President Joe Biden announced a new plan to cancel federal student loan debt during a visit to Madison. Last year, the Supreme Court opposed the Biden administration’s $400 billion loan forgiveness plan. The president’s first effort would have seen more than 40 million borrowers receive reductions of up to $20,000.
The Biden administration says that after the Supreme Court thwarted their first attempt, they’ve canceled $144 billion in student debt for low-income and service worker borrowers. Biden detailed five actions in his new, smaller plan to relieve debt for more than 30 million people, starting with canceling interest balances that have exceeded the total of the original loan and canceling all interest for lower—and middle-class families.
"We plan to cancel student debt for borrowers that still owe student loans even though they started repaying them more than two decades ago," Biden said. "We plan to cancel debt for about 2 million borrowers who would be eligible for debt forgiveness through the save program. We plan to the cancel debt for borrowers who the department of education determines were cheated by universities. Finally, the department of education will propose a new rule to cancel student debt for Americans facing financial hardships from child care to health care to prevent them from paying back their loans."
Just outside the Madison Area Technical College, where Biden spoke, a group of protestors occupied two street corners. That’s where Nicole, a former student with student loan debt, stood holding a Palestinian flag. Nicole said she’s struggling with Biden’s claims of being progressive while funding what she calls a genocide with the U.S. supporting Israel in Gaza.
"So far Biden has not done anything he said he would do in office so right now it’s not conflicting," she said. "He has not accomplished to stop a genocide or stop our student loans."
Republicans have voiced their dissatisfaction for Biden too, like Republican Wisconsin Senator Julian Bradley. Bradley said in a statement that “Biden’s radical government overreach demonstrates a dramatic transfer of wealth from working class Americans to college graduates.”
Biden said if he’s reelected, he will push to make community college tuition free.
