The Biden administration is canceling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers through a combination of existing programs.

The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellation on Wednesday, saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said it has canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs.

The latest relief will go to borrowers in three categories who hit certain milestones that make them eligible for cancellation. It will go to 54,000 borrowers who are enrolled in Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan, along with 39,000 enrolled in earlier income-driven plans, and about 67,000 who are eligible through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      One small good deed doesn’t not redeem that little fucker from genocide support.

      • Lets_Eat_Grandma@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Which democrat or republican with significant support from the political parties would you recommend as a replacement?

      • FenrirIII@lemmy.world
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        As if he’s the president of Israel. Where have you people been while Yemen, Myanmar, Sudan, etc. all experience genocide?

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          Don’t forget about the Uyghurs who have been living in fear China will harvest their organs.

          The shitty part - there is a lot of this happening and it’s quite exhausting. Like when does the fire-bombing start?

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          He’s president of US and has circumvented Congress over 100 times to send 10s of billions worth of bombs to be dropped on Palestinian children’s heads.

          We’re not asking that Biden rule over Israel, simply that he acknowledge the genocide and stop spending our taxpayer dollars to fund it. Why is this considered unreasonable?

        • steal_your_face@lemmy.ml
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          Did we supply those countries with weapons to commit genocide?

          I personally think it’s stupid to not vote for Biden but your argument doesn’t really make sense.

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            Yes, the USA literally sent weapons to the Saudis to bomb Yemen,

            Also if you don’t supply weapons to a country, they shouldn’t have sympathy??? You are the one who doesn’t make sense

        • juicy@lemmy.today
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          3 months ago

          You’re right. That’s another reason not to support Butcher Biden:

          In response to the recent escalation, the Biden administration apparently has doubled down on support to the coalition, announcing the sale of additional fighter aircraft to the UAE. Biden said the administration is considering redesignating the Houthis a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” Biden had reversed this designation, imposed in the waning days of the Trump administration and opposed by humanitarian and human rights groups on the grounds that it threatens humanitarian aid on which millions of Yemenis rely to survive.

          In addition to potentially violating U.S. law, continuing arms sales to the coalition puts the U.S. at risk of complicity in possible war crimes. The sales also fly in the face of justice and accountability for previous violations given the coalition’s dreadfully flawed investigations of its own strikes.

      • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I honestly care about high income inequality and campaign finance reform. Can we talk about those instead of what you care about?

        No, this is actually a really effective way of communicating with other people and convincing them what I have to say is worth listening to. This absolutely does not alienate people or make me come off as an insensitive bot that doesn’t know hot treat people like humans before I unload my personal interests on them

        Free Palestine, btw! 🍉

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      Without some sort of long term strategy, it may not be.

      I’ve always said this would be good if also paired with some moves to improve things longer term, because random infusions of lots of free money without any checks on the university side has already worked to make the education more outrageously expensive. Continuing the strategy without any sort of price management will make things work.

      Same could be said of healthcare, if as much money as they ask for is provided to the pharmas and hospitals, they will ask for more and more. Relief must be paired with some sort of plan to mitigate that.

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    I think it sounds better if this were just about how Biden’s plan is rolling out eligibility for 54,000 borrowers. Though it is a payment plan that results in forgiveness like the PSLF.

    The thing about the PSLF is that it was supposed to erase debt for public service employees after 10 years of aervice and no missed payments. So when Bush signed it in 2007, people who came eligible for forgiveness under Trump starting in 2017 were denied over absolutely insane technicalities.

    So he gets credit for those 67,000 and 39,000 borrowers only in that they were essentially denied forgiveness they already qualified for up until now. Honestly I think focusing on the new stuff and not a Bush era program hits better.

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      I can understand the perspective, but if the Trump administration deliberately interfered with the PSLF, then it’s a fair point in the obvious goal (to contrast his approach versus Trump’s). Of course, conveniently they waited for an election year, when they could have done this in 2021…

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        Problem then was covid: payments were paused so people who were 9 years and 10 months into paying under the program were left in an awkward limbo.

