Biden Cancels Nearly $4.3 Billion in Public Worker Student Debt

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-20/student-loan-forgiveness-biden-cancels-about-4-3b-for-public-workers

24 comments

  1. *From Bloomberg News reporters Justin Sink and Akayla Gardner:*

    President Joe Biden on Friday announced plans to cancel student debt for about 55,000 public sector workers, as his administration pushes to zero out balances for more people in the final weeks of his administration.

    The move — which represents the cancellation of $4.28 billion owed on federal loans — pushes the total number of individuals who have received relief under Biden administration programs to nearly 5 million, the White House said. In total, about $180 billion has been forgiven.

  2. I was thinking “why now?” But this might incentivize good people to stay working in the government through the next 4 years of BS

  3. I am a public works employee, I wonder if I am eligible or if I was required to sign up prior.

  5. Oh but Trump is better for the economy…all of these people being out from under the crush of student debt will be able to afford more and have a better life. Good for them, thanks President Biden!

  6. Is this going to actually be done or will GOP block it?

  7. Just those with 120 qualifying payments. Not those on the SAVE plan or other programs republicans blocked. While the Biden admin fixed the PSLF program, I feel this headline is misleading. My hope is that PSLF continues regardless whoever is president. It shouldn’t be political.

  8. So this isn’t cancelling debt for any Public Workers. This is specifically for people who reached the 120 payment threshold under the PSLF plan.

    Effectively this is just the government holding up their end of the PSLF deal.

  9. Yup my wife had a ton of coworkers stuck in their low paying community mental health jobs for the government because of this forgiveness.

    I did the math and like most of them 100K In debt it made sense to take lower wages. My wife only left college with 20K debt it made more sense to goto a private employer after she gained some experience and got a 40% raise by going private.

    The realization we had planning for the future was that for our local government she would have to work there 35 years to benefit from the pension system since she started so young. These public sector jobs do not necessarily recruit the underachievers, but their usually the less paid jobs that bring people in for the health benefits, the stability, pensions and even student loan forgiveness.

  10. Man I would love to have my debt cancelled, I’m happy for Public workers and this is a win overall but I feel like I’m never going to be in a group that gets it cancelled and financially I really need it

  11. 1. Screw them… I want mine cancelled!

    2. Actually happy for them (and jealous). This needs to happen more. College and shit is too expensive.

  12. Nice, that’s equivalent to about 0.43% of the military’s budget

  13. FFS. Another article saying “Cancelled.” These people earned their debt forgiveness under the PSLF program. He’s not handing out money. He is fulfilling the government’s obligation to people who have worked for 10 years to qualify.

    The way the media words the PSLF is unfucking believable.

  14. This isn’t a new program. It has been around 2007.

  15. One of the most obviously good things to do. I think it could be expanded to anyone that took federal loans to better themselves, but it’s great that the government workers are getting benefits.

  16. This was supposed to happen organically with the programs in place. Hope it gets done. “Announced plans” isn’t a done deal.

  17. This won’t directly benefit me as I work in the private sector, but I’m glad to see it nonetheless. Forgiveness is the ultimate goal, but in the meantime I would really like to see some movement on making student loan debt less crippling – manageable payments are a good start, but the debt is like an anchor on a credit report even if it’s not in default.

    Remove student loan debt from credit reports for borrowers in good standing. Don’t allow our decision to pursue education become an albatross that hangs on our credit. The Biden administration has been working on doing just this for medical debt, I don’t see why it would be a problem to do the same with student loans.

  18. All these comments about your taxes are ridiculous.

    While I’d love to be refunded the $35K I paid off in student loans, it’s insane to hold individuals to higher fiscal responsibilities than we do corporations.

    Those same corporations that fail to develop adequate risk models and receive millions/billions in bail out payments. Only to lay off workers, buy back stocks and pay their CEOs +$10M.

    Caring more about student loan forgiveness and not the planned increase in corporate tax breaks is wild.

    Trickle down economics have yet to trickle down. Social Security is still only taxed on the first $168,000 of earned income. CEOs are still receiving $20M+ annually in stocks and equity for lower long term capital gains tax brackets. While paying 0% in taxes on the first $48,000.

    No demands to lower our income tax brackets to match long term capital gains tax percentages.

    Every day Americans can’t hop in early on many startups because we aren’t accredited investors with $1M in net-worth.

    All the complaining about average people getting “handouts”/relief but silent when it benefits big business and oligarchs.

    I’ve paid $27,580.96 in taxes y-t-d. Another $9,240 in property taxes ($3.2K funds schools). Another $3.5K in home insurance (which was only $1.3K when I purchased in 2022). Another $1.7K to cover my corporate health insurance high deductible.

    My income disqualifies me from all the programs I fund, including free healthcare for the poor. Yet I don’t earn enough to save in taxes like 1%.

    My tax refunds, are less than $400.

    Wake the freak up already.

    Capitalism and trickledown economics was never designed for us to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and acquire generational wealth. Neither was convincing us that we are better off without unions.

  20. Well now I’m pissed because 30 years ago I took out a school loan for $5000 which I paid off and now I have a good job, car, and house, but I didn’t get any handouts. /s

  21. To the people saying he did this to buy votes, this is post election still helping people.

  22. So many uneducated right wingers in here complaining about the wrong thing.

  23. But! Everyone told me, left and right that Biden didn’t do anything for the common man! Democrats never do anything for the common worker and middle Class!

    The cherrypicking habit of the american people is going to kill us all.

  24. I’m a Biden fan. Thanks for your service and support Biden.

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