US President Joe Biden on Friday (US local time) termed the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his student-loan forgiveness plan as “Unthinkable”, said the fight is not over.
I believe that the Court’s decision to strike down our student debt relief plan is wrong,” Biden said, according to an official release from the White House. “But I will stop at nothing to find other ways to deliver relief to hard-working middle-class families. My Administration will continue to work to bring the promise of higher education to every American,” the US President said.
The US Supreme Court dealt a blow to Joe Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan on Friday. The court rejected the program, which aimed to provide up to USD 20,000 in relief to millions of borrowers struggling with outstanding debt, CNN reported.
The decision in the court was 6-3 with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the supermajority. Republican-led states and conservatives challenging the Biden administration’s program said that it amounts to an unlawful effort to forgive an estimated USD 430 billion of federal student loan debt under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the Biden administration and the US Secretary of Education rewrote the law. Roberts wrote that the Secretary’s comprehensive debt cancellation plan cannot be fairly termed as a “waiver,” according to CNN.
Joe Biden said: “My Administration’s student debt relief plan would have been the lifeline tens of millions of hardworking Americans needed as they try to recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic. Nearly 90 percent of the relief from our plan would have gone to borrowers making less than UDD 75,000 a year, and none of it would have gone to people making more than USD 125,000. It would have been life-changing for millions of Americans and their families. And it would have been good for economic growth, both in the short- and long-term.”
The US President said that the hypocrisy of Republican elected officials is stunning. “They had no problem with billions in pandemic-related loans to businesses – including hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars for their own businesses. And those loans were forgiven. But when it came to providing relief to millions of hard-working Americans, they did everything in their power to stop it,” he said.
Calling the decision disappointing, Biden said: “We should not lose sight of the progress we’ve made – making historic increases to Pell Grants; forgiving loans for teachers, firefighters, and others in public service; and creating a new debt repayment plan, so no one with an undergraduate loan has to pay more than 5 percent of their discretionary income.”