Associated Press
President Joe Biden vowed Friday to push ahead with a new plan providing student loan relief for millions of borrowers, while blaming Republican “hypocrisy” for triggering the day’s Supreme Court decision that wiped out his original effort.
Biden said his administration had already begun the process of working under the authority of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which he called “the best path that remains to provide as many borrowers as possible with debt relief.”
In the meantime, since student loan-payment requirements are to resume in the fall, the White House is creating an “on ramp” to repayment and implementing ways to ease borrowers’ threat of default if they fall behind over the next year.
The president said the new programs will take longer than his initial effort would have to ease student loan debt.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said borrowers now angry about the court’s decision should blame Republicans. He is trying to stay on the political offensive even as the ruling undermined a key promise to young voters who will be vital to his 2024 reelection campaign.
“These Republican officials just couldn’t bear the thought of providing relief for working class, middle class Americans,” Biden said. “The hypocrisy of Republican elected officials is stunning.”
The White House efforts to forgive loans were an attempt to keep a Biden promise stretching back to his 2020 campaign to wipe out student loan debt — an idea that was especially popular with young voters and progressives. Both will be key for the president in next year’s presidential race but may be less energized about supporting him after the high court’s decision.
Many progressives argued that the Higher Education Act was the best vehicle all along, though the administration worried that implementation might have been slower had it originally tried employing the act.
The new approach uses a provision allowing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to “compromise, waive or release” student loans. The Biden administration used the same basis last year to forgive $6 billion in loans for borrowers who were deceived by their colleges.
The details of the new forgiveness will be negotiated through a federal rulemaking process that the administration launched Friday. The process allows the Education Department to write or change federal regulations with the weight of law.
6 comments
EARL PITTS AMERICAN
July 1, 2023 at 8:36 am
Good mornting America,
Just a quick little slice of “life advice” from your Daddy to all you mentally challanged Dook 4 Brains Leftys out there just wakeing up from some major sins last night.
Your old fool cant do this and his puppet masters know it to be the truth.
1.) Nancy $ffin Polosi made a public statement over a year ago that he cant do it.
2.) The Supreme $ffin Court made a rulling just the other day stating that he cant do it.
3. Your old fool is telling you still he can do it.
Attention one and all:
That is why I, Earl Pitts American have given you all the discriptive and appropriate moniker “Dook 4 Brains Leftys”.
Your old fool is blaiming Republicans and still trying to find a way to buy your Dook 4 Brains votes with this dead subject.
Y’all are eat up with the dum @55… let it go already.
Thank you America
Earl Pitts American
Iron Gunthur
July 1, 2023 at 12:16 pm
Please don’t feed the trolls.
Elliott Offen
July 1, 2023 at 1:31 pm
Go away you whack head, crack head, and smack head.
Mary Olde
July 1, 2023 at 9:41 am
Ya’ gotta give ’em credit: just another example of how The D’s stay in power by buying votes with R’s money. Biden is running the biggest public scam since George III tried to convince the colonies they needed British troops.
Mercury Shampoo Eduardo 👍
July 1, 2023 at 1:35 pm
DeSantis vote buying with first responder bonuses. You fail! Republicans don’t wanna tax and pay police more so obviously the bonuses were a cheaper way to obscure that fact.
It's Complicated
July 5, 2023 at 10:13 am
It will literally take an act of Congress to forgive federal student loan debt, because it requires a budget authorization. THAT is the crux of the problem for Biden. The Higher Education Act of 1965 does NOT authorize the POTUS to spend $800B in loan forgiveness, rather, it authorizes him to manage the terms and conditions of the program. Sounds like the proposed rule will do some of that, and provide relief to those facing the consequences of loan default.
keep in mind when the Democrats controlled both the U.S. House and Senate in the 117th Congress, this was not a priority issue for them. It only became a priority issue when they lost control of the House.
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