President Biden said that of the borrowers who can get their loans forgiven, nearly 44,000 are teachers, nurses, firefighters and others who are eligible for forgiveness after working 10 years of public service.
President Biden announced Friday that his administration is forgiving $5 billion in student debt for another 74,000 borrowers, marking the latest round of debt cancellation since the Supreme Court voided the president's student loan forgiveness program.
Mr. Biden said that of the borrowers who can receive relief, nearly 44,000 are teachers, nurses, firefighters and others who are eligible for forgiveness after working 10 years of public service. Almost 30,000 of those who will have their debt wiped clean have been repaying their loans for at least 20 years, but did not get the relief they earned through income-based plans, the president said.
With the latest round of student loan forgiveness, more than 3.7 million Americans have had their debt erased under the Biden administration, Mr. Biden said.
Yeah, now that you mention it, that's fucking nuts. On average, $67,500 worth of outstanding balance for these people who went into public service. That doesn't even take into account what they've already paid in principal and interest over the years.
Edit: it's actually $72,892 per person being forgiven for people that have worked in public service for more than a decade.
What's insane is this is barely a drop in the bucket...
There's over 1,770 billion in student loans debt.
When people say 1.77 trillion, it might not be immediate how little a few billion is to the larger issue.
But it's only around 0.2% of total debt. Probably less because the 1.77 trillion is rounded, and at this scale that's what 5 billion is. A rounding error they don't even include that digit when talking about the total amount.
Let's do all of it, and put in place a solution for all future student loans. They are robbing us blind right now, and costing future generations a chance at a debt free life.
He did do a lot more! I mentioned it in another comment a week ago, but look into what his save plan does. Lowers costs, lowers interest, increases forgiveness, etc. etc.
Save plan lowered my effective interest rate to around 2%. I'll still have to pay a lot over the next 20 years, and if the tax bomb is not removed it will be another 100,000. However my cash flow is much improved and how much I pay total has decreased drastically.
Still fighting with my student loan servicer to set me up on the plan correctly, but that is a different can of worms. The servicers need to have their contracts nullified for how terrible they have been.
We keep electing democrats that think fixing something at once would be too disruptive.
So they stretch the smallest amount of progress as long as they can, even if that doesn't make up for damage Republicans do.
Its been like 80 years since moderate Dems told FDR that it was too soon for universal healthcare and Americans had to wait a few more years to make sure it's a good idea.
And they're still fucking saying they need to look into it more. It'll never be time. Student Debt relief shows every indication that it's going to be the same thing.
This may be a shock to you, but there are other branches of government in the US. One of which is not elected and that's the one that recently struck down Biden's HEROS plan that would have eliminated $460B in student loan debt.
I’m not sure why this comment is so controversial. It’s exactly what’s happening. We’ve been talking about this now for forever and almost nothing is happening. It’s wonderful that 74,000 people get some relief but that’s a drop in the ocean. I want it badly but I’ve almost accepted the fact that it’s probably not going to happen.
My lender has been sitting on my application for PAYE since September. And I doubt it ever gets processed as it won't help their bottom line.
Biden should have left the debt pause indefinitely and fight judges who ruled against himself. The courts allow delays. This would gain him back a lot of support and it would cost him zero political capital.
It's time to fucking play hardball with these creeps instead of this milquetoast turn the other cheek bullshit.
They want to play the game like that, so they are setting the ground rules. Acting like we have to keep one hand tied behind our back during a fight with them is fucking stupid. Get that arm out and throw sand in their fucking eyes.
I might be included in one of the recent rounds of forgiveness (the one where if you have under 12k in loans taken out and have kept up with payments for over 10 years). I've paid off all but about $250 of it, and even making the minimum payment, I'll have it paid off in around 4 months anyway. Unless they move at breakneck speeds by government standards, by the time they actually get everything processed, $5 sounds about right. Which hey, if that ends up being how it goes, I get a free ice cream cone on Uncle Joe. Can't complain about that.
Interesting how the far left and far right agree on so much. Yeah yeah horseshoe theory it is still interesting to see. The far right wants student loan debt to be treated like child support or harsher the far left wants anything short of full debt annulment, but both agree that compromises are bad.
I would much rather Biden gets the wins he can get vs going after ones that he can't, failing, and nothing is done.
Good call, but we need to fix the underlying problem that is the ridiculous price for higher education. With every piece of information online I find it very hard to believe we can’t get average annual tuition down from 20k a year.
Paying education loans even after 20 years of working in public service? Seems like a failure of the education system. I'm from Europe, also been to India a lot on business, and never have I seen anything of this magnitude. You can get a good education even in India for a very nominal tuition fee that middle-class parents are also able to cover without taking out loans. For poor families, it's virtually nothing in good state universities. The idea is that education will empower even the poor and they'll be able to get a good job and become tax paying citizens. Not like if you're poor, we're still gonna crush the heck out of you with more debt. The latter seems to be the strategy employed in the US. In most European countries, education is virtually free covered by taxes. Of course taxes are high but it benefits everyone in terms of healthcare and education. Is that really so bad? Isn't it the government's job to make sure EVERYONE has access to good healthcare and education? Then why does it feel that it is a money-oriented corporation running the country rather than a government?
Sorry, went on a rant there. Whenever I see something like this it just makes my blood boil. Teachers, firefighters, nurses still paying student loans after a decade or two, that's a failure of the education system right there.
Remember when he did that and Nebraska Republicans sued and the supreme Court blocked the debt relief by 6 to 3 thanks to the 3 Justices Trump appointed.
He wants a second term, so he's... improving people's lives? Not sure what you're mad about. Trump wants a second term, so he's *talking up the culture-war nonsense, and saying he'll attack his political enemies...
You didn't read the article you're replying to, did you? Biden tried to forgive student debt for all Americans; SCOTUS shot it down. That was around the middle of last year, and Biden has been having to eke out student loan forgiveness in whatever ways he can since then. I don't know that Americans are gonna see student loan debt forgiveness or any other serious and free social support on the scale you want until there is a reckoning with the English Poor Law mentality.
I went to school, paid attention, picked the relevant major to my interests, and paid off my debt. Just because others partied or made decisions doesn't mean they shouldn't have to pay their debts while those who worked hard pay it for them.
These people likely paid off the original loan and are still paying off interest. No one is "paying their debts", the people profiting off the debts aren't profiting as much.
Even if more did, would it change anything? Most politicians seem to have the same shitty stance. At least most politicians that the average American will vote for. Biden stance sucks but its not something that differentiates him from most other politicians. I wouldn't expect it to play out much differently with someone else.