        So now that covid emergency is “over” those kinds of cases are finally being reviewed over the period of time payments were paused.

        My spouse had the clock on “10 years” reset because of a missed payment in 2015. Would have had them discharged in 2022, but now we are on track for 2025, unless the covid pause will delay how those 10 years are tracked to 2027 or later.

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    3 months ago

    160,000 borrowers have earned $7.7 billion of loan forgiveness under a federal program put in place under the obama administration.

    This headline is incredibly misleading. Biden had little to do with this.

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      You realize Obama hasn’t been president for over 7 years? Trump and Republicans weren’t going to do this.

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        Some of these debts are from PSLF program which is a Bush era program. Trump’s administration just denied or delayed qualified folks their forgiveness, and Biden is honoring mostly those who met the means testing like never missing a payment in 10 years.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Biden is not king. He leads the executive branch, executing programs authorized by Congress, but his administration has freedom in how he does so. A previous administration placed obstacles in the way, where this one is greasing the wheels.

  • lightnegative@lemmy.world
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    Sad for those who worked hard and repaid their loans and now get to watch as everyone else gets theirs written off

    • dan@upvote.au
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      Bad take. Just because one group of people had to go through some pain, doesn’t mean other groups should have to go through the same pain.

      A long term strategy would still be better, but for now, this is a good move.

  • L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works
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    7.7 billion divided by 160,000 is average ~480,000 of loan money per person. So they bailed out a large chunk of rich kids going to expensive private schools. Cool.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      If they were interest free loans, yeah. Since they have interest those loans may amount to only $100,000 which is about what state schools cost at this point

    • kandoh@reddthat.com
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      The average annual income for an individual in the United States is around $76,770 so why are Americans always acting like they’re done up so rough? Every American is making over 70k!

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    Awesome, so everyone who couldn’t afford to go to college now has to pay for the people who went to college making more money than the person paying off their debt. Yeah, that seems legit.

    • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtf
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      Did you hear how much was spent on the Iraq war? Maybe the 2008 debt crises? Maybe the PPP loan forgiveness? Surely you’ve heard of one that dwarfed those in comparison. Obvious troll is obvious

      • NoSuchAgency@reddthat.com
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        Yeah, so what that there’s been more money spent on other things. That has nothing to do with this. Why does that make it okay to take money from people who couldn’t afford to go to college and give it to people that went to college that have a higher income than the person they took it from?

        • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtf
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          You’re right , Its almost as if college should be free, along with healthcare and many others. Perhaps the rich should pay for it similar to other first world countries.

          • NoSuchAgency@reddthat.com
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            I don’t see why colleges aren’t forced to lower their tuition costs. They already get billions in taxpayer money every year. Imo, to take even more taxpayer money to pay off student loans is just theft.

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        3 months ago

        https://bigthink.com/the-present/joe-biden-student-debt/

        In 1978 he co-wrote a bill that introduced the first limit on how students could use bankruptcy law to reduce their debt burden.

        In 1990 he helped author the Crime Control Act, which is famous for stepping up sentencing guidelines, included an entirely unrelated clause that further lengthened the time students had to wait before they could declare bankruptcy on their student loans.

        In 1998 they introduced an “undue hardship” clause to federal student loan bankruptcy proceedings; making it even more difficult to declare bankruptcy on student debt.

        To top all of this off, he supported adding the undue hardship clause to private student loans in 2005.

        • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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          Thank you for sharing all this.

          While I’m under no illusions that Biden is my friend, in the current political climate, I can’t shake the feeling that he’s my friendliest enemy.

          Can you shed any more light on that 1990 business?

          While I have no familiarity with it, the circumstances suggest that it’s possible that the added clause was added as a bit of trade-off to other members of Congress to get the crime bill over the finish line. Not that that makes it any less bitter a pill for borrowers, but if that’s how it happened, that’s much less “Biden hates borrowers” and much more the political game in DC.

