Current Events > Student Loan Relief Update

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/01/senate-repeals-bidens-student-debt-relief-00099682

A handful of moderate Democrats joined with Republicans to rebuke administrations loan forgiveness plan.

The Senate passed Republican-led legislation Thursday seeking to overturn President Joe Bidens plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt relief for tens of millions of borrowers, setting up a promised veto from the White House.
On a 52-46 vote, the Senate gave Congress final approval to the measure to nullify the debt cancellation program and repeal the freeze on student loan repayment and interest.

Democratic rebuke: Moderate Democrats teamed up with Republicans to pass the legislation. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) and Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema (Ariz.) voted in favor of the measure.

Manchin blasted Bidens student loan program this week as a reckless plan that adds too much to the national debt. In a statement explaining his vote, Manchin said it also forces hard-working taxpayers who already paid off their loans or did not go to college to shoulder the cost.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who has previously criticized Bidens student debt relief, did not cast a vote. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) also did not vote.

Veto incoming: The legislation, which the House passed last week, now heads to Biden, who the White House said plans to defend his signature student loan forgiveness policy and veto the measure. The legislative rebuke of Bidens plan to cancel debt relief is largely symbolic. Senate Republicans used a process that allows it to pass legislation to undo recent regulations with a simple majority vote but neither the House nor Senate passed the measure with the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override Bidens veto.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the top Republican vote-counter, acknowledged on the floor Thursday that Bidens veto would be sustained. Unfortunately, the president is guaranteed to veto the measure, and there are not enough Democrats in the House and Senate to be willing to override his veto, he said.
Pause still ending: The standalone legislation passed by the Senate on Thursday wont become law. But Congress is separately still poised to end the long-running pause on federal student loan payments and interest.

The Senate on Thursday began debate on the deal that Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached to raise the debt ceiling. That bill, which passed the House on Wednesday night, would terminate the Education Departments suspension of federal student loan payments and interest on August 30.

The deal effectively requires the Biden administration to resume collecting monthly payments and charging interest for roughly 40 million Americans for the first time since they were paused in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Biden administration officials argued that the compromise agreement keeps Bidens student loan agenda intact and merely codifies their preexisting plan to restart payments later this year. But many progressives worry that the administration was locking itself into restarting payments even if the Supreme Court rules in the coming weeks that it cant cancel student debt for tens of millions of borrowers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), for example, said on Wednesday he would not vote to eliminate the student loan pause that has been a lifeline to millions of working families during the pandemic.

Moderates want blood from a stone. SC ruling still coming.

biden veto is basically just a stopgap, right? if SC overrules then the whole thing is dead, right?

Any "relief" that doesn't reform or end Directloans is just setting us up to do this all over again.
The first step to solving a problem is always to stop making the problem worse.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Any "relief" that doesn't reform or end Directloans is just setting us up to do this all over again.
The first step to solving a problem is always to stop making the problem worse.

Pushing to end financial aid just tells everybody that you don't give a fuck about the poor.

This is what his own party said a year before he passed student relief through executive action:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2021/07/28/pelosi-president-biden-does-not-have-power-to-cancel-student-loan-debt/

People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness, she said. He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. Pelosi argued that student loan forgiveness can only be accomplished through an act of Congress.

It was never going to happen, because he never had the power to do it in the first place. It was a shallow promise made to get elected, then delayed until midterms so he could push something through that was never going to stand, and now left in a state of being challenged so he can promise it again in the next election. It was always a grift.

s0nicfan posted...

It was never going to happen, because he never had the power to do it in the first place. It was a shallow promise made to get elected, then delayed until midterms so he could push something through that was never going to stand, and now left in a state of being challenged so he can promise it again in the next election. It was always a grift.

W post

This is tough to accept honestly

s0nicfan posted...

