Democrats are hoping that student loan relief could be a winning issue in November for President Biden, who canceled billions of dollars in debt despite losing the case at the Supreme Court last summer. .
The White House has touted that the president has canceled more student loans than any other administration in history, but Biden still has not fulfilled his 2020 campaign promise of universal debt cancellation.
Voters saw Biden’s historic loan cancellation effort, allies say, as a $10,000 relief package for all borrowers failed by a conservative Supreme Court that held three judges appointed by former President Trump. He says he will understand.
“I think [student loans] This is probably one of the more influential and important issues for those who go to university for higher education. ” Democratic Party strategist Enfant Seawright said.
“I think this is going to be a significant and consequential issue,” Seawright said, adding that Biden “kept his promise to the best of his ability” to “one issue voters” on student debt.
The Biden administration provided $143.6 billion in forgiveness to a total of 3.96 million borrowers.
This relief comes through reforms to income-based repayment programs or is most commonly directed at borrowers who have been defrauded by schools or people with disabilities.
More than $62 billion went to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives debt after 10 years for government and nonprofit jobs, and more than $45 billion to improve other income-driven repayment systems.
Another $22 billion went to borrowers defrauded by schools, and more than $11 billion was forgiven to people with total and permanent disabilities.
“The President will use the tools he has under current law to end the student loan system for people who have been stuck in the student loan system for decades or who have worked as public servants for more than 10 years. “This is an important effort by President Biden to address the problems across the student loan system that he inherited from former President Trump,” said Mike Pearce, executive director of Borrower Protection Action (PBA). Ta.
But millions of others feel no relief at all after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s universal forgiveness plan.
And these borrowers had to restart student loan payments without any relief under the Biden administration after more than three years of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 40 million student loan borrowers with more than $1.7 trillion in debt began making payments last fall after Trump and Biden extended pandemic pauses multiple times.
“Biden must remind the nation that it was the three right-wing activist courts appointed by President Trump that stopped progress on this issue,” Seawright said. “Secondly, I think [Biden] As we say in my community, we have to actually show the receipts for what was done despite what this court was trying to prevent. ”
Most Americans don’t know how much student loan debt Biden has tackled, with only 11% thinking it’s more than $100 billion, according to a new poll by PBA and Social Sphere.
“Joe Biden has worked hard to ensure hard-working Americans get the relief they deserve, even after President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justices stripped student loan relief from millions of Americans. , which is why he has canceled more student loans than any president in American history,” the Biden-Harris campaign said in a statement to The Hill. “From now until Election Day, we will meet voters where they are and remind them early on that it is Joe Biden who will support them and Donald Trump who will stand in the way of life-changing relief.” I will remind you often.”
Former President Trump has not made clear how he will tackle the soaring cost of higher education if he returns to the White House, but Republicans are looking to increase the number of people who have never gone to college and those who have already paid off their debt. The high court’s ruling, which Mr. Trump praised and argued that canceling loans would be unfair to people without money, would invalidate Biden’s plan.
The former president said the plan would be “very, very unfair to the millions of people who have worked hard to pay off their debt.”
“I think [Biden] “We need to get a very clear picture going forward of what the intent is in terms of delivering further student loan debt relief for young and young voters,” Seawright said.
Although the administration has canceled huge amounts of debt, most of the relief has gone to older Americans and people who have been paying student loans for at least 10 years, largely overlooking younger demographics passionate about the issue.
“President Biden knows there are tens of millions of young people who would benefit from the policies struck down by the right-wing Supreme Court, which is why the Department of Education continues to work in this area.” Pierce said.
“Once again, when President Biden takes on former President Trump in November, voters will have to make tough choices about whether they want a government that continues to provide student loan relief, or whether they want a government that continues to support people struggling with financial burdens. “They’re either going to have student loan debt they can’t pay, or they want to go back to where they were under President Trump,” he added.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
