President Joe Biden’s plan to eliminate $400 billion in student debt
The US Supreme Court handed President Joe Biden a painful defeat on Friday, blocking his plan to cancel $430 billion in student debt – a move aimed at benefiting 43 million Americans and a campaign promise The judges ruled against Biden in a 6-3 decision in favor of the six conservative-leaning states that objected to the policy.
The court’s action dealt a blow to 26 million US borrowers who applied for relief after Biden announced the plan in August 2022 and was a political setback for the Democrats. President Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina challenged the 7 debt relief, as well as two individual borrowers opposing the plan’s eligibility requirements.
The court took action on the final day of its ruling, which began in October. Twenty-six million US borrowers applied for relief from the time Biden announced the plan in August 2022 until last November, when lower courts blocked the plan.
Biden’s plan fulfills his 2020 campaign promise to cancel a portion of $1.6 trillion in federal student debt, but has been criticized by Republicans, who see it as an encroachment on his authority and an unfair advantage for college-educated borrowers. Said, while other borrowers did not get any such relief. Biden is seeking re-election next year.
Under the plan, the US government would forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for Americans earning less than $125,000, who received loans to pay for college and other post-secondary education, and students from low-income families.
Will be waived up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The decision comes a day after the Supreme Court effectively banned affirmative action policies long used by US colleges and universities to increase the number of black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students.
Biden said Thursday that the court, with its conservative majority, was an institution out of touch with the country’s core values. During a February debate on the loan matter, Biden’s administration said the plan was authorized under a 2003 federal law called the Higher Education Relief Opportunity for Students Act or the Heroes Act, which allows the US Secretary of Education to provide student Grants the authority to “waive or modify” financial aid. War or national emergency.
” Both Biden and his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, have repeatedly called for student loan payments and interest freezes beginning in 2020 to ease the financial strain on student loan borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic. HEROES Act to be relied upon.
According to arguments, a Justice Department attorney characterized debt relief as a benefit program rather than an assertion of regulatory power not authorized by Congress. Responses to Legal Challenge Brought by States In October 2022, a federal judge in Missouri ruled that they lacked legal standing to sue.
On appeal, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that at least one state, Missouri, In a case brought by individual borrowers named Myra Brown and Alexander Taylor, a federal judge in Texas ruled in November 2022 that the plan exceeded the authority of the Biden administration – a ruling that the 5th US Circuit Court in New Orleans The Office of Appeals refused to stay the appeal pending appeal.
Nearly 53% of Americans said they support Biden’s debt relief, according to a March Reuters/Ipsos poll, while 45% opposed, with respondents sharply split along partisan lines, with Democrats widely supporting and Republicans generally opposed.
