Biden plans to cancel student loan debt, 23 million Americans may be impacted

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-seeks-cancel-some-interest-student-loans-aiding-23-million-americans-2024-04-08/

43 comments

  2. I’ve been paying on my loans consistently since 2006 and the balance hasn’t gotten any smaller, but people are still lining up to yell, “If you took out the loan, you need to pay it back!!!”

    I work in education/mental health. People say it’s my fault and that I should’ve made “better choices.” They don’t seem to realize that can only mean “You shouldn’t do the work you do,” or “You should have made more money this whole time.”

  3. I hope that this reaches a lot of people. Unfortunately I have very little interest on my student loans so I won’t see this relief, but I’m eligible for PSLF in about 2-3 years and his work on fixing that program will mean I’ll actually get that debt forgiven.

  4. For a period of time I was paying double my minimum payment in an effort to pay off my loans and reduce the interest I would have to pay back.

    Stupid me, those extra payments don’t qualify as the minimum payments needed in order to qualify for forgiveness.

    I now only pay minimum, buying my time in hopes that Biden will feel pressured enough to give me my money back in order to win reelection. But, once I reach that minimum number of payments (that I feel I have already reached at this point) my loans will be mostly paid off. I don’t know why I bother to do anything beyond bare minimum.

  5. Awesome use of the higher education act.

    The high interest rates on student loans are a killer, in my view

  6. >23 million Americans may be impacted

    What a funny way to say “help” or “relieved of burden” or “prepared to put money back into the economy instead of rich pockets”.

  7. Or maybe also regulate public universities so they don’t drive people into poverty in the first place.

  8. Has the Tic Tok campaign started to tell Gen-Z that this is bad somehow for them?

  11. > The plans, which the Democratic president detailed in Madison, Wisconsin, include cancelling up to $20,000 of accrued and capitalized interest for borrowers, regardless of income, which Biden’s administration estimates would eliminate the entirety of that interest for 23 million borrowers.

    Just taking a moment to quote from the article.

    Nine times out of ten, these threads will have someone earnestly asking why it’s fair to cancel debt, that people know what they signed up for, that people should pay back what they’ve borrowed, and that the proper course of action would be to make college debt zero-interest.

    The *overwhelming majority* of headlines from the last year regarding “cancelling debt” directly fall within those guidelines. The really big headlines with large numbers of debt cancellations? That’s people who were promised upon graduating that they would have their debt forgiven after 10 years of public service or 20-25 years of valid payments, and instead poor government record keeping passed them over.

    All that talk about the SAVE plan? That’s a repayment plan than writes off additional accruing interest as long as people make their qualifying payments, as calculated by their income.

    This new tactic by the Biden administration? Literally only touches interest.

    [Whitehouse.gov press release](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/08/president-joe-biden-outlines-new-plans-to-deliver-student-debt-relief-to-over-30-million-americans-under-the-biden-harris-administration/):
    > **Canceling runaway interest for millions of borrowers**
    >
    > More than 25 million borrowers owe more than they originally borrowed, including many who have made years of payments, due to the interest rates on Federal student loans. President Biden will announce plans that, if finalized as proposed, would cancel up to $20,000 of the amount a borrower’s balance has grown due to unpaid interest on their loans after entering repayment, regardless of their income. Low and middle-income borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan or any other income-driven repayment (IDR) plan would be eligible for the entire amount their balance has grown since entering repayment to be canceled under the Administration’s plans. This group of borrowers includes single borrowers who earn $120,000 or less and married borrowers who earn $240,000 or less. No application will be needed for borrowers to receive this relief if the plan is implemented as proposed.
    >
    > Millions of the borrowers who could be helped by these plans have continued to see their balances grow because of accrued interest, despite making their monthly payments. Many have also had this unpaid interest capitalized, meaning it is added to their principal balance and borrowers are now paying interest on that higher amount. The Administration’s plan would forgive interest balances built up to date for 25 million borrowers, with 23 million likely to have all of their balance growth forgiven.

  12. “It’s not fair for other kinds of borrowers”

    Okay well I bombed out of college and never got a degree but racked up huge debts I can’t pay. Let me declare bankruptcy like the equally stupid person who ran up huge credit card debt and we’ll call it even.

  13. As someone who works in higher education, this is great, but there is a large population in school right now and down the pike that needs some “impact” from rising tuition costs.

  14. How about this time they finish the job with the Navient settlement and actually cancel that debt? Selfishly speaking, it sure would be nice if I would be included in one of these for once since for some reason even through two class action lawsuits and then the massive lawsuit that my own AG helped form I still didn’t get included in the settlement. Yes, I know it’s selfish but come on.

