President Biden on Friday said he would be “canceling” student loan debt for 277,000 borrowers enrolled in his administration’s SAVE plan, totaling $7.4 billion.
“Today’s announcement comes on top of the significant progress we’ve made for students and borrowers over the past three years,” Biden said in a statement. “That includes: providing the largest increases to the maximum Pell Grant in over a decade; fixing Public Service Loan Forgiveness so teachers, nurses, police officers, and other public service workers get the relief they are entitled to under the law, and holding colleges accountable for taking advantage of students and families.”
The move comes days after Biden, who's been defiant since the Supreme Court shot down his first attempt at a broad student loan bailout, announced new plans to "cancel" debt for 30 million Americans, leaving taxpayers on the hook. As Guy explained, it’s “a naked, undisguised, and unlawful 2024 vote-buying scheme aimed at certain younger voters.”
"From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity," the president's statement added. "I will never stop working to cancel student debt – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us."
Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chair of the House Education Committee, blasted the announcement.
“The administration is tone deaf. There’s no other way to put it,” she said, according to The Hill.
“We know that instead of doing its job, the administration focused time, energy, and resources on its illegal student loan scheme," Foxx added.
The president's move comes as several GOP-led states are suing to block the president's SAVE Plan.
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