Education Department forgives $1.2B in student loans for 35,000 borrowers
Education Department forgives $1.2B in student loans for 35,000 borrowers
Education Department said on Thursday that the Biden administration has forgiven $1.2 billion more in student loans for 35,000 borrowers through its Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
He could forgive it all as an "Official Act"
Republicans would fight it and SCOTUS won't let us have nice things.
No he couldn't.
92% of student loan debt is publicly owned through the Department of Education. This department can - and periodically does - write off loans as bad debt for a variety of reasons. And the policies used to determine when the department writes of the loan are set by the department itself.
However, the funding for new loans is derived in large part from the repayment of old debt. So the DoEd could scratch it's trillion dollar balance off, but would then have this massive liability to the US Treasury with no way to pay it back (not unlike a bunch of the failed private banks during the 2008 crash). And, of course, no new loans would be forthcoming, forcing borrowers into the private lending market (where rates get into the double digits).
There are legalistic end runs Congress or the Treasury could do to avert this. But Dems blocked debt relief in 2009 and then again in 2017. The GOP is openly hostile to any kind of student debt relief, so they're no help. And the Treasury is just independent enough to tell DoEd to piss up a rope, while backchanneling aid to Silicon Valley Bank and other failed private lenders.
So, it's complicated. But also, it's only not possible because we choose to exclusively bail out the Tech/Auto/Finance/Real Estate sectors and leave Education high and dry.
Well he would not be liable to criminal prosecution, but that says nothing of whether the loans have to be forgiven upon his declaration.
The immunity just stops him from facing personal legal consequences and only after SCOTUS confirms any crimes were committed during an official act. How do they test for that? They haven't said and will make up reasons to help/hurt whoever they want on a case by case basis.
Are there laws Biden could break that would force loan forgiveness, and would the current supreme court side with Biden? Seems like no in both cases aside from more Seal Team Six arguments resulting in a new set of SCOTUS judges ruling on such orders. Biden ain't the guy to make that happen.
"These 35,000 borrowers approved for forgiveness today are public service workers - teachers, law enforcement officials, and first responders who have dedicated their lives to strengthening their communities and because of the fixes we made to Public Service Loan Program Forgiveness, they will now have more breathing room to support themselves and their families," President Joe Biden said in a White House statement.
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
What about the rest of the US? Biden made sure again to take care of police first.
The fact that teachers, firefighters, and EMTs sandwich cops in that sentence but you chose to zero in and pretend Bidens only helping cops shows you have a major bone to pick and you're just choosing to be upset, lol.
teachers, firefighters, and EMTs sandwich cops in that sentence
I know a few teachers and one EMT. None of them have received anything close to a police officer's salary since Biden took office.
None of them have seen their workforce balloon or received billions of dollars in surplus equipment from the military/national guard, either.
pretend Bidens only helping cops
My city spends something in the neighborhood of a quarter of it's annual budget on the police. And our veteran Democrat mayor came into office complaining that we don't have enough cops and they aren't paid enough.
This isn't just a Biden issue. The entire party is Blue Lives Matter to the fucking gills.
teachers, law enforcement officials, and first responders who have dedicated their lives to strengthening their communities
One of these things is not like the others, one of these things does the exact opposite of "strengthening their communities"..