(Headline USA) As his approval ratings continue to drop among young voters, President Joe Biden announced this week that his administration will illegally forgive another $5 billion in student-loan debt for more than 80,000 borrowers, Fox Business reported.
Biden has already canceled more than $132 billion in student-loan debt since 2020 through various loopholes. But his sweeping attempt to unilaterally cancel tens of thousands in debt for every single borrower was struck down by the Supreme Court last summer as unconstitutional.
Critics contend that the loan plan does not, in fact, relieve any debt but unfairly transfers the burden of it from those who assumed it onto taxpayers who either paid their student loans off already or never took them on in the first place. That, in turn, disproportionately harms people of lower socioeconomic status who opted not to attend college due to the financial burden of it.
Instead of honoring the court’s decision, however, Biden has continued to work around it as he desperately seeks some means to pander for political gain.
“In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on our student debt relief plan, we are continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.
This latest plan will wipe out the student-loan balance of borrowers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program who have worked for 10 years and made 120 qualifying payments.
It will also forgive debt for nearly 46,000 borrowers through the Income-Driven Repayment plan to “address longstanding concerns with misuse of forbearance,” according to the Education Department.
“Before President Biden took office, it was virtually impossible for eligible borrowers to access the student debt relief they rightfully earned,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
“The data released today once again make clear that the Biden–Harris administration’s relentless efforts to fix the broken student loan system are paying off in a big way,” he added. “… This level of debt relief is unparalleled and we have no intention of slowing down.”
The move comes just days after the House voted to block implementation of another one of Biden’s student-loan debt forgiveness efforts.
The measure from the House blocks the Education Department from enacting a rule that would allow borrowers who have earnings of less than $15 per hour to pay $0 on their student loans.
