid it?
Many people end up owing more than they borrowed due to predatory lending and interest rates.
I know how loans work but I just can't picture having a student loan that takes you more than 10 years to pay it off.
You should broaden your imagination. It's way more common than you apparently realize.
Can't f-ing buy food or afford rent. Thx Joe. Our hero!
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
I went to school, paid attention, picked the relevant major to my interests, and paid off my debt. Just because others partied or made decisions doesn't mean they shouldn't have to pay their debts while those who worked hard pay it for them.
What did you major in, fascism and being a bad person?
I majored in feminist critical perspective /s
These people likely paid off the original loan and are still paying off interest. No one is "paying their debts", the people profiting off the debts aren't profiting as much.
Let's see if the US public can be bought off to overlook genocide that cheaply.
Only 1% of voters think Gaza is the most important issue in this election.
Even if more did, would it change anything? Most politicians seem to have the same shitty stance. At least most politicians that the average American will vote for. Biden stance sucks but its not something that differentiates him from most other politicians. I wouldn't expect it to play out much differently with someone else.
All this may be true, but it reflects the American public's ambivalence on Gaza. Roughly half the country supports Israel right now. That would have to plummet for the US to turn away from them, especially since it would make other allies question US commitment to them.
Compare Palestinians to Ukrainians. The latter enjoy overwhelming support from Americans. They are not fighting an ally, in fact the opposite. So politicians in both parties tend to support Ukraine, with the exception of the usual GOP loudmouths in the House.