593
submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] mydude@lemmy.world 13 points 6 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 6 points 6 months ago

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.

[-] mydude@lemmy.world -1 points 6 months ago

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 0 points 6 months ago

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?

this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
593 points (97.7% liked)

News

23320 readers
1469 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS