Summary

President Biden announced student loan forgiveness for 150,000 additional borrowers, raising the total to over 5 million under his administration.

The latest beneficiaries include borrowers defrauded by schools, individuals with disabilities, and public service workers.

Biden emphasized his focus on expanding pre-existing forgiveness programs after his broad plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2023.

Conservatives and Trump argue the efforts overstep executive authority and unfairly shift costs.

Biden called the initiative a fulfillment of his promise to reduce financial barriers to education.

  • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 days ago

    Literally what he did in the next paragraph:

    The Biden administration has focused on revising and expanding federal student loan forgiveness programs that existed before Biden took office. That approach allowed the administration to expand loan forgiveness options despite its failure to implement new federal forgiveness programs after the Supreme Court struck-down Biden’s initial plan in 2023.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      focused on revising and expanding federal student loan forgiveness programs

      But no specifics…

      If your school defrauded you, you don’t have to pay.

      That’s been a thing since 2015.

      The second is if you have permanent disabilities.

      That went into effect 2013.

      The last is PSLF which has also been around much longer than Biden.

      Biden has done nothing to expand who is applicable for any of those things.

      So why are people clapping for him?

      • Reasonable_Guy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        You’re right, these are all existing programs that Biden’s following. I don’t think he deserves a round of applause for doing the bare minimum, but we know that Trump will either try to skirt around these programs or remove them completely.

        This will likely be the last bit of loan forgiveness we see for the next 4 years.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          The only MAGAs in this thread are the “Blue MAGAs” trying to gaslight us into thinking that merely administering the existing law is some heroic act and not a goddamn baseline expectation.

          And that’s saying a lot, because I fucking hate the “Blue MAGA” accusations. I’ve always considered it dishonest ‘both-sides’-ism, not a real thing.

          But nope! This thread, right now, has finally proven to me that it is indeed real. You have managed to sink to that level. So congratulations, I guess, for extinguishing the last shred of faith I had in liberals. That’s what your bad faith bullshit has accomplished. I hope you’re happy.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              No, that comment was just the last straw.

              Perhaps you should define “blue maga”

              Weird, dishonest fanboyism for liberal politicians.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          What sense does that make?

          I’m the one pointing out that pretending these numbers have anything to do with the president now is still true when trump takes over.

          Like, do you honestly think that anyone not throwing logic out the window to applaud Biden supports trump…

          That’s literally what trump supporters do.

          Where have you ever seen them use logic to back up a criticism of Biden?

          • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            A lot of real partisan morons in these replies to you. Criticize Biden for doing almost nothing to eliminate crushing student debt? You must be a Trump supporter!

            Where’s the logic?

          • Hacksaw
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            2 days ago

            These programs exist but bureaucratic hurdles prevented people from actually having their loans forgiven.

            Biden bypassed all that and just forgave the loans. This is also what he did for the other 5 million loans. Sure you COULD argue he did nothing, but if you ask those 5 MILLION people who were paying loans that should have been forgiven but weren’t until Biden’s executive orders I think they’ll say something different.

            • doctordevice
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              2 days ago

              I reject this rhetoric that makes him look like a hero “bypassing” hurdles in order to… do the bare minimum required of our government by law. I refuse to let my standards stoop that low.

                • doctordevice
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                  19 hours ago

                  I’m not smug, I’m tired of my government actively working against my interests and then holding up nothing to pretend they’re on my side.

                  I’m very happy you can be so blase about our utterly broken country. Great job.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              These programs exist but bureaucratic hurdles prevented people from actually having their loans forgiven.

              Biden bypassed all that and just forgave the loans.

              Biden didn’t to jack shit except to undo Betsy DeVos’s sabotage and administer the program in good faith. That’s not heroic; that’s the basic expectation of the job. It only looks heroic in comparison to the previous active sabotage.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        2 days ago

        I would add, he made a big deal about loan forgiveness for people who would go on to work in underpriveleged communities, which was always a thing.

        Really the only new program he implemented which wasn’t immediately overturned by the courts was forgiveness for people who a) borrowed $12,000 or less and b) hadn’t missed a loan payment for 10 years.

        Which they CLAIM is a whole bunch of people, but nobody stops to ask “Hey, if you borrowed $12,000 or less and haven’t missed a payment in 10 years, how much is actually outstanding on that loan?” Or better “What degree costs $12,000 or less?”