WASHINGTON — President Biden said Friday his administration is forgiving another $5 billion in student loan debt for 74,000 people using an existing government program — continuing a piecemeal approach to write-off after the Supreme Court last year struck down his sweeping plan to forgive $430 billion in college debt.
The latest move brings Biden’s post-reign loan forgiveness to about $137 billion, according to Wall Street Journal calculations — as the 81-year-old president tries to show he’s keeping a campaign pledge as he seeks a second term in this year’s election.
“I want to forgive all student debt and the Supreme Court said, ‘No,’ I don’t have the authority to do that,” Biden said during a White House address to the mayor on Friday evening – exaggerating the scale of his previous plan, which would have there is $10,000 or $20,000 per borrower.
“Then I realized there was a public service need out there,” the president recounted — referring to existing loan forgiveness legislation passed with bipartisan support.
The move to forgive student debt is “fair” and “boosts the economy,” Biden said, because beneficiaries can “go out and buy houses, invest in businesses… [and] grow their family.”
He also noted that interest on student debt can outpace the principal on federally backed loans.
“The interest you pay is actually more than the original bill,” Biden claimed.
Unlike the plan made by the Supreme Court in June, the latest action rests on the implementation of laws passed by the previous administration.
The latest recipients include 44,000 teachers, nurses, firefighters and others who qualify for the reprieve after working 10 years in a career defined as public service under a 2007 law signed by Republican President George W. Bush.
President Biden announced additional student loan relief. AP
Another 30,000 people have had their debt forgiven because they were entered for 20 years into an income-based repayment plan that limits spending as a percentage of income, according to the White House.
Income-based repayment programs have been supported by both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“I will not back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to achieve their dreams,” the president said in a statement.
But the move to reduce the federal balance sheet has drawn criticism from Republicans.
“President Biden is so desperate to buy votes before the election — that he gave the Department of Education the green light to throw more kerosene on the already burning student debt fire,” House Education Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told Fox News last week.
Biden’s canceled amnesty plan was previously slammed by critics as a political stunt because it was announced just before the 2022 midterm elections in response to an activist campaign after fellow Democrats, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said it will Illegally he wipes out student debt with a pen.
Another $5 billion will be forgiven. Shutterstock
Republican critics of Biden’s focus on loan forgiveness have called for action to curb college spending growth as a way to reduce the debt burden.
After leaving office as vice president, Biden was paid about $1 million to serve as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 2017 to 2019, despite making only nine known campus visits and not actually leading any classes.
In 2021, Biden chose Penn president Amy Gutmann, who had also given him the DC office where misplaced classified documents were later discovered, to be US ambassador to Germany.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