  15. I appreciate the continued effort. This is a larger issue that won’t be solved with a single executive order.

  16. The ones with an FFEL loan never get any kind of break. But I’m happy for everyone else!

  17. I was blessed to get my payments set when I was making very little money – entering into SAVE would quadruple my payments and make it difficult to make them each month

    I really hope this extends to some of us old timers paying for over a decade

  19. “Impacted”….of all the words they could choose, they picked that one. When I’m going to be impacted by something, I don’t usually view it as a positive although yes, it could be. At best the word would be neutral. See what the media does? Lots of people don’t read the article but they sure read the headline. Why didn’t they use benefit? Or beneficially affected?

  20. And Republicans are going to try to block it. How the f*** do these a****** keep getting elected? (Rhetorical)

  21. As someone who will likely never qualify for any of the student loan forgiveness, all I can say is THIS IS AWESOME for those who do. This will go a long way to help those struggling financially as they’re buried under their repayment amount and not seeing any progress on the overall balance. And then it will be phenomenal for the economy to suddenly free up that money to be utilized on goods and necessities.

  22. Can someone explain to me how he can do this after a Supreme Court ruling saying he can’t? Like, the logistical implementation is what I’m looking for, not the moral justification; that’s obvious.

  23. I hope this plan doesn’t rely on you applying for the previous plan. My loan interest rates were not bad enough for applying for the income-based payments to make sense (I would have paid more total under that plan, and paid off before forgiveness). But I still have 30-year loans with boatload of interest. Now I need to go hunt down the deets.

  24. I literally finished paying off my student loans last week…

    …and I am still thrilled for everyone who will be helped by this. I got lucky when it came to paying them off, and I want everyone to feel the relief I felt when seeing the balance at 0.

  26. They used the same term impacted with Health Care, maybe try different words.

  27. I”m getting really sick of cancel culture – goddam it, Biden – 23 million cancelled?!

  28. Any plans to fix the underlying problem that causes student debt? Because this looks like throwing money into a pit.

  29. Why doesn’t he just cancel out the interest on the loans but still make them pay off the loan amount?

  30. Republicans: “not so fast bucko. We don’t want anyone to get ahead in life.”

  31. I graduated in 1998… and am still paying my loans. Not holding my breath that this one will affect me as none of the e other cancellations have.

  32. We have the most educated people in our society financially inhibited from participating in our economy due to the way these loans are administered. I don’t care about any moral indignancies or complaints about fairness. This is not a sustainable standard for a functional society. I have paid off my debts but the process was so painful for me and so many others it resulted in me and my wife deciding not to have children, not buy a home, and altogether becoming non-entities in the nation’s economy. I know many others who are in this situation and I am 44 years old and on the upper age level of this. It is only going to get worse as generations go through this process. Debt relief will have real tangible positive impacts on our economy, more than any corporate subsidy.

  33. actually all tax-paying americans will be impacted, too.

    So basically everyone.

    I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but as Dave Barry said,

    “As is so often the case with massive government programs, this is popular with the people who will benefit from it and unpopular with the people who will pay for it.”

  34. This would be a huge win & would help Biden tremendously come November

    I have zero faith that it will pass Congress but fingers crossed- working Americans need this in our current economic environment

  35. Freshly 18 year old kids should not be coerced into signing on for a lifetime of debt the way that we’ve been allowing. Every kid is told that it’s college or bust, that you need a degree to have a job, that the college experience is irreplaceable, or that they can make it to pro sports if they just sign up for college. It’s unethical. They’re convinced that the only path forward is through crushing student loan debt – only a small fraction of those kids actually make it through the four year plan, and an even *smaller* fraction of them are able to land a job that’ll adequately pay for a livable lifestyle *as well as* adequately enable them to pay off their loan. It should be a *moral imperative* for any prospective president to propose severe reformation to this predatory aspect of college recruitment.

  36. I hope one day I’ll be one of the millions impacted, :(.

  37. I would love this for my mom who still owes some debt I know she would too

  38. This shit ain’t gonna happen unfortunately. These politicians always play these games during election year. I expect nothing to come of this

  39. But sadly only for those with cushy govt jobs and benefits. F em

  40. A lot of the worst cases could also be alleviated by allowing people to declare bankruptcy if a certain amount of time has passed since the loan went in to repayment.

  42. So many fuckers complaining about how debt shouldn’t be forgiven and only a few years ago we gave out PPP ‘loans’. I didn’t hear nearly as many complaints from these people back then.

  43. Tech he can’t scotus Said he doesn’t have that power but he will force it. Them school will crank up the price if schools going forward. Better idea limit how much they charge per year ?

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