this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Biden says Supreme Court 'misinterpreted the Constitution' in rejecting student loan relief (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by badbrainstorm@lemmy.world to c/usa@lemmy.ml
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Friday he’ll give a second go at his student debt relief plan, rooting it in the Higher Education Act, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against his initial plan to forgive up to $20,000 per borrower.

“I believe the court’s decision was a mistake, it was wrong,” Biden said, speaking from the White House. “We need to find a new way and we’re moving as fast as we can.”

The Supreme Court ruled Friday in a 6-3 decision against Biden‘s plan to cancel up to student loan debt for an estimated 40 million Americans. The venture would have forgiven more than $400 billion in student loan debt, making it one of the most expensive executive actions in history.

Biden pointed to the greenlighting of the Paycheck Protection Program under former President Donald Trump, which cost an estimated $760 billion.

“The hypocrisy is stunning,” Biden said. “You can’t help a family making $75,000 a year but you can help a billionaire and have your debt forgiven? My plan would not only have been life changing for millions of Americans, it would have been good for the American economy.”

Biden said Friday he also has directed the U.S. Department of Education to institute a 12-month “on-ramp” period that would grant borrowers struggling to adjust to repayments after the three-year pause forgiveness for missing initial payments.

Biden stressed it is not an extension of the pause as payments will still be due and interest will accrue, but the Department of Education would not report failure to make payments to credit agencies for the first year.

Last summer, Biden announced his plan to cancel $10,000 in student debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000, or married couples earning under $250,000. Pell grant recipients were eligible for up to $20,000 in forgiveness under the proposal.

The Supreme Court ruling Friday places millions of student loan borrowers back at square one as the payments pause instituted at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic comes to a close in October. During the pause, implemented under the Trump administration, borrowers did not have to make payments on their loans nor did the loans accrue interest. source

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[–] Brother_Sand@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Just some of the things the John Roberts court has done:

Overturned Roe v Wade https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392

Ended race based affirmative action https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/20-1199

Blocked student loan forgiveness https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/22-506

Approved LGBTQIA+ discrimination https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/21-476

Prevented New York from enacting gun laws https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/20-843

Allowed forced prayer in school https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/21-418

Prevented the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/20-1530

Further protected dark money in politics https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-251

Made it easier to give minors life without parole https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/18-1259

Evidence of innocence isn't enough to prevent death penalty https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/20-1009

The death penalty can be painful and torturous https://www.oyez.org/cases/2018/17-8151

Allowed Trump's muslim travel ban https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/17-965

Undermined unions https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/16-1466

Sanctioned voter suppression https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-1257

Police can violate your Miranda rights https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/21-499

[–] ThatGirlKylie@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

The fact that you could have made up a fake business, received a PPP loan, paid off your student loan debt, then had your PPP loan forgiven is absolutely astounding and I'm pretty certain that many people who DID get PPP loans did just that and paid off other debts. Because we sure as hell didn't get it down here as grunt workers.

Eat the rich, I'm so tired of being fucking poor.

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I really don’t think anything will be done. If it is, it’ll be another plan mentioned in campaign promises.

Sigh. While I can afford my payments and will happily pay mine off, I know there are many who can’t and pulling the rug out from Americans when businesses and rich constantly get handouts or freebies is so frustrating.

[–] rylin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same, this will over all hurt the economy on the long run.

[–] Ruorc@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

That's what Republicans are counting on. That way they can point and say "Look at how bad things are due to the Democrats" and the uninformed or ignorant get in line to vote R. This is another case by an illegitimate and hyper partisan SCOTUS.

[–] ProcurementCat@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it is, it’ll be another plan mentioned in campaign promises.

I don't get what you want to say here. He made his campaign promise to cancel 10k in student debt for everyone. He held his promise and did that, even better, he gave all debtors 2 years of time where they didn't have to repay anything before cancelling 10k. Republicans overturned him.

That's not his fault, and he delivered what he promised.

Maybe if voters had given him a solid 60 vote Senate majority, they could have impeached supreme court justices and prevented that.

Or maybe voter shouldn't have given us Trump and a Republican majority in house and Senate in 2016, then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Yes, voters are definitely part of the problem. Gerrymandering is another part.

Yes, he did try an option and it didn’t work.

What I’m saying is that there is another completely different way to get loan forgiveness. That is through the department of education. They can forgive any loans and he could have/could still go through them for this. A tweak to PSLF could be done to allow for similar conditions he advocated for or he could amend the original conditional and make a smaller dent. He could have also set up a program at the beginning of his term to tackle tuition rising costs.

He rolled out this forgiveness program right before midterms, when there was a lot of talk about a republican flip of house and senate. The point is, he played politics and I expect it to happen again to increase chances for president re-election.

I’m not fully giving him credit and I’m not fully lambasting him either.

[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If he believed that, then he should ignore the ruling and forgive the debt.

[–] ProcurementCat@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Wishing for a dictator isn't the best move.

[–] MsPenguinette@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He has the authority to cancel all student loans but was a coward and decided to not pull the trigger so now here we are with his covid based plan being struck down by the court.

Here's hoping he actually does use his actual authority to make it happen

[–] ProcurementCat@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

The surpreme court would have overturned the cancellation of all debt just as well. What's your point? Are you blaming Joe Biden for the Republican Surpreme court?

[–] Sprinkled3450@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Can you please explain it to me like a five year old? The way I understand it is that the cancellation basically means that the federal govt will take on the debt - which amounts to spending. Spending is decided on by the Congress and not the Executive. Having said that, everything could in theory be all good until someone files a lawsuit against the action, which in this case someone did. Am I understanding it correctly?

[–] axtualdave@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Student loans are a complex beast. The loans that anyone in the government have any real control over are only loans owned by the federal government. Private student loans, including loans that were refinanced, are rarely owned by the government and are, essentially, private party loans. There is no realistic path to forgiveness for these loans.

Of the loans owned by the US Government, the actual entity that owns the debt is the Department of Education.

The theory for forgiveness runs that the debt already assumed by the Dept. of Education. It's already on their books, as it will. Forgiving some of the debt would be amount to a ledger change - Bob used to owe $25,000. Now Bob owes $15,000.

It's not spending per se, any more than lowering taxes is spending.

[–] MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Congress gave the Secretary of Education broad authority over student loans in national emergencies with the HEROES act. COVID was declared a national emergency. The Supreme Court basically said they can't do that even though that's exactly what they wanted to do. It's pretty plain bullshit. It's why the dissenting opinion didn't just disagree. accused the court of grossly overstepping its authority.

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The fucking audacity for them to say it requires direct authorization by Congress....what the fuck else do you call the HEROES act...it was passed by Congress to authorize exactly the kind of things they used it for, such as and including loan forgiveness...these Republican assholes in the supreme Court are openly mocking the court and showing everyone their asses because they know you can't do a thing about it. So tired of this shit

[–] MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Exactly. They're not arguing that it's unconstitutional, they're arguing that Congress can't do that...lol. The SCOTUS put themselves in charge of Congress.

[–] featured@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

They don’t necessarily have to spend a dime, seeing how the government is providing these loans. It would amount to not getting paid back, but they already spent the money when they sent out the loans. So it costs nothing to say hey just don’t pay us back