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            It’s not that Biden hates borrowers or students. The problem is, that even way back then, he owed too much favours, so he drafted legislation that “the big guys” (his quote) wanted.

            Results from Cca 1990 being easier to criminalize young people, and young people with records could not wipe debt/much harder to do. (if I understood it correctly).

        • evatronic@lemm.ee
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          And now, he’s changed his stance in response to a changing society and pressure from voters.

          Isn’t that a good thing? Don’t we want politicians who are demonstrably responsive to voters?

          • Krono@lemmy.today
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            He hasn’t changed his stance, hes doing the bare minimum to garner positive headlines in an election year.

            He needs to actually change stances if he wants to prevent another Trump presidency.

    • Franklin@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Imagine if someone took every mistake you ever made and magnified it as if you weren’t allowed to grow or change.

      That’s you, that’s what you sound like

      • mydude@lemmy.world
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        These are the things that he’s proud of. He’s not ashamed of these policies. Not one bit.

        https://bigthink.com/the-present/joe-biden-student-debt/

        In 1978 he co-wrote a bill that introduced the first limit on how students could use bankruptcy law to reduce their debt burden.

        In 1990 he helped author the Crime Control Act, which is famous for stepping up sentencing guidelines, included an entirely unrelated clause that further lengthened the time students had to wait before they could declare bankruptcy on their student loans.

        In 1998 they introduced an “undue hardship” clause to federal student loan bankruptcy proceedings; making it even more difficult to declare bankruptcy on student debt.

        To top all of this off, he supported adding the undue hardship clause to private student loans in 2005.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          1978 is reaching way back. Were you even alive then? Do you know what our society was like, what the options were? Have you changed at all over the last 46 years?

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              In 1978 I stole a free battery from Radio Shack. Does that make me a lifelong thief?

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                He stole the battery in 1978, 1990, 1998 , 2005. If you can’t see the pattern, then I can’t help you.

        • Franklin@lemmy.world
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          You can’t say if he’s proud of it or not currently. All I know for sure is that actions speak louder than words and it’s the most action we’ve gotten a long time.

          Is it the solution we need? No. However anytime he tries to do anything broader he’s blocked by Congress so I can’t hold too much at his feet.

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    The problem with this debt forgiveness by a thousand cuts is spending hours researching it then finding out you arbitrarily don’t qualify because some highly technical reason.

    This technocrated BS isn’t helping any but the lucky few that end up qualifying.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      The problem with this debt forgiveness by a thousand cuts is spending hours researching it then finding out you arbitrarily don’t qualify because some highly technical reason.

      Are you saying because this doesn’t help everybody then it shouldn’t be allowed to help anybody?

      • gastationsushi@lemmy.world
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        Are you defending a politician’s fix to a broken system with dozens of highly specific and hard to understand reforms?

        If Biden had the choice between one broad fix that was easily communicated vs dozens of micro reforms; I’d prefer the broad reform even if I didn’t personally qualify. Democrats are our only hope and if they stop tripping over their own feet it will be better for everyone.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          Are you defending a politician’s fix to a broken system with dozens of highly specific and hard to understand reforms?

          Are you not informed about the political realities and the limits of power of the Executive branch?

          If Biden had the choice between one broad fix that was easily communicated vs dozens of micro reforms; I’d prefer the broad reform even if I didn’t personally qualify.

          I think we all would, and Biden tried the big broad fix. The Supreme Court shot it down in June of last year:

          Supreme Court strikes down Biden student-loan forgiveness program

          “By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority last year when it announced that it would cancel up to $400 billion in student loans. The Biden administration had said that as many as 43 million Americans would have benefitted from the loan forgiveness program; almost half of those borrowers would have had all of their student loans forgiven.”

          source

          So instead of doing nothing, Biden is working within the limits of the power he does have to provide student loan forgiveness. Yes its patchwork, yes we’d like a broader application of student loan forgiveness. He tried. Its not in his power.