This is what his own party said a year before he passed student relief through executive action:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2021/07/28/pelosi-president-biden-does-not-have-power-to-cancel-student-loan-debt/

It was never going to happen, because he never had the power to do it in the first place. It was a shallow promise made to get elected, then delayed until midterms so he could push something through that was never going to stand, and now left in a state of being challenged so he can promise it again in the next election. It was always a grift.

I mean, Biden has successfully canceled 66B debt so far. The big pool is 400B though, and that scares the Repubs, they had to do something.

Biden could plausibly lock the interest at 0% indefinitely, but hell if I can find the source for that right now.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Biden could plausibly lock the interest at 0% indefinitely, but hell if I can find the source for that right now.

He'll announce it right before 2024 elections, get re-elected, then never touch it again

TaylorHeinicke posted...

He'll announce it right before 2024 elections, get re-elected, then never touch it again

...
...
yeah, probably

I doubt the SC won't kill it.

Shame this country has a habit of giving the wealthy untenable tax cuts and then when there's deficits as a result they always seek to cut from those suffering the most.

It's a really fucked system and honestly I'm sick of it.

Biden probably won't even veto, he doesn't want this to drag out. If he lets it go to the courts they might wait until next August to strike it down.

This was always a stunt to get voters in 2022. Biden is a conservative (except on civil rights) and always has been.

Don't worry though, we'll get plenty more empty promises next year.

steve_madsci posted...

(except on civil rights)

Biden was a very well known segregationist, until it became politically unpopular.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/joe-biden-didn-t-just-compromise-segregationists-he-fought-their-n1021626

TaylorHeinicke posted...

He'll announce it right before 2024 elections, get re-elected, then never touch it again

like when obama promised he would close down gitmo?

I could obliterate the last of my loans tomorrow, but I don't know if it's a good idea to do so.
Opinions?

Questionmarktarius posted...

I could obliterate the last of my loans tomorrow, but I don't know if it's a good idea to do so.
Opinions?

Why would you think it would be good to not do that? The longer you have them the more interest they accrue. The sooner you pay off loans the less interest you pay.

Kradek posted...

Why would you think it would be good to not do that?

if 10-20K of it may or may not vanish, there's no good reason to pay it down past that, especially when it's been paused for three years or so.

Kradek posted...

Shame this country has a habit of giving the wealthy untenable tax cuts and then when there's deficits as a result they always seek to cut from those suffering the most.

It's a really fucked system

conservatives and other republican's alike love to see poor people suffer as much as possible.

Questionmarktarius posted...

if 10K of it may or may not vanish, there's no good reason to pay it down past that, especially when it's been paused for three years or so.

Well, if it's forgiven then yeah that's definitely a reason to hesitate, however as far as I'm aware it still accrues interest even if it's paused. People haven't been required to make payments during the pandemic, but I don't think that stopped the amount owed from growing.

I definitely want it to go through, however there's now Dems joining the Republicans on this and I don't see the SC we have ruling in Biden's favor, even though GWB created the HEROES act after 9/11 just to benefit members of the military.

kingdrake2 posted...

conservatives and other republican's alike love to see poor people suffer as much as possible.

This is very true. I was just listening to someone point out earlier about how the solution never seems to be increase revenue by making the wealthier individuals who benefit from our capitalist society contribute more to its function, the solutions always boil down to taking away more from social programs used by those struggling the most.

The recent debt ceiling deal was just another example and it really put it into perspective.

Kradek posted...

People haven't been required to make payments during the pandemic, but I don't think that stopped the amount owed from growing.

It's been in non-capitalized forbearance during covid. There shouldn't have been interest.

Kradek posted...

Why would you think it would be good to not do that? The longer you have them the more interest they accrue. The sooner you pay off loans the less interest you pay.

Not during Covid...

Questionmarktarius posted...

It's been in non-capitalized forbearance during covid. There shouldn't have been interest.

tripleh213 posted...

Not during Covid...

Well, that's my mistake, then. I thought only the mandatory payments were dismissed, I didn't realize the interest was also negated.

If a republican gets elected in 2024 somehow, I'm zeroing it out.