Biden cancels ANOTHER $7.4 BILLION in student loan debt: President has now written off $153 billion for 4.3 million Americans in a scheme slammed by critics as an attempt to ‘buy votes’
The White House has announced that it is wiping out another $7.4 billion in student loan debt for 277,000 borrowers, bringing the total canceled by the Biden administration to $153 billion.
It is 81-year-old Biden’s second major effort to write off billions in debt in a week in a scheme critics say is an attempt to ‘buy votes’ before the general election.
On Monday, the administration rolled out a combined plan that would affect about 30 million borrowers after his first bid was blocked by the Supreme Court last year.
Now, more borrowers seeing their student loan debt forgiven will receive emails informing them of the move on Friday.
“From day one of my administration, I pledged to fight to ensure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I will never stop working to cancel student debt—no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us,” Biden said in a statement.
The debt being canceled Friday is for borrowers in three debt forgiveness programs already in use, including a plan that 18 GOP-led states are suing to block.
President Biden touted his latest proposals to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans during a visit to Madison, WI on Monday. On Friday, the administration announced it would cancel another $7.4 billion in debt under programs already implemented, bringing the total forgiven so far to $153 billion.
Nearly 207,000 borrowers are seeing about $3.6 billion in debt canceled through President Biden’s SAVE plan, which the administration began forgiving student loan debt through earlier this year.
Another 65,000 borrowers are seeing debt erased through administrative adjustments to the Income Driven Repayment (IDR) plans. To date, the administration has wiped out $49 billion in debt through IDR plans.
Third, an additional 4,600 public employees will see their debt forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
A total of 4.3 million federal student loan borrowers have seen student loan debt forgiven since Biden took office.
“It shows that we are relentless in what we do to help millions of hardworking Americans with the burden of student loan debt,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said of the multiple rounds of canceled debt.
The Biden administration has canceled $153 billion in student loan debt through a series of efforts, including the SAVE plan, as well as changes to income-driven repayment and the public service loan forgiveness plans
Most of the debt being forgiven on Friday comes through the SAVE plan, an income-driven repayment plan that cuts the amount of time and money some borrowers have to pay before their student loan debt is forgiven.
The Biden administration announced it launched the program last summer.
In February, the White House announced the first group to see debt canceled under the plan, and the Education Department said it would continue to identify borrowers who qualify on an ongoing basis.
Eight million borrowers are enrolled in the plan to date. 4.5 million of those borrowers have a monthly payment of $0, and over a million have monthly payments of less than $100, the White House said.
However, Republicans have blasted the debt relief effort, accusing the president of trying to ‘buy votes’ ahead of the election.
They have called the student loan debt forgiveness unfair to taxpayers who didn’t take out massive student loans for school or have the opportunity to go to college.
Two lawsuits have been filed by Republican attorneys general against the Biden administration’s income-driven repayment program known as the SAVE plan
Republican attorneys general in 18 states are suing the Biden administration over the SAVE plan. A lawsuit signed by eleven states was filed in Kansas on March 28, while another with seven states was filed in Missouri earlier this week.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted the lawsuits, saying Republican elected officials want to increase their constituents’ monthly payments and keep them under a mountain of debt.
A senior administration official said they strongly believe in their legal authority to act.
Republican officials acknowledged that they are unlikely to collect on the already forgiven debt.
Meanwhile, President Biden traveled to Madison, Wisconsin on Monday to present additional new plans to eliminate student loan debt.
Those proposals are being rolled out through the more time-consuming rulemaking process the administration turned to after the Supreme Court blocked the original plan.
According to the Biden administration, the new proposals would completely eliminate accrued interest for 23 million borrowers.
It would also cancel the full amount of student loan debt for more than four million borrowers and give more than 10 million borrowers at least $5,000 in debt relief or more.
The Big Five actions include canceling up to $20,000 in unpaid interest for borrowers who currently owe more on their student loans than they originally borrowed.
It would also erase debt for two million borrowers who would have qualified for other forgiveness programs but have not yet applied.
In addition, undergraduate borrowers who entered into repayment 20 or more years ago and graduate students who began repayment 25 or more years ago will also see debt canceled.
Borrowers who have been enrolled in programs with low financial value and who have faced financial difficulties in repaying loans would also see relief.
President Biden released a video Monday touting his latest student loan debt forgiveness proposal, which would cancel accrued interest for millions, erase debt for some borrowers who haven’t already enrolled but qualify for other programs, and cancel debt for some that have been repaid for 20 or more years
Protesters outside the Supreme Court on June 30, 2023. Biden’s new student debt forgiveness proposal comes after the Supreme Court blocked his original debt forgiveness plan
The new proposals come after the president’s first massive $400 billion plan to cancel student loan debt was blocked by the Supreme Court last June.
“Tens of millions of people’s debt was literally going to be canceled, but then some of my Republican friends, elected officials and special interests sued us and the Supreme Court blocked us,” Biden said Monday, boasting “that didn’t stop us. .’
Senior administration officials said they studied the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision carefully and followed the new rules in a manner consistent with that decision.
The new plans unveiled Monday are part of the regulatory process that began last summer and is being carried out under the education secretary’s authority in the Higher Education Act.
Administration officials said they are confident in the new proposals going forward.