          • gastationsushi@lemmy.world
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            The president is the most powerful person in this country. He is explicitly empowered by Congress to forgive student debt. The only actor here that is limited in power is our SCOTUS who constantly over step their bounds, make up judicial theory out of whole cloth, or ignore their own rules.

            How come I never hear the experts say they are limited power in these executive vs judicial debates?

            • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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              The president is the most powerful person in this country.

              The office is, yes. It still doesn’t mean he’s an all powerful king. We have power divided into 3rds to provide checks and balances. The Executive is only 1/3rd.

              He is explicitly empowered by Congress to forgive student debt.

              I’d like a citation on that claim.

              The only actor here that is limited in power is our SCOTUS who constantly over step their bounds,

              Then why are you complaining that Biden isn’t doing enough?

              • gastationsushi@lemmy.world
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                Funny you bring up a king. Biden is empowered by congress to forgive debt, people broadly support student debt relief. How is forgiving debt acting like a king in this circumstance?

                I think you are confusing the actions of the unelected SCOTUS who routinely takes actions against the will of the people. If Biden wants to stop unilateral actions, he literally needs to fight against this far right SCOTUS.

                Why are you arguing about student debt relief if you don’t know the law that empowers POTUS? It’s cited by Biden himself, but you can google yourself, you might learn something.

                • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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                  Biden is empowered by congress to forgive debt

                  I asked for a citation on this. Show me where you’re seeing that please.

                  It’s cited by Biden himself, but you can google yourself, you might learn something.

                  You make the claim, you’ve got to back it up.

                  I think you are confusing the actions of the unelected SCOTUS who routinely takes actions against the will of the people.

                  I’m not a fan of the current make up of the SCOTUS, but its never been their job to represent the “will of the people”. Their job is to interpret laws written by the Legislative Branch and signed into by the Executive.

                  I don’t think you have a good grasp of the basics of our system of government.

                  If Biden wants to stop unilateral actions, he literally needs to fight against this far right SCOTUS.

                  If you’re looking for insurrectionists, you’ll find them on the Conservative side.

    • azimir@lemmy.ml
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      This technocrated BS isn’t helping any but the lucky few that end up qualifying. It helped me via the TEPSLF and we got a much more reasonable monthly payment rate for my spouse’s loans. Biden and the members of Congress who moved the TEPSLF program through the legislation is awesome and we should be forgiving these loans en banc so we free up generations of fellow citizens to actually live and grow.

      • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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        I mean, I truly am happy for you and your spouse…really, I am, as someone coming up on 40 and still with five figures of student debt.

        That said, you really only responded to the quoted portion by saying in so many words that you’re “the lucky few that ended up qualifying”.

        Which, again, is great!

    • jo3jo3@lemmy.world
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      So just stop paying 🤷 I have over 80k and I haven’t paid anything in over a decade. I just don’t care. They can cancel it, or not, makes no difference to me, I’ll never pay anything.

        • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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          More than that, they’ll garnish your wages eventually. It happened to me once when I was barely getting by. I had to go to court and show my finances on public record and be humiliated to get them to back off.

              • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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                Work and live in another country is actually pretty darn good advice if you can get out of this shit hole.

              • jo3jo3@lemmy.world
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                No, I’m not giving advice to do anything. The op was frustrated they would not get their loans forgiven, so suggested the possibility of not paying. It’s an option. No payment as a form of protest. And I definitely did not tell anyone to live in a different country… Learn how to read

        • Kumatomic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          Yep, they took mine even when they weren’t supposed to anymore for at least two months after I got them dismissed for TPD. When I tried to get back the overpayment they literally told me they can do anything they want and I would never get my money back. They were right. At least they never got the 27k back that was cancelled. Eat shit Nelnet.

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          What social security money? I’ve pretty much never worked in the US, never paid in. I’ve lived outside the US for 16 years now.