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The administration is courting young voters with promises it might not be able to keep.
By Jennifer Graham
Undaunted by the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden is forging ahead with new plans to forgive student loan debt.
Earlier this month, the president announced he would cancel the student loans of 277,000 more borrowers. It was the latest in a stream of piecemeal initiatives Biden has put forth to take the place of the sweeping plan that the Supreme Court halted last year.
That plan, had it gone through, would have cancelled up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for around 43 million borrowers. According to administration, the latest plans would eliminate or reduce debt for 30 million Americans, mostly through eliminating accrued interest.
It’s likely not a coincidence that, according to The New York Times, “Biden administration officials said they could begin handing out some of the debt relief — including the canceling of up to $20,000 in interest — as soon as this fall.”
Whether any particular forgiveness plan actually goes through, however, is ultimately of little consequence to the president. He’s counting on getting points for taking the shot, even if he doesn’t score. He can always blame those bad ol’ Republicans or that bad ol’ Supreme Court for thwarting his efforts to help Americans struggling to pay their bills.
The steady stream of announcements issuing from the Department of Education read like campaign press releases. One, released Jan. 19, said: “‘The Biden-Harris Administration has worked relentlessly to fix our country’s broken student loan system and address the needless hurdles and administrative inaccuracies that, in the past, kept borrowers from getting the student debt forgiveness they deserved,’ said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.”
Another press release, issued March 21, said that Biden would be emailing 380,000 people to notify them of the status of their loans.
It’s not unusual for incumbent presidents — or any officeholder, for that matter — to sidle up to the line of propriety when it comes to self-promotion using their position. Biden has done this with blatantly political signs touting student debt relief and various infrastructure projects....
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