Over the past four years, the Biden administration has forgiven over $180 billion of student debt for 4.9 million borrowers. He wanted to forgive a lot more debt, but the Supreme Court slapped him down, leaving him to employ gimmicks to forgive some student loans piecemeal.
The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it was forgiving the student debt of $4.28 billion for almost 55,000 public sector workers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. This policy allows for forgiving some loans if the public sector employee recipient has made 120 payments.
“Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Biden "fixed" the program by expanding it beyond recognition. In fact, there wasn't much wrong with the PSLF to begin with except that it was working as intended.
Biden decided he could speed up the process if he transferred the debt obligations to the American taxpayer. Now, U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for over $180 billion.
It's okay, though. It's not Biden's money.
The $4.28 billion in relief is expected to be the final round of public service loan forgiveness before President Biden leaves office in January. After failing to deliver his promise of widespread loan cancellation, Mr. Biden has instead focused on expanding loan relief through programs that were created before his presidency.
Under Mr. Biden, the Education Department loosened the rules for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which previously had a 99% rejection rate amid burdensome rules and widespread confusion over eligibility requirements.
With the latest round of relief, Mr. Biden has now canceled an unprecedented $180 billion in federal student loans through existing programs, covering 4.9 million Americans. That includes $78 billion for roughly 1 million borrowers through the PSLF.
This isn't the end of Biden's parting gifts to the American taxpayer. The White House says that “The president will also announce more student debt cancellation for public service workers and other borrowers,” according to White House chief of staff Jeff Zients.
Biden could cancel more student debt, according to Brookings Institution Brown Center on Education Policy fellow Katharine Meyer.
“They appear to be moving their proposed rules for more widespread forgiveness through the regulatory pipeline, but time is running out to enact any of those policies,” Meyer told the Washington Examiner this week. “The lower courts are on alert to look for early signs of any widespread forgiveness and this fall have been able to bring suits even before rules were finalized to block implementation.”
At the same time, many of Biden’s actions regarding federal student debt have been undermined by Republican-led lawsuits against, for example, his Saving on a Valuable Education Plan and other income-driven repayment programs, with a federal judge ruling against the president’s efforts to salvage the plans in October after the Supreme Court made a similarly adverse decision against the original proposal last year.
Democrats, including Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), in addition to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), have implored Biden to cancel more federal student debt of borrowers who predatory schools have defrauded.
Biden did not have the authority to forgive student loan debt. That's the job of Congress. But Biden doesn't believe in separation of powers especially when he thought he could take an action that would get him reelected and help his party in the midterm elections.
Just the announcement that he was planning to forgive more than half a trillion dollars in student loan debt in 2022 gave Democrats a huge electoral boost and helped blunt a building "red wave" that Republicans were hoping for.
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